This document outlines the principles of Christian stewardship. It defines stewardship as a way of life that involves gratefully receiving God's gifts, cultivating them responsibly, sharing them with others, and returning them to God. Stewardship applies to all areas of life, including faith, family, community, work, environment and resources. As disciples, Christians are called to steward their time, talents, and treasures. The parish plays a vital role in fostering stewardship formation through opportunities for prayer, service and gift discernment. Successful stewardship involves personal witness, leadership commitment, hospitality, education, engagement and accountability.

1. Zenaida E. Soriano
Payar-Gomez ES

2. Outline
I. What is Stewardship?
II. Principles of Stewardship
III. The Personal Call
IV. Called to Steward What?
I. The Call of the Parish community

3. Reflection Questions
• What role does gratitude play in my life-and in my
relationship with God?
• For what am I most grateful?
:
• Examples of God’s generosity in my life
• How am I a steward of God’s gifts?

4. Stewardship:
What it is NOT…
1.
2.
1.
2.

5. What Stewardship IS…
 A way of life
 A commitment to follow Jesus no matter
the cost
 The realization that everything we have
is a gift from God and that we need to
treasure and enhance these gifts and
give them back in thanksgiving
 The recognition that what we have is not
ours. What I have is because of the
grace of God. What I started with is a
gift from God--what I make of my life
depends on how I develop God’s gifts.

6. IS…
 Counter-cultural—success and
achievement is not ultimate goal—not
mine to claim if only I work hard enough.
Counter to the “Theology of Prosperity”
 A spirituality with daily implications:
Daily examen: What did I do today with
the gifts God has given me to make a
difference in the world?
Applies to our faith, community, environment,
human and natural resources, economic order,
government affairs, etc.

7. IS…
• A
A call to answer the question:
What do I own and what owns
me?
Seeing the difference
between:
What I need and what I want.

8. Stewardship: A Disciples
Response
US Conference of Catholic Bishops Pastoral Letter on Stewardship (1993)
 Receives God’s gifts gratefully,
 cultivates them responsibly,
 shares them lovingly with others,
 returns them with increase to the Lord.

9. ⌘Discipleship, Discipleship,
Discipleship!⌘
Disciples as Stewards
◦ Recognize God as origin of all life, giver of
freedom, & source of all things.
◦ Grateful for gifts received (including gift of
conversion, calling to membership in the
church), and eager to use them to show
our love for God and one another. Look
to the life and teachings of Jesus for
guidance in living as Christian stewards.

10. The Call of Discipleship:
Christian disciples experience conversion—life-shaping changes of mind
and heart—and commit their very selves to the Lord.
Mature disciples make a conscience decision to follow Jesus, no matter
what the cost.
Christian stewards respond in a particular way to the call to be a disciple.
Stewardship has the power to shape and model our understanding of our
lives and the way in which we live.

11. WHERE-
Does Stewardship Take Place?
 Begins in the domestic church—the
family. Families make decisions
everyday on how to spend their time,
use their abilities, spend their money.
 Extends to the parish, the workplace,
the local community, the diocese,
universal Church, global community.

12. STEWARDING WHAT?
1. Stewards of Creation
◦ Joyful appreciation for God-given beauty
and wonder of nature
◦ Protection and preservation of the
environment; stewardship of ecological
concern
◦ Respect for human life; enhance the gift
of life and make it flourish
◦ Work—development of this world
through noble human effort. Work is the
building up of the Kingdom of God!

13. STEWARDING WHAT?
11. Stewards of Vocation
◦ Jesus calls us to a new way of life-the
Christian Way of life.
◦ Christ does not call faceless people, he
calls each individually, by name, to a
specific, personal vocation in life: lay
person, single, married, clergy, religious,
adult, child—each has a vocation. This has
an escatological significance!
◦ Christ calls us to be stewards of our own
vocation, which we receive from God—the
4 characteristics of a Christian Steward.

14. STEWARDING WHAT?
111. Stewards of the Church
◦ We cooperate with God in our own
redemption and in the redemption of others.
We are collaborators and cooperators in
continuing the redemptive work of Jesus
Christ—the priesthood of believers.
◦ Called to carry out the Mission of the
ChurchProclaim the Gospel! Teach,
Serve, Sanctify! Sacraments! It is the
personal responsibility of each of us as
stewards of the Church.

