Foundational Stewardship, Lively Faith
The Office of Stewardship
Tidbits from the Regional Stewardship Conference (July 2018)
Last week I attended the Regional Stewardship Conference in Sioux Falls with over 200 others from Minnesota, North and South Dakota. We were warmly welcomed by the staff of the Catholic Community Foundation for Eastern South Dakota and the Parish of St. Michael’s. I wanted to share some of the highlights of the conference with you
Keynotes:
The keynote addresses were live-streamed on Facebook. You can access and watch them here:
In the first keynote, the Most Reverend Robert F. Morneau shared five convictions regarding Stewardship. He broke open the statement: “Stewardship is to receive God’s gifts gratefully, to nurture and tend God’s gifts responsibly, to share them justly and charitably and to return God’s gifts abundantly. Bishop Morneau has been writing and speaking about Stewardship for many years.
The second keynote given by the Most Reverend Donald Kettler, Bishop of St. Cloud Minnesota, focused on nurturing Stewardship in a small, rural parish or ministry – a topic which seems particularly useful in our Diocese.
Breakout Sessions:
The conference also offered 12 breakout sessions split into three sessions.
I enjoyed the opportunity to hear Dr. Chris Burgwald, Director of Adult Discipleship and Evangelization for the Diocese of Sioux Falls speak on the importance of prayer. He said, “If stewardship is the response of a disciple, what does it mean to be a disciple? It means to be in relationship with Jesus Christ, and the name of that relationship is prayer.”
Dr. Burgwald is a wise and delightful speaker and gave us many practical insights into persevering in prayer. In the Catechism, the Church quotes St. Therese, “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” (CCC2558) Dr. Burgwald witnessed to the transformative power of developing a habit of gazing at God when speaking of this quote.
When we remember to keep the eye of our mind and heart fixed on Jesus, it transforms our prayer. Then we begin to intentionally dialogue with a person. This deepens our conversation and assists us in developing the habit of listening to God and not falling into a pattern of doing all the talking.
I also enjoyed the presentation by Darryl Dziedzic, a Youth Minister from Altomonte Springs, FL. Darryl shared his own story, growing up Catholic, spending some time discerning the priesthood, eventually leaving seminary, marrying and his career as a teacher and youth minister. Darryl had good advice on how best to engage millennials and was a delight to listen to.
One interesting note: Although Social Media plays a very important part in the life of a young person in our culture, a ministry’s presence there only becomes effective after engaging that young person in a face-to-face encounter. Once the young person knows you, knows that you have a genuine interest in their well-being, then and only then, does a connection on social media with you become important to them.
Please keep in mind that this regional conference is held every year somewhere in Region VIII. It is a good opportunity to learn more about Stewardship and how it can be lived out in the parish. As
information becomes available about it, I will pass it on.
Living this Catholic Way of Life
Looking to deepen your practice of one of the four Stewardship Pillars? Click the image of the one below to find the best of our blogs and resources for each pillar.
The Office of Stewardship exists to help you build a Stewardship Parish and Cultivate a Catholic Way of Life.
We're working hard to bring you the best resources to support you in your journey of bringing yourself and your parish to embody Generous Hospitality, Lively Faith, and Dedicated Discipleship.
Enter your name and email to receive weekly reflections on Living this Catholic Way of Life.
We’re here to help
Call us at (605) 716-5214 or fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch soon.
CHANCERY OFFICE
606 Cathedral Drive
Rapid City, SD 57701
(605) 343-3541
CHANCERY ANNEX AT TERRA SANCTA
2101 City Springs Rd Ste 200
Rapid City, SD 57702
(605) 716-5214
TERRA SANCTA RETREAT CENTER
VICTIM ASSISTANCE COORDINATOR
Barbara Scherr
(605) 209-3418
Foundational Stewardship
Yesterday, I came across a video of Fr. Adam Hofer,
the Parochial Vicar at Blessed Sacrament Church in Rapid City on Facebook. Fr. Hofer is sitting around the manger scene
inviting and welcoming people to participate in the Christmas Masses at Blessed
Sacrament. He has a warm and joyful disposition about him as he invites people
to gather around the Manger to welcome Emmanuel into their lives, families and world.
It is a short 47-second video with a simple greeting of welcoming parishioners,
guests and really all to Blessed Sacrament Parish for the Christmas
Masses. Check it out. Well done Fr.
