St.
Patrick P A R I SH Parishioner Profile
Tom and Joan Jacobs
Reflections on Stewardship
Tom and Joan Jacobs
W
hen Tom and Joan Jacobs moved to Grass Valley in 2004, they could have never imagined how much the timing of their first visit to St. Patrick Parish would impact their life in our faith community! At their very first Mass here, it was announced that the parish was getting ready to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Since Tom and Joan had helped with the 50th-anniversary
celebration at their previous parish, they both felt called to step up as volunteers. After getting over some initial “newcomer nerves,” Tom and Joan offered their help. “We probably walked in front of the rectory in little circles for 10 minutes before we rang the doorbell,” Tom says. “By helping with the anniversary, we met a lot of really nice and sharp people, so that was nice. Then, about 12 months later, Helen Shearer rang up and said Father wanted us to come to the next Stewardship Committee meeting.” Tom and Joan are both lifelong Catholics — in fact, the couple first met on the bus to their Catholic high school! When their oldest child was 3 and started attending Catholic school herself, Tom and Joan began volunteering with the school and various parish ministries. Although a shared active faith had long been a central part of their married life, neither felt familiar with the concept of stewardship when they were first invited to the committee. “We were brand new to stewardship then,” Joan says. “In
fact, Tom’s mother was called into a meeting with her Parish Council that was about stewardship, and she had come home saying it was all about money. So when we heard about the committee here, we thought it was a money thing. With time, I think we grew into an understanding of stewardship, just by being there and learning what we were supposed to do.” As Tom and Joan began to understand the stewardship way of life as discipleship and an answer to the Gospel call to serve, they realized that providing parishioners with a way to share their time, talent and treasure with God and His people was essential. Through the Stewardship Committee, they began hosting ministry fairs and publishing a quarterly calendar of parish events and activities. In addition, Tom began writing a stewardship column for the church bulletin that included information about various opportunities for parish involvement. “Our focus has always been on trying to make people aware of the talents that they have and the
“Our focus has always been on trying to make people aware of the talents that they have and the things that are available for them at the parish, including all the ministries. The bulletin articles were a way to give people the opportunity to use their talents. We just kind of stumbled onto it — somehow, God put us there.” — Tom Jacobs 6
