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Blessed Sacrament
hosts stewardship presentation
By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe
staff reporter
May 17, 2007Blessed
Sacrament Church in Sioux City hosted a presentation on the
spirituality and impact of stewardship on May 10.
Two
speakers from the Diocese of Wichita, Kans. - Father  John
P. Lanzrath
and Daniel L. Loughman - presented information about stewardship.
Father
Merlin Schrad, pastor at Blessed Sacrament, said an opening prayer to
begin the evening.
Loughman
was the first to present. He talked about his experiences with
stewardship during the 40 years that he has been a parishioner at St.
Francis of Assisi Parish in the Wichita Diocese.
"Stewardship
is a way of life," said Loughman.
He
asked those in attendance to ask themselves questions such as: Where am
I in my understanding of stewardship as a way of life? Where am I in my
understanding that I am a gift from God?
"We all
have the opportunity to live out this way of life," said Loughman.
Loughman
and his family moved to Kansas after living in Colorado. Shortly after
their move, a new pastor was assigned to the parish in 1968.
The
new pastor dwelled on stewardship. There was a stewardship vision
centered on becoming a place of hospitality and striving to provide for
the needs of the parishioners as well as provide a structure. If these
things were taken care of, the financial part would fall into place, he
commented.
Father Lanzrath then talked about the
four pillars of parish stewardship using a PowerPoint presentation.
"The
textbook of stewardship is the word of God," said Lanzrath.
The
Wichita stewardship model is based on four pillars of stewardship:
hospitality, prayer, faith formation and service. The priest discussed
what the pillars are, why to do them and what they mean.
The
hospitality pillar stresses a welcoming spirit in the church community.
He requested evaluating how people welcome visitors and how people
understand hospitality as an act of stewardship.
A
suggestion
that Father Lanzrath made was to have a pictorial parish directory, so
people would be able to match a name with a face. He pointed out that
it is good to "take time to recognize people."
He
talked about
the building blocks of hospitality including the roles of the pastor
and parish members, inviting people, calling people by name, providing
social activities and direct and rapid follow-up to an invitation.
Prayer
can be individual and communal, noted the priest when addressing the
prayer pillar. He added that going to Sunday Mass creates a connection
to parish life.
The priest mentioned that people
need to take time to pray. There is not one person who has more time
than another.
"A
faithful steward should pray daily, especially with prayers of
gratitude," said Father Lanzrath. "Prayer is at the heart of a faithful
stewards life."
The pillar of formation requires
educating the
mind and forming the heart as necessary steps. The priest mentioned
parents are the first teachers a child has in faith formation.
"There
is no graduation from faith formation," said Father Lanzrath. "It is a
life-long endeavor."
The presentation concluded with
questions from attendees. Refreshments were provided in the parish
center.
According to Father Schrad, there were close
to 90 people in attendance for the presentation.
"I
thought both presenters did an excellent job on presenting a real
spirit of stewardship and our call to be disciples," said Father
Schrad. "The best way that we can be a disciple of Jesus is to begin
the practice of sharing our time, talent and treasure in spreading the
Gospel message. I like the idea of developing an attitude of gratitude."
This
program of stewardship was started last year at Blessed Sacrament, the
priest pointed out.
"The
more information that we can get out to people to tell the story, the
better it is," said Father Schrad. "If you can have outside people who
have lived it and been a part of it for a number of their years, it
only makes things better. Another reason we wanted to do that was
because the diocese is making a commitment, under Kristie Arlt, to
learn and help with the concept of stewardship diocesan wide."
He
hopes that people were able to learn more about stewardship and become
reenergized. |