Hofer! http://blessedsacramentchurch.org
I also noticed this post
on Facebook this week: “Blessed Sacrament Church. St. Thomas More Students did
an excellent job in decorating the parish hall for Christmas Eve. Thank you.”
(8 pictures included in post.)
Posted on Instagram: “Father Dillion took kids out caroling on a
hayride, met with first communicants, and ended the night with adoration, a
lesson on Lectio Divina, and confession (almost 2 hours). Great night in Bonesteel!”
The St. Francis Christmas
play in Sturgis is on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaintFrancisSturgis
Benedictine College
posted a beautiful video for Christmas of a live nativity scene and Sr. Joan
Kolbe Kjerstad plays the role of Mary: https://www.thegregorian.org/2017/watch-benedictine-college-shares-evocative-nativity-story
As parishes work through
the process of becoming a stewardship parish, the first phase or tier is to
become a Foundational Parish. One of the
characteristics of a foundational Parish is: “Our parishes use a variety of
communication methods that are useful and effective for the unique culture of
the parish.”
The use of parish
webpages and social media for your parishes can be a great way to form your
parishioners in the faith and to attract new ones or those who have left the
faith for a time, encouraging them to come back.
As
our Office of Stewardship visits with pastors and stewardship committees about
becoming stewardship parishes, we encourage parishes to have to have current
and up-to-date webpages. Here are some webpages that we think are pretty good:
www.olgcparish.net
www.stthomasmore.org
www.saintbenedict.ca
www.cathedralparish.com
www.blessedsacramentchurch.org
www.gods-call.org
Thinking
about all of this week after seeing Blessed Sacrament Rapid City, Immaculate
Conception in Bonesteel, in St. Francis in Sturgis on Facebook and Instagram I
came across 19 reasons* you should include visual content in your marketing. Here
are a few that I think apply to the marketing we do and evangelization in our
parishes and diocese.
1) 90% of information transmitted to the brain is
visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text.
(Sources: 3M Corporation and the
Zabisco)
2) 40% of people will respond better to visual
information than plain text. (Source: Zabisco)
3) Publishers who use infographics grow in
traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t. (Source: AnsonAlex)
4) Posts with videos attract 3 times more inbound
links than plain text posts. (Source: SEOmoz)
5) Visual content drives engagement. In fact,
just one month after the introduction of Facebook timeline for brands, visual
content — photos and videos — saw a 65% increase in engagement.
(Source: Simply Measured)
6) Pinterest generated more referral traffic for
businesses than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined. (Source: Shareaholic)
7) 85% of the US internet audience watches videos
online. The 25-34 age group watches the most online videos, and adult males
spend 40% more time watching videos on the internet than females.
(Sources: comScore and Nielsen)
8) Over 60 hours of videos are uploaded each minute
on YouTube.com. (Source: YouTube)
9) 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter every
minute. (Source: YouTube)
10) Viewers spend 100% more time on pages with
videos on them. (Source: MarketingSherpa)
11) 25 million smartphone users stream 4 hours of
mobile video per month. 75% of smartphone users watch videos on their phones,
26% of whom use video at least once a day. (Sources: Ooyala and Ipsos)
*19 Reasons You Should Include Visual Content in Your
Marketing. Written by Amanda Sibley @AmandaSibley
Foundational Stewardship
Several weeks ago, I stopped by the Cathedral office for a moment to see if Fr. Steve was in. The next thing I knew I was surrounded by three of the Cathedral staff who were so excited to share with me the new app for smartphones for their parish. They had me download the app right
there on the spot. I think it took me less than a minute or so to download the app for their parish and it’s pretty cool. There is lot of good information regarding the life of the Cathedral parish now available at our fingertips.
Technology is simply amazing. It can be a great tool to stay connected with the parish community as well as a tool for evangelization. More and more parishes around the country are embracing technology such as apps for smart phones as way to stay connected with their parishioners
Give the Cathedral app a try. It’s free! It is available for Apple and Android products. Just go to the App Store or Google Play Store and search for: Cathedral OLPH Rapid City.
The Cathedral app helps parishioners to stay connected with all Cathedral events, announcements, alerts, and much more! You can join a parish group which allows one to stay connected with a ministry such as Liturgy, Music, Formation, GOF, First Communion, Health Care, and Confirmation. The Cathedral app also connects one with links to the Daily Readings, Family Living, prayers, and even a daily reflection by Pope Francis. I encourage you to download the Cathedral app on your smart phone today and give it a test drive, perhaps it will inspire an app for your own parish.
Fr. Mark’s Musings
