Recruiting/Forming a Stewardship Committee

  • Priests give stewardship homilies two weeks in a row at all Masses.
  • Dave Baranowski speaks at all Masses the next weekend. (Lay witness talk on stewardship.)
  • Parish meeting the following week for those parishioners interested in learning more about stewardship. Dave Baranowski shares parish stewardship “best practices.”
  • Usually a group of parishioners will step forward to start the committee.
  • Dave Baranowski comes to first stewardship committee meeting to organize roles and stewardship calendar.

Here are several more points to keep in mind when selecting stewardship committee members:

  • Your stewardship committee should be like what the U.S. Congress is supposed to be – it should represent all the people in your parish.
  • Identify all the different groups of people in your parish and make sure each of them is represented on the stewardship committee.
  • For example, include a grade school parent, a PSR parent, different ethnic backgrounds in your parish, elderly person, widowed person, and young adult just to name a few. Also, be sure to have an appropriate split of men and women.
  • The more “rounded” your committee, the more your stewardship efforts will reach more people.
  • In each of the parish groups identified, invite “influential” people in each of those groups to join the committee.
  • Avoid having an “open casting call” for anyone interested. The best advice is to personally invite influential leaders in specific segments of your parish community.