As We Grow Closer to Christ, St. Timothy Parish Reflects on Five Years of Stewardship Growth

This spring, the global pandemic that began changing the way Americans live — and worship — was an unprecedented event. While St. Timothy, like all Catholic churches across the world, had to adapt to new ways of serving God’s people, one thing remained the same — the strong faith and active discipleship of our parish family. Reflecting on the last five years, it is evident that stewardship has truly become a way of life for our parishioners. We are blessed that so many of the faithful here at St. Timothy have chosen to “remain in Him” despite the various changes that come with social distancing.

In 2015, parishioners made 1,878 prayer commitments during our stewardship renewal weekend. By last fall, that number had risen to 4,905, representing a 160-percent increase over just five years! While sharing our talents with our various parish ministries has been more difficult this year due to the pandemic, prayer remains a blessing that can never be taken away. In addition, an increase in prayer leads to an increase in faith. For these reasons, we are especially grateful for the growing prayer life of our faith family.

“The increase in prayer commitments has been pretty miraculous,” says Julie Pope, Stewardship Council Chair. “As I see stewardship at St. Timothy, it’s a way to help facilitate our parishioners coming closer to Christ. We think of it as all starting with prayer, and then what comes from that — the sharing of your time, of your talent and treasure, all of which comes from God. Our goal is to help our parishioners increase their prayer lives and their relationship with Christ.”

In the last several years, St. Timothy has initiated Eucharistic Adoration and has also become a tithing parish, meaning that 10 percent of our collection goes to local and state outreach. Without a doubt, these two changes have brought many blessings to our parish.

Parishioners have also increased their commitments to serving in ministries by 48 percent over the last five years, and our offertory gifts have grown by another 45 percent in the same amount of time.

While it is wonderful to look at our stewardship activity “by the numbers” and see how our parishioners are committed to living as intentional disciples of Christ, there are also other ways the faithful have continued to serve, even as COVID-19 has temporarily suspended the activities of many ministries. One example is our St. Vincent de Paul Society, which has found ways to serve our community without interruption.

“St. Vincent de Paul folks are still doing incredible work — it’s just different these days,” Julie says. “We’re seeing those that are in need, and that number increases as this economic and health situation continues, but St. Vincent de Paul has still been there to serve.”

Parishioners have continued to serve others by tithing, and the St. Vincent de Paul food distribution still takes place twice monthly. Our Creative Hands Ministry made face masks. Children’s Faith Formation provided a virtual Vacation Bible Study for elementary school children, and the youth group constructed an outdoor Stations of the Cross for our community. Various faith formation activities and council and ministry meetings have moved onto virtual platforms such as Zoom.

In August, a new parish outreach program came to life.

“We began calling all the households in the parish to let them know we’re thinking about them, ask how they’re doing, and ask them what the parish can do for sacramental support or other needs,” says Parish Life Director Deacon Peter Burns. “Some aren’t doing well and need to make connections with a priest, or they might want to get married in the church or have questions about Baptism or faith formation. The calls have been very well received. I’ve heard some wonderful stories of appreciation for these callers.”

With these phone calls, the parish was able to confirm parishioner addresses and contact information. Postcards were then sent out to follow up on the phone calls and provide further communication. With many of the atrisk or vulnerable faithful continuing to stay home during this health crisis, finding ways for St. Timothy to remain in touch with parishioners is a top priority.

“One pillar of stewardship is hospitality and reaching out, so these postcards are a follow-up to say our thoughts and prayers are with everyone and we hope they are well,” says Deacon Peter. “We also have a new pastor, so we want to put together a communication plan for folks to get a chance to know Fr. John Blum, and newly ordained Fr. Drew Woodke. We plan to have a live Facebook chat with them and explore other options as they come along."

By finding new and creative ways to reach out to our parishioners, St. Timothy hopes to continue building on the wonderful foundation of stewardship in our parish. If we choose each day to “remain in Him,” surely the next five years will bring even more abundant blessings!

“People have been away, and we want to encourage them to stay close to Christ, stay close to the Church, stay close to the parish family,” Julie says. “When we can all come back together, my hope is that the gates will be flooded. It’s probably more important than ever to have that hand of welcome and hospitality.”