Money Counters Ministry: Handling Our Treasure with Care

As we strive to actively live stewardship at St. Mark’s, it’s assuring to know the members of our Money Counters Ministry use their talents to ensure our treasure is handled with care and transparency.

Two teams guide the ministry. Bob Garza leads Team One and Joe “Being able to use my talents is Calabrette leads Team Two. They gather something I really enjoy and look forward on Mondays to calculate the collections to,” Bob says. for checks, currency and coins from the Joe Calabrette and his team are looking previous weekend. forward to learning the spreadsheet system

Besides sharing their talents, Joe and his to help their work. At this time, however, team enjoy the socialization the ministry they are using manual entries for the various brings, as team members serve the parish collection categories and their totals. and grow closer to Christ by doing so. “The count comes in from Sunday

“It’s kind of fun, and we do socialize,” or the weekend by either envelope or Joe says. “Usually, we say a prayer when cash,” Joe says. “The envelopes mostly we start the count, and we include special have checks, and each check has to be prayer intentions of our members.” verified that the amount is correct and

Bob developed a program that employs not post-dated.” spreadsheets to tabulate the offertory. This Once everything is sorted, Joe takes system allows the team to account for the collection to parish bookkeeper Kathy every check and currency collected. Once Christoferson or business manager Kim the deposit is manually double-checked, Harbert. Ensuring they properly handle the computer software verifies it. the parish’s stewardship of treasure is vital.

Bob’s talents come from the experience “It’s not just me or Bob,” Joe says. he gained working for AT&T, when he “It’s a team and we can’t do it alone. They utilized various computer programs. deserve all the credit.”