Mila's blog

Great resource! Many amazing ideas! These are among the comments we have received regarding our book Making Stewardship A Way of Life: A Complete Guide for Catholic Parishes (Our Sunday Visitor, 2009, $34.95) which Father Andrew Kemberling and I co-wrote. It truly seems to be living up to its title and product description as well as the authors' reputation. Indeed, the feedback we have received so far have been positive, which, of course, is flattering. More importantly, however, we hope that the book will help parishes embrace this Christian lifestyle and bring new life and spirit to their parishes.

Our Sunday Visitor promotes the book as "The ultimate parish stewardship guide! Making Stewardship A Way of Life is an invaluable and comprehensive resource for every stewardship committee -- from veterans to new volunteers, from clergy to parish staff, from old to young."

On November 19, 2009, I wrote a short article on the children's offertory envelopes and their charity account, which is funded by the children's offertory envelopes and ten percent of the net proceeds of the parish school's annual dinner and auction. In 2009, approximately 700 children and youth made a weekly average donation of $350.

When Father Andrew first came to St. Thomas More, one of the first things he did was to start a charity account from the offertory – the tithe of the tithe. “We ask people to make a tithe from their personal income,” he said, “and so must the parish” We need to walk the talk, as the following Scripture message says,

“Give the Levites these instructions: When you receive from the Israelites the tithes I have assigned to you from them as your heritage, you are to make a contribution from them to the Lord, a tithe of the tithes; and your contribution will be credited to you as if it were grain from the threshing floor or new wine from the press. Thus you too shall make a contribution from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites, handing over to Aaron the priest the part to be contributed to the Lord. From all the gifts that you receive and from the best parts, you are to consecrate to the Lord your own full contribution.”
-- Numbers 18:26-29

 
One of the questions regarding our stewardship practice is on the children's offertory collection and charity account.

At St. Thomas More the entire amount from envelopes in the children’s offertory collection goes to the Children’s Charity Account. Then the children and youth in Religious Education, parish school and Youth Ministry distribute the entire collection to causes they choose. The Children's Charity Account, which also includes ten percent of the proceeds of school's annual auction, is given a budget, based on previous year's collection, and then divided among the three groups of the Faith and Academic Formation Commission. They are asked to give away at least half of their budget by Christmas and the other half by Easter.