Discipleship, planning are key to cultivating stewardship parishes 

The purpose of every parish is to nurture discipleship: a personal relationship with Jesus that motivates people and households to follow His teachings and share them with other people. Stewardship is an important expression of discipleship and has the power to transform the way Christians understand and live out their lives. Those were the two main points of the Jefferson City diocese's fifth annual Stewardship Retreat, held March 1 at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Columbia. The theme was "Gospel, Gift and Gratitude: Cultivating a Stewardship Parish." About 80 people attended.

Stewardship means taking care of something that belongs to someone else. From a Christian standpoint, stewardship means understanding and acting on the fact that all things belong to God, that He shares them freely and abundantly out of pure love and generosity, and that He rightly expects people to use His gifts responsibly, lovingly, creatively, intelligently and generously and offer them back to Him without reserve.

"All that I call my own are gifts from God," said keynote speaker Monsignor Donald W. Lammers PA, pastor of St. Peter parish in Jefferson City. "I am to use them in a way that makes God proud." He and several other speakers noted that before Christian stewardship can become a way of life, people must develop a personal relationship with Christ and a desire to follow Him.

"People have to become disciples, or become disciples again, before we can expect them to manage their gifts of time, talent and treasure like disciples of Jesus Christ," said Msgr. Lammers. Good Christian stewards, he emphasized, must therefore be evangelizers of the Gospel.

"Evangelization is about leading people to 'a personal experience of the Risen Christ in our midst and in our hearts,'" said Msgr. Lammers. "It is about making disciples. And stewardship is an expression of discipleship. So stewardship has to knock on the door of evangelization for help." He noted that disciples are people who follow the Master. "Disciples of Jesus are followers of Jesus in the way we live our daily lives," he said. "Managing well the gifts God has given to us is part of being a disciple."

Giving back to God from one's own time, talent and treasure is even more than gratitude, said Msgr. Lammers. It is participating in and helping advance the mission of the Church. He said the Church and its members must work to offset negative cultural influences such as individualism, materialism, consumerissm and hedonism.

"So many people need a true conversion and an experience that evangelizes them, before they will rise above the negative influences of the culture and become Catholics with a living faith again," he said. "They simply have to become disciples again! Then they will become good stewards."

Bishop John R. Gaydos, in his homily during Morning Prayer, talked about praying humbly and turning against the prevailing culture in order to set and maintain God-centered priorities. "We're coming here," the bishop stated, "to learn to be grounded much more in the reality of setting things right - which is actually what Lent is all about: setting things right, and making sure that God is No. 1. As Christ said to His Heavenly Father, 'Not My will, but Yours be done!'"

Reinforced in groups of four

Jane Rutter, director of the diocesan Stewardship Office, talked about the essential relationship between stewardship, discipleship and evangelization, and emphasized the importance of pastoral planning at every level of parish life. To illustrate these points in a clear and fun way, she invented a board game called "Cultivating a Stewardship Parish." Participants, organized into groups of four, took turns rolling a die and landing on phases of pastoral planning for a parish that has embraced stewardship as a means toward discipleship.

The spaces on the game board were organized into four categories:

• Planning: Study "Stewardship: A Disciple's Response," by the U.S. Catholic bishops, and review the parish's resources and structural organization.

• Gospel: Help people discover their God-given talents and develop leadership among people of all ages.

• Gift: Evaluate parish ministry, and address the needs of families.

• Gratitude: Community outreach, evangelization and social action.

Every other space - beginning with "Study the bishops' pastoral letter" and ending with "Evangelize the Good News" - instructed the player either to pick up a question card and answer a question about pastoral planning and stewardship, or a vision card and discuss key aspects of stewardship. Those who answered correctly moved ahead in the game.

"The game is a great idea," said Rev. Mr. John Neudecker of Fulton, in a written evaluation of the retreat. "It stimulated conversation in a relaxed, non-threatening way."

"The game revealed numerous ways to be good stewards," stated another participant.

The process illustrated by the game came from discussion forums Mrs. Rutter led last year, on the draft of the parish guide titled Gospel, Gift and Gratitude: Cultivating a Stewardship Parish, which is being piloted in St. Peter parish in Fulton and Shrine of St. Patrick parish in Laurie.

"A process of discovery"

Sister Kathleen Wegman SSND, chancellor of the Jefferson City diocese, addressed the topic, "Where Do You Get Your Energy?" Drawing on her personal experiences with people who knew how to bring the best out of her, she shared suggestions for individuals who want to discover their own talents and offer them back to God.

"Ultimately, this journey is lived, not learned," she noted. "Loving as God loves and thereby living out the Divine likeness by sharing our talent, means fostering and helping to complete God's creative work." She noted that all people are created in God's image, and each person bears the unique signature of the Creator.

"Humans have the potential to live like God," she noted. "Not to BE God, but to be LIKE God - to act according to the attributes of God." Such attributes, Sr. Kathleen noted, include boundless love and generosity, constant compassion and tenderness, unmerited mercy and loving kindness, abundant forgiveness, and power to honor what is good and transform what is evil. "To act according to the attributes of God - it is NOT only where we get our energy, but it IS energy," she said. She noted that God leads people through the process of discovering their own gifts and talents. "As God draws near to us, we simultaneously discover our own unique part in His unfolding plan for the world," she said. "God calls us to become more ourselves, not less so."

"Stewards of providence"

Phil Lenahan, president of Veritas Financial Ministries, gave a brief overview of the "7 Steps to Becoming Financially Free," program he developed to help Catholics better understand how to manage their resources from a faith-filled perspective."I developed these methods because I love the family," he said. "This work is really about saving families."
Representatives from 18 parishes in the diocese attended an all-day workshop the day before the Stewardship Retreat to facilitate the "7 Steps" program in their parishes.

At the retreat, he threw out frightening statistics that point to an acute lack of understanding of such concepts as saving and debt in American society."We need to help people become financially literate!" he said. But that literacy must be developed within the context of values and priorities prescribed in Scripture and the teachings of the Church, he said.

That's why a small-group setting in parishes is ideal for tackling the "7 Steps.""We learn the principles and applications, and then apply them to our relationship with God," he said. By doing so, people can become what the Church refers to as "stewards of providence" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 2404).

That, said Mr. Lenahan, means using the resources entrusted by God to His people in a way that is pleasing to Him. "We need to understand that God has given Himself a role as Creator, and has given us a role in using the things He has created and given to us to benefit others as well as ourselves, beginning with our own families," Mr. Lenahan said.
As people work through becoming effective stewards of providence, the role of money becomes diminished in their relationships, he said.

"Seeing it in action"

Julie Clingman, principal of St. George School in Hermann, and Christie Lensing, a teacher there, gave a presentation about how the school has renewed its focus on Catholic identity and helping students become disciples and good stewards. "Our kids are learning the stewardship life as they prepare to move on from our school," said Mrs. Clingman. "But it will not become a part of their lives unless they see it in action."

The bishop thanked the retreat participants for being there. He likened them to yeast, a small amount of which can make an entire bowl of dough rise before it is baked.

Feedback on the day was positive.

"I know my faith and stewardship have grown from attending the retreat," stated one participant. "This will help me in explaining to other parishioners who want to cultivate their stewardship.""But it will not become a part of their lives unless they see it in action."