The Parish Offertory – Ten Ways to Improving Giving in Your Parish.

It is in times of distress that churches need more of our help, not less. This is because the material, emotional and spiritual support they provide us all will be needed all the more. I would humbly suggest that we think less about the economy's impact on our trips to the mall and a bit more on how fewer trips to that mall might enable us to discover a better use for our dollars. I promise to do such thinking myself! We've all heard the adage about the lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness. It might also behoove us to reflect upon Saint Paul's admonition in his letter to the Galatians (6:2-3): "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, deceives himself." Harry Colin – Consultant to Catholic Parishes.

The good news is that despite the difficult economy parish offertory giving has only slipped few percentage points in most Catholic parishes. The bad news, parishes can ill afford even a slight drop, as expenses continue to increase, as facilities age and require repair and as the Church continues to meet the demanding needs of a 21st century congregation.
Fortunately, we can exercise a theological virtue here - Hope! There are tangible steps that a Catholic parish can take today to plug the slow leak in the weekly stream of revenue and perhaps even enhance the flow.


Discuss the Christian Principles of Stewardship
Often in Catholic parishes giving money is treated as at best a necessary evil; something to be ignored until a major physical plant need demands attention. This misperception can be effectively evangelized by sharing the solid Biblical principles that should undergird each parishioner's giving decisions. These principles can be broadly summarized as two components - (1) giving in proportion to our blessings and (2) giving from our substance not our excess. Many pastors have effectively blended these principles into homilies.


Have an Annual Conversation About Giving

You should be having at least one full conversation about giving with your parishioners every year. This conversation should include pulpit remarks and handouts. Well-informed parishioners will feel a greater sense of ownership in the parish financial situation and respond favorably to the need to be pro-active in their giving.

Challenge parishioners to be intentional in their giving
Without discussing specific levels of regular support, ask all supporters to be “Intentional” in their giving – to give of their “first fruits.” By reflecting on stewardship and making a plan instead of just reacting to the passing of the collection basket, parishioners will enhance their stewardship experience and feel a greater sense of belonging.

Introduce and promote electronic giving

Every parish in America will have an electronic giving option with three to five years. Envelopes are an integral component of parish collections but they are no longer sufficient. As a parish you must meet people where they are not where they were. Many parishioners want to give monthly, to give via their credit card or to give directly from their checking account. An astutely designed electronic giving program will enable parishes to receive the necessary levels of support regularly. Weekend and vacation absences to visit friends or take vacations will no longer impact the parish collections so dramatically and parishioners will be able to access their giving plans on-line to adjust as necessary.

Provide A Monthly Donor Option

Many parish members do not attend Mass each week in their own church. Some worship elsewhere and some are at home. By offering a monthly donor option a parish can capture by mail a significant level of support that would otherwise be lost because there is no mechanism to collect it.

Adjust Your Envelopes!

Believe it or not, some parishes still have $1 and $2 options printed on their envelopes! This is likely because no changes have been made since families were grouped around the TV watching the astronauts step on the moon in 1969. Printed options are powerful suggestions, so consider beginning at $10 or even $15 per week on your envelopes or $40 for a monthly option. Folks who actually need to go lower can still easily do so in keeping with the principle that it is much easier to fall than it is to jump!

“Chart” your Progress

Let's say a parish collection has been running at a level below where it needs to be on a weekly or monthly basis to survive and prosper. One way to focus attention on that is to create a couple of charts that can be emplaced at the doors of the church. After you announce that our challenge between now and Thanksgiving is to bump our collection from $12,000 per week to $15,000, just show the increases each week and allow people to become excited over the goal. Visual images are important and can serve as powerful motivators.

Conduct an Annual Time and Talent Initiative

Many folks in the pew are unaware of just how much the parish could use their talents and enthusiasm. Sharing the needs and asking for help is a solid method of capturing energy for productive activities. A parishioner who feels needed will in turn feel a stronger need to give.

Embrace the Technology!

Email, blogging and people-connecting systems such as Face Book and LinkedIn are here to stay. Explore ways to connect with more people and you will have opened fresh avenues for potential support.

Conduct a Professional Offertory Enhancement Program

There's an old adage among sales people that says "ignore your customers and they'll go away;" a similar thought could be expressed about parish collections. Don't just leave them to chance. A professionally-directed program to enhance parish collections should be a regular feature of a parish's long-range plan. Habits die hard, and often the only way to change them-in this case the "habit" of having your offertory gifts stay dormant for years, is to replace the habit with a new one.

Just What is Stewardship?

Stewardship is a word that engenders a multitude of images in the minds of those who hear the word itself. Some hear stewardship and think of the need to take good care of what has been given to them – both material goods and the natural environment. Others hear this term and think of providing alms to those unfortunates among us who lack proper clothing, housing and food. Many indeed will hear talk of stewardship and immediately think that someone wants them to give them money!

Actually, each of these images is correct. However, they do not by themselves, or even when lumped together, provide a completely full description of what stewardship means to the Christian. These are but still frames of the moving picture of authentic Christian charity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “ To the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount it is fitting to add the moral catechesis of the apostolic teachings such as Romans 12:15, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Colossians 3:4, Ephesians 4:5, etc. This doctrine hands on the Lord’s teaching with the authority of the apostles, particularly in the presentation of the virtues that flow forth from faith in Christ and are animated by CHARITY, the principal gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Catechism 1971)

Stewardship then is the logical extension of that charity the Holy Spirit commands us to practice. Stewardship in its fullest sense encapsulates charity into an action plan for our lives; it establishes a framework from which that charity can operate. That structure acknowledges that God is the source for everything we have in our earthly existence and that we are called to not only be thankful for our blessings, but we need to both share them and be accountable for how we use them ourselves and how we give them to others. As Saint Paul instructs us, ‘Let charity be genuine… love one another with brotherly affection… Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contributor to the needs of the saints and practice hospitality.” (Romans 12:9-13)

Sacred Scripture provides much guidance about charity and stewardship. These myriad verses are best summarized in the venerable triple dimensions of Christian stewardship: time, talent and treasure. The application of these dimensions can be further culled into these two principles:

1 Give in proportion to the blessings we have received.
2. Give from our substance, not our excess.

Stewardship is not a destination, but rather a journey. It is an integral component of faith, not an adjunct or something we can choose to participate in or not, like some hobby or pastime. Stewardship begins in our hearts, is infused by what our minds teach us about our faith and extends with our hands as we reach out to others in our families, parishes and communities.