Stewardship & Evangelization:

Words that shouldn’t strike terror in Catholic hearts

by Father Tom Malloy, OSFS
Pastor

Note: This is a series of articles on Stewardship and Evangelization, based on Sunday Sermons given by Father Tom starting the First Sunday of Advent 2005.

Stewardship and evangelization. Perhaps no two words strike fear in the heart of the average Catholic more than these.

A typical response to "Stewardship" might be, "My God, they’re asking for more money, again."

"Evangelization" evokes, "I’m not going to knock on doors and ask people about religion."

Very few people realize that these are two sides of the same coin. What is more. They are the reason why the Church exists.

Stewardship is really nothing more than taking charge of our own life and putting it to the best use we can.

Evangelization is nothing more than reaching out to others in a manner worthy of the Gospel we profess. Obviously, we need both to build a successful Christian community. They are the way we answer the call to build the Kingdom of God on earth.

Our parish mission this year has been to emphasize Stewardship as a fact of Catholic life. In January, we were challenged to identify and open our gifts. Many homilies have repeated this message. Our parish calendar has promoted the ideal of stewardship throughout the year. Introductions at Mass have stressed the need we have to manage our possessions and our gifts for the good of all.

The message may still be vague for some people. Certainly some have come forward and accepted new ministries and others have responded by giving of their time for parish projects. But it’s not clear yet that all our parishioners understand how deeply one’s spirituality is connected with a proper and generous use of resources.

So now it is time to catch everyone’s attention by talking about MONEY.

Stewardship of our "treasure" is really the easiest and least costly of the trinity of Time, Talent and Treasure. But money is a subject we all relate to and one that Jesus often used to make a deeper point. Perhaps by emphasizing financial stewardship, a deeper understanding of total stewardship of our lives can be realized.

There is only one principle for stewardship, "What return shall I make to the Lord for all the good I have received?" Every time we return to God a portion of our gifts — and all is gift — we make a sacrifice of thanksgiving. And the Lord Jesus tells us, "To whom much has been given much will be expected."

Stewardship is simply putting God at the top of our list when we decide how we are going to use our Time, Talent and Treasure. In concrete terms, this means resolving to return to God, through contributions to church and charity, a set percentage of one’s income.

The biblical ideal is the tithe of 10 percent, but more important than the amount is the commitment to give to God a promised portion each week or month. God should be the first item in our budgets, not the recipient of what we can afford from what’s left over.

So, St. Peter might ask, "What do we get out of it?" First of all, this is the wrong question. We have already received and are simply giving back in gratitude. But, nevertheless, Jesus answers, "Give, and it shall be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over, will they pour into the fold of your garment. For the measure you measure with will be measured back to you." (Lk 6.38)

Our giving then, is not determined by what we think we can afford after we have paid all our bills. It is not determined by the needs of the church or the parish. It should be determined by our need to make a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Making a financial offering, we will find, not only that we shall not want, but that our lives will grow spiritually. "Where your treasure is, there will be your heart, also." (Lk 12.34)

During Advent, the old, secular year wears down and the new liturgical year, the year of the Church, begins. We will use this time to consider our way of Stewardship.

Dollars & Sensitivity:

Supporting parish an act of justice, not charity

Dollars and sensitivity. These two terms aren’t usually put together, but if we are to understand financial stewardship they must be.

Last week, we spoke about the essential element of stewardship: a habit of gratitude for what we have received from God, expressed by a sacrifice of thanksgiving, returning a portion of what has been given to us.

This attitude is expressed liturgically in our celebration of Eucharist.

We express gratitude to God by sharing our gifts with others for the building of the Kingdom. The Presentation of Gifts and our Holy Communion are the symbolic acts that speak this commitment.

The collection is the sign and practice of our sharing our goods with the parish community and charitable works. Supporting one’s parish is not a work of charity, but of justice; everyone in the parish is expected to bear the costs of ministry.

Our second collection most often is for charities beyond the parish, for example, the collection for retired religious.

How much an individual or a family contributes to the support of the parish or to charities is between the person and his or her own conscience. You don’t have to explain to me or anyone else why you give what you give. The church keeps records for tax and budget purposes. It is no one else’s business. Our use of envelopes serves two purposes: as a bookkeeping record and as an indication of your participation in parish life.

If you do not use your envelopes and are not noticeably active in parish events, you may not be recognized as a parishioner when the need arises.

How should one determine a family’s just contribution to parish support?

Guilt and intimidation work for a short time, but the over-all results are destructive. As St. Paul says, "God loves a cheerful giver." So we should at least give willingly. Again, to whom much is given, much will be expected. Our return to the Lord should be in proportion to what we have received.

Put in practical terms, in stewarding our treasure, what we give should be linked to our income. Our grateful return should be of our "first fruits" — that is, our first concern in budgeting our finances — not what we think we can afford after all other needs are considered.

