2008 Time and Talent Renewal - March 30 to April 13

Click below for the 2008 Time and Talent Renewal catalog and forms:

Time and Talent Catalog (PDF - 369K)

General Parishioner Renewal Form (PDF - 99K)

Older Adult Renewal Form (PDF - 59K)

Children's Renewal Form  (PDF - 41K)

The Spirituality of Stewardship

What is Stewardship?

Stewardship is our relationship to God whereby we acknowledge God as Creator and Father, as Redeemer Son, and as Holy Spirit. We, creatures and believers in relationship to God, understand that Stewardship is rooted in our baptismal call to build up the Body of Christ and to bring about God’s kingdom. In response to our baptismal call, we live Stewardship in a parish community through a lifestyle of gratitude, simplicity, respect for all creation, and deep generosity.

Is Stewardship more than weekly giving?

Yes! Parish financial support is an important aspect of our lived Stewardship but weekly giving is an empty practice unless we embrace the spirituality of Stewardship. As creatures of an abundantly gracious God, we recognize God’s love, care, and blessings for us. This reality leads us in gratitude to return to God a portion of what we have received. Once we acknowledge our creaturehood before God then follows our responsibility as baptized heirs of God’s kingdom to provide for the sacramental, ministerial, educational, and administrative needs of our parish community. We do this by giving of our Time, Talent, and Treasure.

What is Time, Talent, and Treasure?

The idea of fulfilling our Stewardship responsibility through Time, Talent, and Treasure comes to us from the early Christian community. In the first century after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the forerunner of a church or parish, was the oikos, the large and complex urban household. The diverse members of the urban household included families, slaves and other workers, travelers, teachers, and often even friends and neighbors. Income, derived mostly from land holdings, was used for religious and social gatherings, banquets and hospitality, recreation, and the management of personnel and revenues. Members of the household had roles and responsibilities contributing their time, skills, and economic resources to the harmony of the common life within the household.

It was understandable for New Testament writers to present the early Church as the household of God. In community, the followers of Jesus, each sharing Time, Talent, and Treasure and each accountable for its material resources, lived with loving concern and mutual support of one another. In Hebrews 3:3-6 Jesus emerges as the faithful Son placed over God’s household.

How do members of the St. Matthias Household of God give Time, Talent, and Treasure?

As Catholic Christians in relationship to God, Creator, Son, and Holy Spirit, we shape a parish life that reflects a community of believers. All of us have gifts to offer and all of us take some responsibility for the parish by participating in its worship and sharing in the work of its ministries.

This year in conjunction with Pentecost Sunday our parish celebrates its Time, Talent, and Treasure Commitment Weekend. Each parishioner will receive a stewardship booklet listing the many opportunities to share time, skills, and abilities as a parish volunteer. Included in the booklet is a guide to sharing one’s financial resources.

We ask you when you receive this booklet to do four things: pray about the unique gifts you bring to St. Matthias; discern the opportunities that match your gifts; respond by completing the Time, Talent, and Treasure; and commit by returning your form on Pentecost weekend.

Is St. Matthias the only place where we share our Gifts?

While we are called to support this parish community, our giving of Time, Talent, and Treasure is not limited to St. Matthias. Some parishioners may also volunteer or make charitable contributions to Catholic causes (like the Combined Collection) or worthy community organizations. Our parish is part of the larger Church represented by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Each year generous parishioners help meet the archdiocesan financial goal of the Catholic Stewardship Appeal which benefits the ministries of the Church throughout southeastern Wisconsin.

How much Time, Talent, Treasure is expected?

As believers in the Risen Lord, we are called to simplicity and a lifestyle within our means. Each one of us knows what this is in terms of our own sense of gratitude, our respect for our possessions, our spending, and the sharing of our material resources. Some of us have more material resources, therefore more to share. Others among us have to struggle to meet the financial demands of our households, our health care, children’s education, transportation, and other basic needs. Even though we have less, we are still blessed and still called to share our blessings. And, the most basic Gospel message is that when we share what we have, especially if it means sacrifice, we are richly blessed in return.

In giving your Time and Talent, prayerfully consider your unique gifts and blessings, and plan to give in some structured way (a short term task, committee service, a weekly or monthly assignment). As you reflect on the Treasure you have been blessed with, plan on giving in proportion to the needs of your household and your financial resources. In addition, every ministry needs “prayer partners” so if you are homebound or physically unable to participate, we encourage you to “adopt” a parish need and offer your personal prayer, time, or suffering for the needs of the parish. God welcomes all gifts given in gratitude.

