Passionate Steward - 10th Anniversary Edition

Recovering Christian Stewardship from Secular Fundraising 57
A stewardship committee should be an important part of the
life of every parish. Such a committee can strongly influence
parishioners to volunteer their time for the Church’s ministries, to
offer their talents in the life of the Church—whether as an artist,
teacher, baker, bookkeeper or anything in between—and to
encourage generosity of financial resources as well. Parishes that
promote a balanced approach to stewardship discover what
statistics prove, namely that those who volunteer their time and
talents are most likely to be equally generous with their money. One
leads to the other: the result is that good stewardship makes a good
steward better.
The cultivation of good stewardship is most readily
undertaken at the parish level, and it reaches into every aspect of
parish life, because people, and the gifts God has given us for
ministry, populate every aspect of parish life. This is why it matters
so much how we treat, or “steward” each other, how respectful we
are of each other’s time or person, how open we are to each other’s
gifts, or how grateful and accountable for each other’s money. We
need to teach good stewardship, to be sure; but what we say will be
neither more nor less important than what we do.