A tithe means one tenth. The biblical ideal is that we should return to God one tenth of our total income. In modern days (since chickens and greens don’t fit well into our collection baskets), a suggested formula is that we should give five percent of our income to the church and five percent to charities of any sort we prefer. Consider this hypothetical case.

A family with two wage earners, working for minimum wage (currently $5.15 an hour) for 40 hours a week, would earn about $21,424 a year, about $412 a week. If that family were able to contribute five percent of their income to the church, it would be $1,071 a year.

In November, we counted 521 registered households in our parish. For the year 2005, to that point, 134 contributed nothing in the collections for parish support or debt reduction.

Of those that contributed, 120 families contributed between $1 and $99; about 110, between $100 and $500; about 55 between $500 and $1,000; and about 60 above $1000.

These figures would indicate that 88 percent of our parish are living at or near the poverty level. The Fayetteville Observer reported on Nov. 27, 2005, that the median income in this area is over $40,000 a year. It must be all those other people.

These figures are for contributions to the regular offertory collection and monthly debt reduction collections. They do not reflect pledge payments to God’s Work, Our Challenge or contributions to second collection charities.

It is true, that in the ideal, we commit to God, through the community, a certain percentage of our earnings before we consider our own needs. In the real world, it must be realized that bills must be paid, families must be supported.

In short, a tithe of 10 percent may not be possible for everyone. Again, that is no one’s business or decision except for one’s conscience. No one from the parish will ever question your decision.

In the ideal world, too, we would prefer not to base our sacrifice of thanksgiving on the needs of the parish, but on our own need to express gratitude to God. "Don’t give till it hurts; give till it feels good." Never the less, it happens to be true that, at this time, the parish is hard pressed to meet its normal expenses and to keep up on our mortgage payments.

There is no fat in our budget. We can make only token contribution to charity, beyond what is collected in our second collections. It takes money to run a church.

The parish finance committee has developed a suggestion whereby we can begin a program of stewardship that approaches tithing and meets the needs of the present.

We suggest that each wage earner consider contributing one hour’s wage a week to the first collection.

Hopefully, one would maintain this commitment even when one does not come to St. Ann Church on any given Sunday. Contributions can certainly be done on a monthly basis, but it is necessary to have a reliable and consistent source of funds. This would link one’s contribution to one’s income, but would be roughly one fortieth, or two and a half percent of one’s income.

In time, when a family discovers the real benefit of stewardship, they may be able to increase their tithe toward the ideal ten percent of income. Naturally, we encourage those families that are already giving beyond the one hour’s wage to continue to do so.

Where does the money go?

Father Tom answers the eternal question

In the two parishes I have served as Pastor, I have made it a point of personal pride and honor to be as open and honest with the parish as I could possibly be. The word we are currently using for this attitude is "transparency."

In both parishes, I established the practice of giving a yearly financial report. This report was given on Sept. 18 at our parish meeting.

The graph you will find with this article is based on November 2005 figures, but serves as a typical month’s expenses.

We have often used the term "family" to describe our parish community. This is accurate in many ways. Psychologically and socially, we have many of the same benefits and problems that a nuclear family has.

We have much of the same practical, financial situation. I have already said that we live from paycheck to paycheck. Like any family, we would like to have some buffer and a bit of a nest egg.

The answer is not to work in a piecemeal manner. That is, it is not healthy to wait for a need to arise and then seek a solution. For example, it has been suggested, because we have a large insurance payment due, ($16,000 for the church, $7,000 for the school) that we have a special one-time collection or ask for several one-time donations. This would be bad financial practice as well as poor psychology, in addition to being poor Stewardship.

The financial difficulty we find ourselves in at the moment, is occasioned by the fact that we have a large mortgage to pay each month and increased insurance costs. The expansion of our school and church facilities have brought about this increase in insurance premiums.

None of our costs have been brought about by the moral and financial situation caused by the sexual scandals of our day. In fact, our diocese has been fortunate in that we have not had face a great number of these problems. No resources of this diocese are used by any other diocese for this reason, either.

Unfortunately, the reason for our stressed financial situation is embarrassingly simple. Many people who consider themselves part of our parish contribute little or nothing to its upkeep.

To be sure, we could not exist without the great generosity of some of our parishioners. Likewise, there are those in our parish who simply do not have the means to contribute much in terms of money.

But, the fact is, in general, given the social and financial state of most of our parishioners, their financial contribution fall far short of what might reasonable be expected.

Stewardship stresses that this not essentially a financial problem, but a question of attitude. Good stewardship of all resources of Time, Talent and Treasure can be a life-changing, life-enhancing, practice.

If we manage these elements of our life in a God-centered way, we will find ourselves richer than we ever imagined — as individuals and as a parish.

In January we will be asking all parishioners to make a commitment to stewardship for the year. This is not a pledge, but a personal promise to return to God a respectable portion of the gifts we have received.

Copyright © 2006 St. Ann Catholic Church. All rights reserved