St. John's - Stewardship Commission

Stewardship Commission

319-455-4033 Randy Jaeger, co-chair
319-895-6875 Sharon Dendurent, co-chair

Stewardship Faith Sharing, September 2011

Stewardship: The Cross - The Cost of Discipleship

Section A. Purpose
To encourage parishioners to exercise stewardship as an expression of gratitude to God and as a way of life for disciples of Christ.

Section B. Membership
1.    Appointed and/or volunteer according to the bylaws of the local pastoral council constitution.
2.    Persons with the following traits:
a.    Stewardship is already a way of life at some level.
b.    Personal stewardship is exercised and is motivated by gratitude for God’s gifts.
c.    Have the ability to make the goals of stewardship viable for parishioners.
d.    Possess belief in accountability exercised by reporting back to parishioners on all aspects of the parish stewardship efforts.

Section C. Functions
1.    To foster a sense of belonging to and “ownership” of the parish.
2.    To view evangelization as essential to stewardship and to assist with evangelization efforts in the parish.
3.    To encourage all commissions, groups, families, and individuals to center themselves in prayer, especially    prayer of gratitude.
4.    To provide education about stewardship to parish leadership/commissions and to all parishioners.
5.    To call parishioners to the practice of stewardship as a way of life.
6.    To call the parish itself to the practice of stewardship of its resources.
7.    To collaborate with all other standing commissions and ministries in assessing the ministry needs of the parish.
8.    To draw forth the stewardship of treasure of all parishioners by:
a.    Working with the parish finance council to identify and share the financial needs of the parish.
b.    Promoting planned giving, the "stewardship of assets" within the parish community.
c.    Establishing an electronic giving option for weekly giving.
9.    To draw forth the stewardship of time and talent of all parishioners. Some avenues are:
a.    Encouraging the parish to use people resource management skills as time/talent commitment cards are received.
b.    Providing a gifts discernment process for individuals and the community.
c.    Using the results of this discernment to guide volunteers toward the best placement for their time and talent.
d.    Establishing accountability for commissions to contact those who volunteered on their time/talent commitment cards.
e.    Providing an annual appreciation event for all people who offer their time, talent, and treasure.
f.    Encouraging coordinators of all ministries to offer their own form of appreciation to those who assist in the ministries.
10.    To facilitate parish publicity and communications by:
a.    Maintaining up-to-date data on all parishioners.
b.    Establishing a parish area or block system devised to encourage parish communications and interrelations.
        c. Assessing regularly the need for a parish census.
11. To collaborate with the parishioners.
12.    To evaluate stewardship on a regular basis to ensure its viability.
13.    To select a member of the commission to be an ex-officio voting member of the pastoral council.