Passionate Steward - 10th Anniversary Edition

Recovering Christian Stewardship from Secular Fundraising 125
• Requires volunteers who are mature and pastorally sensitive,
and may thus limit the number of people suitable for this
ministry
All the aforementioned programs have features to commend
them, although some certainly more than others. It is important to
remember that no two parishes are alike, and therefore, there is no
“one size fits all” plan which can be applied in cookie-cutter fashion
to our various communities. My own experience is that each model
requires different talents, and all require the requisite experience to
anticipate those inherent pitfalls which would announce themselves
in an unpracticed hand, as well as to handle the foibles and
sensitivities of the eclectic community of persons who are the
Church. While the Church can continue to rely upon stewardship
consultants to offer unbiased and extra-community experience and
wisdom, a proper and desirable goal, if we are to thrive in the future,
is for the Church to provide such counsel using internal resources.
The level of skill and knowledge required to provide
excellence in stewardship ministry is likely more than can be
developed within individual parishes. A good stewardship leader
almost certainly has experience of multiple parishes, and preferably
of several denominations. If we are to liberate ourselves from the
need to hire outside consultants—and most especially consultants
who employ secular fundraising practices “dressed up” for
Church—we shall need to convince dioceses and presbyteries to
create an environment in which skilled stewardship leaders can be
made meaningfully available at the parish level.
Annual financial campaigns, though only one part of the triune
complex of time, talent, and treasure, are so visibly a feature of parish
life that we can only hope to recover a thoroughly Christian model of
stewardship if we can assist parishes to embrace thoroughly Christian
principles in running them.