15. HOW is the Parish vital to
stewardship formation?
 Facilitates the individual’s spiritual
process of conversion by supplying a
fertile environment for gift discernment
and stewardship formation.
 Provides opportunities for individuals
to live out the call to discipleship
through prayer, hospitality and service.

16. Stewardship vs. What We’re Already
Doing
FOCUS & GOALS
To bring people into a
relationship with our parish
and with the work it does in a
way that makes them want to
support it.
To bring people into a closer
relationship with God through
the experiences of giving
time, talent and treasure,
which we help to create by
offering occasions where this
giving is consciously evoked
as a spiritual act and
practice.
IDEAL OUTCOMES Parishioners make a
contribution to the parish in
recognition that the parish
needs resources if it is to
continue its work (that is,
parishioners give to a need).
Parishioners are more
generous in their gifts of their
time, talent and treasure
because every gift becomes
an occasion for, and a
celebration of, growth in faith
(that is, parishioners develop
a need to give).

17. Stewardship vs. What We’re Already
Doing
PHILOSOPHICAL &
CULTURAL
UNDERPINNINGS
The philosophical and
cultural root is philanthropy,
“private action for public
purposes.” The intent is to
encourage people to feel a
commitment to the “common
good of the parish,” and
voluntarily give of their
resources—material goods
that they feel they own—for
the benefit of others.
The philosophical and
cultural root of stewardship is
a commitment to personal
and collective behavior that
recognizes and honors God’s
ultimate ownership of and
profound generosity in all
things. The intent is to
encourage people to see all
resources as gifts temporarily
entrusted to us to be used
and shared to promote the
welfare of all God’s creation.
ULTIMATE
OBJECTIVE
To provide financial (and
other) support for our parish,
so that it may carry out the
godly work to which we
believe it has been called.
To “build the household of
God” so there will be more
human and spiritual, as well
as material, resources to
carry out the work of building
the kingdom, in whatever
form that work may take.
*Taken from, Effective Parish Stewardship, The Essentials, Twenty -
Third Publications, 2004

18. PARISH STEWARDSHIP:
Seven Signs of a Stewardship
Parish
 Hospitality
 Prayer
 Recommitment (Renewal)
 Outreach
 Lay Witness
 Accountability
 Stewardship Committee
 (Community of GRATEFUL
BELIEVERS!)

19. PARISH STEWARDSHIP
Successfully Promoting Stewardship
Step 1: Personal Witness
Step 2: Commitment of Leadership
Step 3: Hospitality, Evangelization, Outreach
Step 4: Communication & Education
Step 5: Recruiting, Training, & Recognizing
Gifts of Time & Talent
Step 6: Stewardship of Treasure
Step 7: Accountability

20. Parish Engagement
 According to Gallup data, Engaged members
of a parish are:
◦ 2 ½ times as likely to spend two or more hours per
week serving and helping others in their communities.
◦ 3 ½ times as likely to invite friends to participate in
their church.
◦ Give nearly 1% more of their gross income--about
$700 more per member.
◦ 3 ½ times more likely to say they are completely
satisfied with their lives.

21. Parish Stewardship
Issues Facing Parishes Staid Strategies Stewardship
Principles
Declining Mass
Attendance/Enrollment
-Pulpit emphasis on
attending church
-children’s catechesis
-Cut times
-renewed emphasis
on Eucharistic
spirituality,
sacramental gift
-Focus on hospitality
to new and current
members, local
community
-Evangelization
Outreach
-Lay Witness
-Parishioner
Engagement
-2 way
Communication
-Conversion

22. Parish Stewardship
Issues Facing
Parishes
Staid Strategies Stewardship
Principles
Capital Needs-school,
roof, boiler, parking lot,
etc.
-Defer
-Fund Drive
-Annual process of
time, talent, treasure
commitment
-Strategic plan
-Accountability report
-Spiritual endeavor
-Leadership
identification,
recruitment
-Conversion
Debt/Operating Deficit -Cut services
-Fund Drive
-Strategic Plan:
Mission, Vision,
Development,
Communication,
Hospitality
-Transparency
-Inform, invite, involve
-Conversion

23. Closing Prayer
All powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to
give you thanks.
All things are of your making.
All times and seasons obey you.
You chose to create us in your image and to set us over the whole world
in all its wonder.
You made us the stewards of creation, to praise you every day for your
wisdom and power.
May we imitate your son, Jesus, in his life of service.
May we be faithful stewards of all your gifts to us, the People of God.
Amen.