Practicing Stewardship Our Gifts...Multiply Stewardship of Time & Talents Ways to Give	Stewardship is a way of life. It is a way of living each day in gratitude for all the blessings that God has given to us. The roots of stewardship can be found in the Bible, which tells us over and over that God is the Creator and Giver of all gifts. It is our responsibility to show our gratitude to God for these gifts, by giving back to Him the “first fruits.” We do not own the gifts God gives to us. We are only here on earth to use those gifts to do God's work.

Practicing Stewardship

It is difficult to teach or practice stewardship, unless we have a clear understanding of exactly what stewardship is. If we wish to embrace stewardship, we must gradually learn to embrace every definition or aspect of stewardship.

Scripture Based: All of the teachings of stewardship come directly from the Gospels, the Old Testament and the letters of the New Testament. Stewardship is not a new fad, or environmental word. Stewardship is the way God has expected His people to live since the beginning of time.

Dependence on God: Stewardship is recognizing that everything we have is a gift from God. We can take credit for nothing. Everything we have and everything we do is a result of some gift that God has placed into our hands.

Gratitude: Stewardship is living a life of gratitude - taking the time every day to recognize the gifts that God has given and to be grateful for them.

Giving Back: Stewardship is returning a portion of our gifts to God. The gifts we return are our time, our talent and our treasure. We return these gifts not because God or our Church needs them but because we feel an overwhelming need to show our love and gratitude to God.

Transformative: Stewardship is transformative. Once we embrace the stewardship message it changes the way we look at every decision we make. Stewardship becomes a total way of life.

A Love Response: Once we allow God to truly take up residence in our hearts we become so overwhelmed by His abundant love for us that we just naturally feel the need to join our lives with Him and dedicate our time, talent and treasure to carrying out God's work here on earth. Our generosity comes from within and not from any external pressure or reward.

Proportionate Giving: Stewardship calls us to realize that each of us is called to give as God has given to us. We no longer base our giving on what others are giving. We no longer excuse ourselves from giving because we do not see others giving. Rather we give in proportion to all that God has given to us.

Spending Time with God: Stewardship involves spending time with God. Recognizing that every day is a gift from God, we strive to spend some of each day with God, through prayer, Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, scripture reading, quiet, meditation and other spiritual activities.

Sharing Talent Stewardship involves sharing talent. Recognizing that God has given each individual unique skills and talents so that together we can do the work of Our Lord, we strive to share our own talents and to encourage and welcome others to also use their talents to carry out the mission and ministry of the Church.

Giving Treasure: Stewardship involves giving treasure. Giving time and talent does not excuse us from giving treasure. We know that throughout the Gospels, Jesus challenged us to give as it has been given to us. Recognizing the tremendous financial blessings that abound in our country, we strive to give at least 10% of our resources back to God, to support the building up of God's kingdom. Although this level of giving may not be immediately possible, we are aware of what percentage we are giving back and regularly strive to increase the amount, taking small incremental steps toward giving a full tithe.

Trust in God: Stewardship is trusting God. We believe that our generous God will always provide for us. None of us will ever have all that we want, but we will always have all that we need.

Accountability: Stewardship calls us to recognize that just as in the Parable of the Talents, each of us will someday be asked by God to give an accounting of all that we have done with the gifts that have been given to us. Likewise, parish communities that embrace stewardship must be accountable to the community for the way in which the parish uses the gifts entrusted to it.

Thankfulness: Stewardship calls us to be ever grateful for the gifts that God has given. Not only are we called to be grateful to God, but we also must be grateful to one another. Just as we thank God every day, a stewardship parish must also show gratitude, recognition and appreciation to those who have given generously to the support of the parish.

Counter-Cultural: Stewardship is counter-cultural. While society encourages us to continually strive for more and more, stewardship helps us to recognize that we already have more than enough. In fact, we have enough to share.

Discipleship: Stewardship is discipleship. We strive to put God first in all things and to follow where Our Lord might lead

When Our Lord multiplied the loaves and fishes,
He did more than feed the multitude. He showed
us that the effects of our own gifts may also be
greatly multiplied when shared in the spirit of love.

Stewardship: All the wonderful gifts we have received from Our Lord are meant to be shared and multiplied - demonstrating God's goodness. Giving is the essence of Stewardship. Sometimes Stewardship requires a leap of faith. More than 100 years ago our parish ancestors took a leap of faith. They gave much to make Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish a reality. Now, in our second century, we too place our faith in God and in each other that our parish will continue to provide us all with the spiritual nourishment we need.

Our Gifts Multiply: This is the banner under which we will direct our stewardship program of Time, Talent and Treasure. Our gifts of Time and Talent will be addressed later, in the fall of this year. For now, we focus on gifts of Treasure, the funds offered to sustain the operation of our parish and all its programs and services. We begin with the subject of Treasure for two reasons:

1. Planning: The diocesan fiscal year begins in July. Our parish staff begins planning and budgeting now for all the operating expenses, programs, and services offered for the next year. These programs and services are intended to help us all on our spiritual journey.
2. Accounting: We want you to know how and where your gifts of Treasure are being used. Therefore, we intend to give you a regular accounting of the monetary gifts we receive from you as well as how those funds are used throughout the year.

Commitment: This is the third element needed for us to complete our effort. We want your commitment. Here is the goal: we are asking you to determine how much you presently contribute to OLPH. This would be your weekly contribution, totaled for the year. Then, in the spirit of Stewardship, we ask that you commit to giving at least that amount. Obviously, we would like for you to increase that amount if possible. The key is commitment. With your commitment, we can more accurately plan both our present operating requirements as well as look to future needs.

Offering Amount: When you commit, we can too. Here is how it works. We make it easy for you to set your stewardship goal with the following guideline for weekly giving. Prayerfully consider making your offering proportionate with the gifts that you have received from God.