Why are we talking about Stewardship now?

As members of the household of God, the Church, Stewardship in the form of parish support is a requirement—not an option. It is a calling to carry on the mission of Jesus Christ, to sustain his work on earth, and to build up the kingdom of God. Motivating us to be good stewards is our ever-maturing relationship to God the Father, his faithful Son, and his Holy Spirit.

Once a year in Catholic communities across this archdiocese, parishioners are informed and educated about the spirituality of Stewardship. This is part of how we grow in our faith. Out of gratitude for all that God has first given us, parishioners are asked to renew their gifts of Time, Talent, and Treasure.

Here at St. Matthias we have selected Pentecost Sunday for our 2003 Time, Talent, and Treasure Renewal Weekend because of its powerful scriptural messages and the fruits of its liturgy which increase our understanding of the practice of Stewardship.

Very shortly you will receive your personal St. Matthias Stewardship Renewal 2003 catalogue. When you receive this booklet we ask you to do four things: pray about the unique gifts you bring to St. Matthias; discern the opportunities that match your gifts; respond by completing the Time, Talent, and Treasure form; and commit by returning your form on Pentecost weekend.

How do I meet the needs of my household and become a generous Steward?

The practice of Stewardship does not conflict with meeting the needs of our households. It goes without saying that we are to use our time, talents, wages, and other resources to provide for our basic needs and those of our family. However, the spirituality of Stewardship is rooted in gratitude to God and personal generosity to return a portion of what we have been given to us.

As followers of Jesus we do not give from our surplus or give when we have excess funds but rather we give from our “daily bread,” the earnings and resources that we have for everyday existence.

By offering of what we have today, we grow in the understanding that we give to God first, rather than giving from what is left over after our needs are met.

Jesus reminds us that like the generous widow who “gave from her want what she could not afford,” God will provide for our needs. Stewardship then is an act of faith—more than giving when we have “extra” or sharing time and talents when convenient.

“Act of faith” stewardship means that when there are tough economic pressures on our household budgets, (lose of a job, salary cuts, moving on to a fixed income) we still remain faithful in our parish support. Like the widow, we know and trust that God will provide—and, God will indeed provide.

The spirituality of stewardship also prompts us to give regularly and generously whether the parish is $200,000 over budget or $200,000 under budget. We give because it is right and just, not because a need is out there, but because there is a need within us to ritualize our gratitude to God for everything we have been given.

What about parish members who do not share their gifts?

Let’s not ask “What about them?” Rather than scrutinize those around us, let look at ourselves and ask, “Am I giving enough?” “Is there more I could do for the parish?”

If we find parish support difficult then we need to look at how we are giving and pray about it. The best way to give is to calculate, once a year, what we can afford to give that year. Then apply the “pinch test.” If the amount doesn’t pinch a little bit, then we up the figure to a number that we can commit to in regular giving. Once we have determined the amount of our regular gift, we ritualize our giving by completing the parish commitment form.

Part of our commitment has to be a system for giving. The easiest way is to “take it off the top,” giving the first fruits of our weekly, bi-weekly or monthly earnings. As an act of faith some families make their parish commitment the first check they write before they pay the bills or designate an electronic transfer whereby their parish support amount is withdrawn before other expenses. In the St. Matthias Stewardship Renewal 2003 booklet there is a household income chart which provides guidelines for prayerfully considering the amount of your 2003-04 Treasure gift.

The cumulative revenue generated from parishioner commitment forms is the basis for our parish Operating Budget and dictates the funds allocated for our ministries and parish services. And again, whether our parish financial reports show a financial surplus or shortfall, it makes no difference in our annual giving. Here at St. Matthias we give consistently out of an “attitude of gratitude” toward an always-generous God.

Isn’t Stewardship of Time, Talent, and Treasure asking a lot of us?

Yes, definitely! “Act of faith” Stewardship is a challenge in our culture of materialism, consumerism and leisure time. But, as active members of the Household of God, our heart, mindset, Gospel values, budget, checkbook, calendar, and time are those of a cheerful giver. As we prepare to celebrate Pentecost, let our Stewardship be fortified by the Spirit, the Advocate, who comes to help us sustain one another and our parish in God’s greatest gift to us—our faith.