Talk More Frequently About Giving As a Matter of Faith

• Priests should talk to parishioners much more frequently about giving in terms of “advancing the mission of the Church” or giving “as an act of Faith.” Giving from our “treasure,” giving money, is a matter of our faith. Priests need to talk at least once a month about it.

• Priests should frequently tell parishioners what great things are happening at their parish and thank the parishioners for their generosity with their offertory gifts. Draw a correlation between parish activities that “advance the mission” and the parish’s generous offertory gifts. Don’t expect that the parishioners will connect their offertory gifts with other inspirational programs. (For example, “Thanks to the generosity of the parish, our 8th graders attended the Summer Youth Camp, and we were able to send 15 people to the Pro-Life March.”)
• Priests should avoid talking about parish offertory as a way to “pay the bills.”
• Many parishioners falsely think that “all father does is talk about money” when in fact most priests rarely talk about giving money as a matter of faith. Parishioners confuse announcements about specific parish fund-raising events with their weekly offertory. The two are totally separate – the first one is to raise money, the second is part of our faith, our opportunity to show gratitude to God for all the gifts He has given us.