Thanks to Crescent parishioners who embrace the cross of stewardship weeks with joy! Good stewardship is a cross and it is our joy.
Stewardship is a cross because at times it can be heavy and a burden. Offering our time, talent and treasure in thanksgiving for God’s abundant gifts to us is a sacrifice and discipline. Yet, as it is a measure of Jesus’ act of embracing and dying on the cross, his ultimate stewardship offered to the Father out of love, the cross promises a greater measure of joy and satisfaction, a measure of the joy of heaven on earth!
Stewardship of Treasure
This weekend’s first and third readings highlight the incredible generosity of our God. Who would pay someone a full day’s wage for an hour’s work!! That is how crazy generous our God is with us if we look carefully at our lives, even as we might be carrying heavy crosses. The choice for stewardship of treasure this week rests on the simple reality of generous wages paid by the landowner in Jesus’ parable. The Stewardship of Treasure card is pretty straightforward. It offers the many approaches we can take to offering our money, whether in wages or savings, to Jesus and his Church. The commitment on the stewardship card of treasure is, in a sense, between the parishioner and Jesus. The parishes’ business office will not check to confirm that, say a person committed to increasing their giving by four percent. It is not binding in any way. Rather, we will check back only with parishioners who ask us to do so, for example, if the “would like to be contacted” question is selected at the end of the card.
Thanks to those who complete a Stewardship card of Treasure and put that in the collection as an offering to Jesus and his Church!
Stewardship Card of Time Preview
Thanks also to parishioners who preview next week’s stewardship card of time. As we remember from last year’s stewardship weeks, when we talk about “time,” we are especially focusing on the ways we give our time for prayer and lifelong faith formation. If we can’t point to ways we are trying to actively grow in faith, it is highly likely that our faith is actually dying so imperceptibly that we will never notice. That could be the Devil’s best strategy, slow, unnoticed distance from Jesus and a stronger faith.
Involved/Interested
We will notice a positive evolution for both Time and Talent cards this year. Those cards will measure both how we are already good stewards by what we are already involved with and those things we are interested in doing or being. As we put a check by those things we are already involved in, turning in our card in the offertory collection basket is a generous offering to Jesus of what I’m continually doing. If we put a check in the “interested” column, a staff member or ministry leader will contact you to convey more information.
New Pastoral Council Season
This Wednesday will be the first pastoral council meetings in our parishes after two months for summer break. Please pray for parish leaders, including our pastoral council members. I rely on pastoral council members not only for valuable feedback, as the “voice of the people” of our parishes, but also to help me lead and evaluate current programs in parish life and ministry.
Pastoral Council Emails
Thanks to Crescent Parishes Director of Technology, Eric Nienaber, and Director of Communications Ginny Hans for setting up pastoral councils email addresses for our pastoral councils. (See those email addresses in the listing of council members on page 11 of the bulletin.) Pastoral council presidents will receive those emails and pass them on to other members. Thanks to parishioners who convey what we are doing well and how we can improve!
Pastoral Council Agenda Items
As many know, at monthly meetings, our pastoral councils meet together first and then after common business is complete, each council breaks out for an individual meeting.
Among other items of business, this year I will be asking pastoral councils to consider whether they envision amalgamations or mergers as the canonical path toward Crescent Parish unity. Let me begin to introduce this concept briefly.
Amalgamation: One way for parishes to unify is for a current parish (many times this is the largest parish) to keep its name and receive parishioners from other parishes into itself. In this case the parishes that are received come to an end and the larger parish continues as it is albeit with the blessings of the identity of the parish that ends.
Merger: A merger is a canonical combination of parishes where all parishes are united and they assume a new identity and name.
Interestingly, on the path to becoming one it is possible that a large family of parishes could utilize both the amalgamation and merger processes over the course of several years.
In all the above possibilities, the parish church buildings keep their original name and may be used as a location for worship. Also, some buildings may be, in a sense, “decommissioned” as a church and either sold or torn down.
The intuition of Crescent Parishes Leadership Team (PLT) is that our five parishes would likely prefer to enter a merger, where the parishes unify in a way that begins a new parish. The PLT doesn’t sense that we have parishes that want to cease to exist to become part of another parish.
Over the next months, we will be consulting with parish leaders utilizing a synodal process, so that we are in touch with the minds and hearts of as many parishioners as possible regarding amalgamation or merger. As always, please pray for our parishes’ staff, parish leaders and all parishioners as we walk well the Beacons of Light path!