When Tom and I started writing our recently released book ChurchMoney, we thought it had the potential to really strike a chord in the American Catholic Church. In our travels across the country, we have observed that money is one of the biggest – if not the biggest – causes of stress and worry among […]
Category: Stewardship
This weekend, we are celebrating the release of our newest book Churchmoney: Rebuilding the Way We Fund Our Mission. The book is the story of our successes and failures with raising money at our parish and the practical lessons we learned along the way. The book came to be because we believe money is an […]
Once a year, and only once a year, we take a weekend to reflect on our financial commitment to our local parish church. The following are 5 practices we’ve found helpful in hosting a successful stewardship program, i.e., one that receives a positive response and solid commitments for giving. ONE: Our Stewardship Sunday is a […]
This week we celebrate Halloween (not to mention All Saints Day) as well as the end of Daylight Savings Time. They all always seem to mark the end of the first half of fall. And what a first half it has been. Our annual kick-off weekend was festive and fun, though intentionally muted in view […]
This Advent our message series is focusing on giving and growing in generosity. And in this season and this series we will focus on both. This weekend will bring our annual Missions Weekend, highlighting our partners in Haiti and Kenya, while also supporting our partners in Nigeria. We’re offering the opportunity to sponsor a child […]
Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two made another two. Matthew 25:16-17 Look at that first word. “Immediately.” The first two servants immediately do something with the master’s money that benefits the master. They invest the money, doubling it. Knowing that […]
Do you remember the Indiana Jones movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark?” Harrison Ford always just makes it through whatever challenge is looming. And then it’s on to the next challenge. Three years ago we launched our Vision Campaign to build a new church. In the time since, the whole campaign has felt like an […]
This weekend Nativity is celebrating Missions Weekend, which supports both our involvement in Nativity’s local and global mission partner projects and our participation in the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal. This, by the way, is the only weekend, the only appeal we make focused on giving outside the parish. Some parishes have second or special collections all […]
This weekend at Nativity we’re delivering our annual Stewardship Sunday message. We put a lot of time and energy into crafting the right message that our congregation needs to hear. Jesus talked about money all the time, and if we are going to talk about Jesus, sooner or later we have to realize that money […]
One of the casualties of our new construction will be our old chapel. It sits on what will eventually be our new lobby. The chapel is in no way architecturally distinguished—its only artistic distinction being the stained glass windows—which will be preserved and reused elsewhere. Mostly the chapel was used for quiet prayer and daily […]
