To complete as a Family Pillar Group:
Goals
- Establish Stewardship as a proactive well-designed ministry that collaborates with the FLT and FC 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 FLT & FC,
- 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
- The governing committee should consider establishing the following 3 stewardship subcommittees (members, actions and timeframes all become part of their committee plan)
- Stewardship Governing Body: Guides Subcommittees, interacts with FLT & FC,
- Welcome and Engagement Subcommittee:
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- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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
