Catholic Stewardship in July

As a lead up to Stewardship of Treasure which takes place in November, it is not too early to begin putting Stewardship and Gratitude into the hearts and minds of your parishioners.  If you don't already have a Stewardship Column in your bulletin, now is a good time to start.  Your column should contain your weekly donations and how those donations relate to your budget; plus or minus.  We also have a stewardship logo and some bulletin notes which you can obtain by emailing parishstewardship@seattlearch.org.  Do you have pictures and stories about parishioners involved in ministries that you could include in the column (please seek permission from those in photos before publishing).  Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

• Any unsung heroes who quietly help in your parish
• A ministry such as pea patch, sandwiches for homeless, any outreach ministries
• Honoring those who volunteer in your office
• Stewardship ministries in which children volunteer
• Many others...

As time gets closer to November, reminding parishioners that their donations support these ministries can be done in your Annual Report to the parish.

If you have ideas to share with other parishes, please leave a comment to this post by clicking on 'no comments' below.  A window will pop up for you to type in your comment. 

Thank you, Western Washington parishes for the good work you do to support Stewardship in the Archdiocese of Seattle.

A Great Year for a Ministry Fair!

 

This is a particularly good year for a Ministry Fair

 

 

Recently, our office has been advising parishes to have Ministry Fair's every couple of years.  They are large endeavors and doing them well periodically seems to be better than struggling with them every year. In fact, data we collected several years ago showed us that Ministry Fairs seem to yield a bigger response when they don't occur every year.

 

This year, there are some good opportunities because of the way the calendar cycles.

 

If you are doing Time & Talent renewal late this Spring to coordinate ministry sign-ups with Pentecost, the weekend before Pentecost would be a great time for a Ministry Fair.

 

If you are doing Time & Talent renewal after Labor Day, the weekend between Labor Day and Catechetical/Build Hope Sunday is a particularly good one to show off your ministries.

 

We have good information for putting on a Ministry Fair.  If you would like it, contact us at parishstewardship@seattlearch.org and we will be glad to send it to you.