Stewardship is an increasingly widespread program for enhancing both finances and ministry involvement in Catholic parishes. Called to Be Stewards describes actual detailed examples of adopting a stewardship approach to funding and to ministry. This book explains the roles of the pastor, parish councils, and stewardship committees in establishing and managing a stewardship program, examines how to integrate a stewardship approach into everyday parish life, and tells how to generate broader parishioner support. Through the use of case studies, this book describes how eight Catholic parishes adopt a stewardship methodology and highlights the challenges of implementing stewardship in fundraising. Each chapter offers both pastor and parishioner accounts of stewardship implementation and growth, from parishes just beginning a stewardship program to those with a well established and flourishing program. Chapters in Part I: Beginning Stewardship are ?All of Us Have Gifts and are Called Upon to Use Them: Corpus Christi Parish, Fremont (Historic Niles), California? and ?Caring Enough to Make a Difference: St. Peter Catholic Church, Kirkwood, Missouri.? Chapters in Part II: Stewardship Under Way are, ?So Many Ways You Can Give of Yourself Here: St. Matthew?s Catholic Church, San Antonio, Texas;? ?We Take Care of the Poor Before We Take Care of Ourselves: St. Marcelline Church, Schaumburg, Illinois;? and ?Stewardship Demands Conversion: Church of St. Gerard Majella, Port Jefferson, New York.? Chapters in Part III: Advanced Stewardship are, ?We Measure the Depth of Our Faith by the Breadth of Our Outreach to Those in Need: Church of St. John the Baptist, Covington, Washington;? ?A Traditional Church with a Modern Message: The Basilica of Mary, Minneapolis, Minnesota;? and ?Cherishing and Fostering the Gifts of All: Diocesan Stewardship Programs?Archdioceses of St. Louis, Missouri and Seattle, Washington.??With the publication of Called to Be Stewards Patrick McNamara has secured his legacy as the preeminent authority on parish-level stewardship of his generation. McNamara has written a book that, while supported by first-rate scholarship, is easily readable and practical. Every Catholic parish, even those with established stewardship programs, will find ideas in this book that will enhance their stewardship efforts and enrich their parish, both financially and spiritually.? Charles Zech Villanova University?By crisscrossing the nation and discovering and describing a wide variety of Catholic parishes who ?do it right,? Patrick McNamara delivers on his promise to be ?a bearer of good news? about parishes today. Though this volume is neither a simplistic ?How-to? manual nor a complex book of recipes, the pastor and parish that pays close attention to the lessons in these case studies will gain rich, exciting and very practical understandings of how good stewardship practices lead inevitably to revitalized parish life. I can?t imagine any parish community that can afford to ignore this remarkable and distinctive book.? Fred L. Hofheinz Program Director Lilly Endowment Inc. Indianapolis?Pat McNamara has written a compelling introduction to stewardship in parish life. He shows how stewardship, understood as including the talent, and treasure, gives new vitality to individuals and their parishes. He reports on his travels to stories of seven successful parishes, and he tells it like it is?of some programs that worked and others that did not, and of the hesitations of the pastors occasionally had. It is the best account we have on stewardship in real life and a book all parish leaders need to read.? Dean Hoge Professor of Sociology The Catholic University of America?This posthumous work of Patrick McNamara provides a fitting conclusion to his efforts of investigating the dynamics of stewardship in Christian Churches. Called to Be Stewards adds novel input to the study of stewardship by presenting and analyzing Roman Catholic parishes. What is more, McNamara approaches his subject as a sociologist. . . . The book is eminently readable. His narrative, based on contextual observations and interviews, guides the reader through data to an understanding of how each parish has engaged stewardship. Ethnography plays an important part in opening up the world of stewardship to the reader. It is an evocative method especially to a reader who is also a practitioner.? Catholic Studies Book Review?McNamara, who died in 1998 after a sudden, brief illness, taught at the University of New Mexico for almost 30 years where he received three teaching awards and was the author of three books. For this project, he visited seven parishes across the United States, each chosen because it is in a different stage in the development and understanding of the movement of parish-level stewardship. . . . The book is highly recommended for troubled parishes or those wanting to grow into a new model.? Southwest BookViews
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