Goals

• • Establish Stewardship as a proactive well-designed ministry that collaborates with the Family Leadership Team and Family Pastoral Council of the Family of Parishes.
  • Elect a governing committee that identifies and manages all of the Stewardship functions required within a Family of Parishes (FoP)
  • Stewardship Governing Body: Guides Subcommittees, interacts with Family Leadership Team & Family Pastoral Council
  • Supports stewardship themes and activities through well planned communications, using bulletins, announcements, websites and even collaborating with priests and deacons with homily inserts
  • Documenting and sharing metrics to inform, entice, and motivate even more parishioners to join in the mission
    
    
• Vocations
  • Is the topic of vocations mentioned regularly from the pulpit at Masses?
  • Are there vocation materials displayed prominently at various places within all parishes of your Family?
  • Has your Family of Parishes participated in a vocation recruitment program such as “Called By Name?”
  • Do your Family bulletins include the weekly vocations message from the diocesan Vocation Director?
  • Does your Family of Parishes’ website and social media include a link to the diocesan vocations website? https://www.buffalovocations.org
  • How does your Family of Parishes actively pray for vocations?
    
    

The governing committee should consider establishing the following 3 stewardship subcommittees (members, actions and timeframes all become part of their committee plan)

• Welcome and Engagement Subcommittee:
  • Responsible for establishing a warm and robust welcoming program that introduces and orients new parishioners to the Family. 
  • Explore “best practices” for welcoming and engaging new parishioners to a FoP
    • For example, assign someone to guide them as they become familiar with events and opportunities
    • Encourage them to bring their unique gifts
  • Train, equip and commission parishioners to practice radical hospitality in all that we do. Special note: Radical hospitality, while rooted in stewardship, means that it is practiced every day, at all events, with all people. Moreover, parishioners are so marinated in the spirit of this far-reaching type of hospitality that it becomes written in their hearts that “no one visiting our Family of Parishes will ever leave a stranger.” 
    However, to initiate this culture of radical hospitality, we need to begin by treating each other, as Family of Parishes members, with such radical hospitality from the very beginning.

1. Financial Subcommittee
   • Establish a Development sub-committee that differentiates “fundraising” from true long-term development projects that can attract major financial support from individuals, bequests, and organizations associated with the FoP
     • Identifies possible willing sources 
     • Informs and plant seeds for larger gifts targeted for a particular project or purpose (now or in the future)
     • Support in bulletins, announcement, homilies and website
     • Recognition of providers
2. Volunteer Subcommittee
   • Constantly recruits and encourages parishioners to:
   • Identify their unique gifts of time, talent, and treasure to cultivate and return them to God by using them for His kingdom within the Family of Parishes
   • Discusses and enacts other creative and tangible ways (ideas and opportunities) to get parishioners to live out their faith in real-life circumstances within each season throughout the coming year.
     • One idea could be:  perhaps to connect some of these Stewardship activities to support each of the Pillar categories.
   • Volunteerism – develop a system of recruiting, training, matching interest/skill with ministerial opportunities at hand, as well as maintaining volunteers for:
     • Ongoing ministries
     • Special events (reoccurring and unique)
     • Annual Campaigns, projects, drives and fundraisers