St. Joseph Parish

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STEWARDSHIP: A Way of Life at St. Joseph's

Stewardship is a way of life, not a program with a beginning and an end. It is a concept as old as the Bible that was reborn in the 1960’s and can change the way Catholics live in today’s world. The Stewardship Formation Initiative (SFI) was formed in the Fall of 2006 to discern where St. Joseph’s Parish is with respect to our growth as a Stewardship Parish.

The Bible tells us that everything we have is a gift from God. We are stewards of these gifts and are accountable to God for the use of them. Stewardship asks us to put God’s priorities ahead of our own. It demands a change of attitude, or an “attitude of gratitude”, and a desire to share our gifts of time, talent and treasure with others in gratitude for all that we have received from God.

The SFI is looking for ways to invigorate our stewardship process here at St. Joseph. Often stewardship founders because there is an imbalance between time, talent and treasure. The imbalance occurs when the initial excitement wears off, but real enthusiasm runs deeper and comes from the Greek word entheos, meaning filled with God. Perhaps we have not given ourselves enough time for prayer and spiritual formation. We need to refocus or become more enthused about daily spiritual formation because, when that interior focus is missing, the exterior commitment of talent and treasure lose their appeal. When more members of our parish renew their intention to open themselves to God, the fruits will be a renewed enthusiasm within the parish and the gifts of time, talent and treasure will flourish.

Through baptism, all Christians are called to do what Christ’s disciples did: put Jesus at the center of our lives. We are called to know Jesus’ presence in our everyday lives. We are to try to do our best with our own gifts and talents.

Stewardship parishes are characterized by prayer, education, celebration, hospitality, accountability generosity and involvement of everyone in all aspects of parish life. The good news is that, at St. Joseph’s, many are already using their gifts: teaching, ministering to the sick and the grieving, working with the youth, assisting at our liturgies, providing hospitality at funerals, and much more. We demonstrate the actions of Stewardship every time we share our time and talents.

Recent Activities and Accomplishments

Welcomed Jason Wittak as the Staff member of the Committee
Discuss ways to put the concept of Stewardship before the Parish
Review materials used at other parishes with regard to Stewardship

Tentatively settle on “Attitude of Gratitude” as our slogan going forward

Continue to work toward development of a program to present to the Parish

Stewardship Formation Initiative

	Wayne Serie (Chair)	Marlyn Johnson
	Bob Hartnett	Frank Brantman
	Jason Wittak	Giles Kobilka
	Pete Somers	Fr. Terry Rassmussen

Stewardship Committee Members

To view a Job Description for Stewardship Committee Membership please click here.

We encourage others to inquire about joining this committee. Contact any one of the above members.

This page was last updated on 02/04/2008