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Tower Topics ~ Spring 2007 |
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Stewardship workshop fosters a need to giveby Dan Madden If you give a cookie to a 1-year-old child she will break it in half and share it with you. Give one to a 2-year-old and she will eat it and then take yours.
Loughman, director of the Diocese of Wichita Stewardship Office, and his traveling companion Father John Lanzrath, director of the Diocese of Wichita's Spiritual Life Center, have journeyed to parishes “coast to coast and border to border”–– including 12 states in 2006 ––to share their diocese's model of stewardship. While their presentations largely have targeted parishes, the Wichita delegation added seminary to the list when they, along with Wichita pastor Father Patrick York, conducted a stewardship workshop for the seminarians of Conception Seminary College. The presentation was part of Conception's new Stewardship Program, which seeks to instill a sense of generosity in seminarians. “We were elated,” said Loughman of the invitation to speak to seminarians. “Pastors play a key role in the education and formational process of stewardship.” But he stressed that their presentation to the seminarians was not centered solely on priesthood. “This is about discipleship, not ordination,” he noted. “This is not something they should think about only if they are ordained to the priesthood.” Loughman says the Wichita model approaches stewardship from a spiritual standpoint rather than a fund-raising one. “We teach that rather than giving to a need, each person has a need to give.” Wichita's model of stewardship began nearly 40 years ago at the parish of stewardship “guru” Msgr. Thomas McGread, a mentor of Father York, and became an official diocesan program in 1985. But Father Lanzrath says that despite their relatively long experience in stewardship, much will always remain to be done. “Stewardship is a conversion of the heart, a call to faithfully live the message of Jesus Christ,” he says, “but we cannot control how that message is received. We cannot bang our head against the wall because everyone does not respond.” Weekly Mass attendance in the Diocese of Wichita is more than double the national average, as is financial giving to the weekly parish collections. Participation in Perpetual Adoration throughout the diocese is extremely high, and the Diocese of Wichita is consistently one of the best represented among the seminarians of Conception Seminary College. These developments are no coincidence, Loughman says. “We believe our long-standing stewardship process has brought about and continues to nurture a spiritual conversion throughout the diocese,” he says. “An attitude of gratitude prevails.” The three men agree that it was tough at times to sell stewardship to seminarians. “Some of them,” Father Lanzrath notes, “say, 'Here I am coming to seminary, giving my life to the Church, and now you want more.'” Father York says that whatever the audience –seminarians, priests, or lay people––the answer is to persuade them that stewardship is a journey of conversion. And no matter the vocation, the great roadblock is fear. “Our priorities are not often in order,” he says. “We are afraid of being left short (financially). But I have lived stewardship and I can assure you, everything else is taken care of if our first priority is our relationship with God.” This is radical and countercultural, he admits. “But I know if it works for me it will work for others.” The message was not lost on senior seminarian Gerald Curren, who was especially struck by the work aspect of their message. Conception seminarians have been required to participate in a program of manual labor on campus as part of what they call “Operation Stewardship,” but Curren noted that it is essential that their efforts are incorporated into their personal spirituality. “Stewardship without spirituality is just work,” he says. “The work aspect is probably the most misunderstood part of stewardship,” he explains. “Cash has always been easy to understand.” Curren said he believes Conception's emphasis on stewardship within the seminary community will result in stronger parishes later. “If a parish is grounded in stewardship it is more focused, more of a community,” he says. On one of his many trips throughout the country, Father Lanzrath, encountered a little girl with a great lesson. At the offertory of the Mass, the small children present were asked to come forward with offerings. Sheepish faces and little hands, clutching tiny collection envelopes, walked forward and placed their offerings in the basket. But one little girl held back, an envelope in her right hand. Her older brother nudged her forward and Father Lanzrath stretched out the basket toward her with encouragement. Still she resisted. Finally, she switched the envelope to her left hand and with her right hand reached into the basket and plucked a dollar bill for herself. The congregation erupted in laughter. “Do you know why they were laughing?” Father Lanzrath asks. “Because they saw themselves in that little girl.” For more information on Wichita's model of stewardship, go to the stewardship link: We welcome your comments: |
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Dan Loughman, who learned this lesson firsthand from his granddaughter, admits it is debatable what is more difficult, to persuade her to share the cookie, or to do what has become his life's work: convince Catholics to forgo feelings of financial insecurity and personal demands on their time in order to embrace Christian Stewardship.