Rev. C. Jarrod Lies April 21 st, 2017 As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God s varied grace. (1 Peter 4:10)
Prayer Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love. Where there is offense, let me bring pardon. Where there is discord, let me bring union. Where there is error, let me bring truth. Where there is doubt, let me bring faith. Where there is despair, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, let me bring your light. Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
Prayer O Master, let me not seek as much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that one receives, it is in self-forgetting that one finds, it is in pardoning that one is pardoned, it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
A Little Story Everybody Somebody Anybody Nobody
The Tee-up I. The Landscape II. The Definition III. The Portrait IV. The Next 25 Years
Of Stewardship
Enemies of Stewardship The destructive isms from Stewardship: a Disciple s Response 1. Materialism 2. Relativism 3. Hedonism 4. Individualism 5. Consumerism
Enemies of Stewardship 1. Complacency 2. Assumption 3. Fatigue 4. Entitlement 5. Quid pro Quo
The Focus: Service 1. Elderly and homebound 2. Single parent households 3. The grieving 4. Families 5. Persons with Disabilities 6. Persons in crisis
The Arena: The Whole World Stewardship: A Disicple s Response - Preface 1. Evangelization 2. Catechesis 3. Family 4. Ecology 5. Marketplace and institutions 6. Social Justice 7. Diocesan 8. Universal Church
The Challenge: Demographics 1. St. John s Clonmel 2. St. Francis of Assisi - July 1959 1. August 1968 Msgr. McGread 2. May 1969 First Parish Dinner 3. March 1982 SEAS Establish 4. April 2008 St. Catherine s 3. The Demographic pinch 1. Parish became landlocked 2. Increase of Urban Flight 3. % Shift of Major Giver 4. Equilateral Giving ( >$70k) 5. 3 classrooms per grade 6. One can never overestimate strong economics (Bob Hemberger).
Of a Christian Steward
Definition of a Steward One who receives God s gifts gratefully, cherishes and tends them in a responsible and accountable manner, shares them in justice and love with others, and returns them with increase to the Lord. Glossary - Stewardship: a Disciple s Response
Gratitude A grateful heart silences a complaining voice. Name one thing you have that you have not received. (1 Cor 4:7)
Discipleship Responding to Jesus call to follow him and shaping one s life in imitation of him. Conversion Spousal Love Familial Love
Responsible and Accountable Prepare a full account of your stewardship (Luke 16:2) A pastor is to prudently correct the faithful if they are failing in certain areas. (Canon 529)
Responsible and Accountable Efforts of a parish or diocese requires a visible commitment to accountability (SDR 61). What parishioners can expect of their parish.what a parish can expect of its parishioners (Divine Renovation).
Accountable Parishioners 1. Are you going to Mass every Sunday and holy days of obligation? 2. Are you participating in time and talent opportunities in the parish? 3. Are you making and keeping an honest pledge of your treasure?
Accountable Parishes 1. Are you providing the parish with reverent and well planned liturgies and sacraments? 2. Have you developed adequate opportunities for parishioners to participate in parish life Adult Education? Prayer Formation? Service Opportunities? Adoration? 3. Are you transparent, prudent and respectful of parish finances and resources?
In Six Profiles
Profile 1: A Way of Life 1. It takes faith 2. Trust: The Apex Jarrod, I need your help. 3. Stewardship must be life-long 4. Changes according to the seasons of ones life
Profile 2: Eucharist Psalm 116:13 How can I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done to me? I shall takeup the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the LORD. The God who Himself is a Community of Persons desires to be worshipped in a community of persons.
Profile 3: Evangelization 1. Family Friendship Neighborhood Workplace Parish University Media (Scott Hahn Evangelizing Catholics ) 2. Missionary Disciples: Mission is at once a passion of Jesus and a passion for his people a sense of belonging closeness (EG 268-269).
Profile 4: Formation 1. Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor 4:1). 2. Parish School of Religion 3. Youth Ministry 4. Catholic Schools 5. R.C.I.A. 6. Sacramental Prep: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage
Profile 4: Formation Which form of Catechesis does the Church consider the principal form of catechesis (CT, 43): 1. Adult Faith Formation 2. The Christian community cannot carry out a permanent catechesis without the direct and skilled participation of adults, whether as receivers or as promoters of catechetical activity (43)
Profile 4: Formation od s Life emption from sin avent of Christ onfessing His name ternal life Kerygma
Profile 5: Time and Talent 1. The equalizer 2. Adoration 3. Intercession
Profile 5: Time and Talent 1. Self-gift 2. Personalizes the Parish 3. The Dual Complement of Stewardship: I - Thou 4. Serving people creates avenues for generous participation 5. The need to give rather than giving for a need.
Profile 5: Gift 1. As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God s varied grace (1 Peter 4:10). 2. Terrestrial (mechanical) vs. Spiritual 3. Charisms: spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:31) Eph 4:1-16; Rom 12:3-6; 1 Cor 12-14; 1 Pet 4:10-11. 4. As with all things pertaining to the Gospel, stewardship is fundamentally the work of the Spirit (SDR Preface). 5. Thus, the purpose of charisms, then, is diakonia, or service or ministry (Cantalamessa, Intoxicating Power of the Spirit, 65).
Profile 5: Gift 1. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? (Luke 11:13). 2. God as the self-donating self-distributing gift (Ratzinger, The Holy Spirit as Communio) 3. Koinonia: an intimate sharing of persons or also money or possessions (Tom Smail, The Giving Gift: The Holy Spirit in Person)
Profile 6: Treasure 1. Maximum Giving: Whatever you can give give. Just don t give nothing. 2. God cannot be outdone in generosity. 3. Sacrificial 4. Prioritized
Profile 6: Treasure - 2 Cor 9:5-11 Arrange for the gift you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift, and not as an exaction (9:5). Whoever sows generously will also reap generously (9:6). God loves a cheerful giver! (9:7). Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion (9:7). So that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work (9:8). Your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God (9:11).
Conclusion
The Next 25 Years 1. Catechizing authentic stewardship 2. Discipleship before stewardship 3. Founded on kerygma 4. Increasing tie to evangelization 5. Dialogue of accountability 6. Systematic adult faith formation 7. Understanding gift in spiritual terms. 8. Redefining in terms of service not benefit or need 9. Organic development of Stewardship light of changing demographics
A Parish's Mission is only as big as it s stewardship
stewardship is only as strong as it s commitment
.commitment is only as big as it s discipleship
discipleship is only as engaged as it s evangelization
evangelization is only as effective as it s collaboration with the Holy Spirit.
Prayer Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love. Where there is offense, let me bring pardon. Where there is discord, let me bring union. Where there is error, let me bring truth. Where there is doubt, let me bring faith. Where there is despair, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, let me bring your light. Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
Prayer O Master, let me not seek as much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that one receives, it is in self-forgetting that one finds, it is in pardoning that one is pardoned, it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.