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Meet the Stewardship Committee: Helping to Lead Our Parish in Active Discipleship
We are blessed to have a pastor who is dedicated to helping parishioners grow closer to the Lord. Indeed, Fr. John Wakube does a wonderful job of nurturing our spiritual growth! Along with our pastor, both staff and volunteer parishioners are working faithfully to help make the pastoral vision for our community a reality. You may already know some of them — the parish office staff, Parish Council, and the directors of various ministries, to name just a few. Another invaluable group working behind the scenes to make our parish a wonderful place to call home is the Stewardship Committee.
The central mission of this committee is to facilitate communication about opportunities for stewardship throughout the parish.
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“Mainly, the members of the Stewardship Committee are people who represent the other parishioners,” Fr. John says. “They are supposed to propagate the message. They are sharing the life of the church with different spiritual groups.”
When Fr. John first arrived at Immaculate Conception, he was thrilled to find a Stewardship Committee had already been established here. At the time, the group was doing a great job of maintaining many of the beloved traditions in the parish, such as the Parish Picnic and existing ministries. Then, several years ago, Fr. John attended the Msgr. Thomas McGread Stewardship Conference in Wichita, Kan. with a group of parishioners.
Following the inspiring experience of the conference, Fr. John and the Stewardship Committee members took their mission to a whole new level.
“We have improved our Stewardship Committee and now we are doing more,” Fr. John says. “We are involving new things now, like new members, new groups, and ministries. For example, the Rosary we started before the Sunday Mass was an idea that came from the Stewardship Committee. We have also started having new parishioners stand up at Mass for a blessing so that they feel at home. And we started including stewardship in our RCIA classes. I think knowing about stewardship before entering the Church will make an even bigger difference.”
The efforts of our Stewardship Committee to make discipleship a way of life at Immaculate Conception have certainly not gone unnoticed — more and more parishioners have expressed to Fr. John their desire to get more involved in parish life. More people than ever before are offering to serve during the Mass, teach RCIA classes, deliver food to those in need, and sign up for Adoration.
In addition to providing parishioners with opportunities to share their time, talent, and treasure, our Stewardship Committee has also placed a renewed emphasis on hospitality and community building. While the pandemic-related restrictions have put most of our usual gatherings on hold, Fr. John is confident that a strong sense of fellowship will continue to blossom at Immaculate Conception in the future.
Looking forward in faith, Fr. John is excited to see our Stewardship Committee facilitate for our parishioners a closer walk with Christ in the months and years to come.
“The fruits of stewardship are the life of the parish and seeing people fully committed,” Fr. John says. “I have seen a tremendous change, and I think most people have seen a change in the parish since we started this. People are not only happy but energetic in their spiritual life. The future looks very bright!”
