Importance of Websites as a Key Method of Communication
A few years ago, Dr. Charles Zech, Executive Director of the Villanova University Center for the Study of Church Management, completed a survey for the International Catholic Stewardship Council (ICSC). The survey looked at best practices in parish stewardship. What worked and what didn't?

Dr. Zech found that parishes using five or more methods of communication to teach stewardship experienced significant increases in critical areas of parish life: 14% increase in treasure, 19% increase in volunteer time, 10% increase in spiritual time, and a 30% increase in outreach time. That's amazing! The study also found that the majority of parishes relied on the bulletin for stewardship communications (93% of parishes surveyed), while only 41% employed a website containing similar messages. Websites and newsletters were the most effective ways to communicate stewardship.

According to a survey released on May 30, 2012 by GreyMatter Research Consulting on church websites (www.greymatterresesarch.com/index_files/Online_Church.htm), there are three types of visitors to church websites. In the 30 days before the survey, those who:
1. Regularly attend that particular church looked at the church website. (64% of visitors)
2. Attend another church regularly looked at another church's website. (31% of visitors)
3. Do not attend any church regularly looked at a church website. (5% of visitors)

Pages commonly visited on church websites are times of services, activities offered, map/directions to the church, available videos, audio clips and those defining the churches' beliefs. What is your church's web address? Does your church offer these services on it's website? How easy are they to find for someone who has never visited or heard of your church? Enlist someone unfamiliar with your church to analyze the website for you to give you ideas for improvement.

My next post will look at ideas and sample websites for drawing new visitors into the website. Check back soon!

Blessings, Julie

Just Starting Stewardship?

Last week I was helping facilitate the ICSC/OSV Stewardship Institute in San Antonio. Our two organizations partner to bring this vital stewardship educational experience to parishes across the country. Normally we get between 20 and 30 students attending this blend of retreat and "stewardship immersion" over a few days. This was our first one in Texas, and I've heard they do everything "bigger", but we were blown away by the response. We had 53 attendees from about 40 parishes and 9 states! Everyone was engaged from the start and anxious to learn and share.

I frequently get the question from parishes about what they should do first if they are just starting to teach stewardship. Actually, I've not heard of a parish that isn't "doing" stewardship in some form already, they just needed to identify, organize and strategize their efforts! This was true of the parishes at our Stewardship Institute as well. I sure hope I gave them even half of the ideas I learned from them.

Take for example, Frances from St. Joseph Church in Spring Branch, TX. She is a wonderful woman and their parish is doing something interesting with evangelization in the local neighborhoods. I urge you to look at their website, and check back frequently as their new program takes place called Neighborhood Net. Their address is http://www.stjoseph-honeycreek.org/. They even have a quick link on the right that contains a funeral planning guide which I thought was well thought out.

If you think your parish is "just starting" stewardship, take an inventory of the efforts you have underway in the areas of 1) personal or lay witness, 2) commitment from parish leadership, 3) hospitality/evangelization and outreach, 4) communication and education, 5) time and talent recognition, recruiting and training, 6) stewardship of treasure, and 7) accountability. These are the 7 Steps to Success as outlined in Appendix IV of the Bishop's Pastoral Letter on stewardship. After you've done your inventory, then give me a call, or send me a comment through the blog and we can discuss your "next steps"! I'd love to hear from you.

Back to the vineyard. Take good care.

Truly An International Catholic Stewardship Gathering

The annual conference of the International Catholic Stewardship Council was truly an international one. Present for the conference Masses and attending workshops were Bishops and lay representatives from every Continent except Antarctica!

Attending the conference (but not in this order, or all pictured) were Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria (former president of the African Council of Catholic Bishops), Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark, United Kingdom, Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton, Canada, Archbishoip Fernando Chomali of Santiago, Chile, Bishop Brian Finnigan of Brisbane, Australia, Bishop Robert Kurtz of Hamilton, Bermuda (member of the ICSC Board), Bishop Lino Richero of the Diocese of Carabayllo, Peru, Bishop Luc Bouchard, of Saint Paul, Alberta, Bishop John Noonan from Orlando, Bishop Felipe J. Estevez of St. Augustine, Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, Bishop Paul Bootkoski of Metuchen (Episcopol Moderator of ICSC), Auxiliary Bishop Donald Hanchon of Detroit, and last, but certainly not least, Auxiliary Bishop Robert Morneau from Green Bay.

All came to see how they could grow stewardship in their respective arch/dioceses and countries. In almost every country, as in almost every parish, stewardship starts with a few passionate individuals carrying the torch and passing the light and knowledge to as many other people as possible. I see this certainly throughout the Church in the United States as well as our North American sister, Canada, and also in the Philippines with the efforts of Mila Glodava, and Fr. Andrew Kemberling who have been working with a team of dedicated individuals for nearly ten years now.

I also see it in Australia and New Zealand. What started with one gentleman, Tony Sanderson, who came to ICSC accidentally several years ago thinking it was the annual conference of the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference, and left, soul ablaze with a new understanding of stewardship and determination to bring this message home. Tony has now retired, but passed the torch to Chris Ehler from the Archdiocese of Brisbane who is currently the ICSC Board representative for Australia and New Zealand and every year gives us an update of what they've accomplished in the last year. Chris is truly a servant leader. Here is a link to some of their achievements over the past several months. http://www.bne.catholic.net.au/files/Report-to-ICSC-Board-2011-on-Visit-of-April-and-Ed-Laughlin-to-NZ-and-Australia.pdf Chris shared with us at the Board meeting that after bringing stewardship speakers from the States to Australia and New Zealand for many years, they are ready to make a go of it with "home-grown" talents. Knowing Chris and a few others he has brought and introduced me to over the years, they are certainly going to do well, and are an inspiration to me.

In addition to Canada, the Philippines and Australia, Michael Murphy, the Executive Director of the ICSC, tells me he personally has been in contact with individuals from the countries of Argentina, the Bahamas, Barbados, Chile, Columbia, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Lebanon, New Zealand, Peru, Trinidad and Togago, and the United Kingdom. All very much interested in teaching stewardship to the Church in their regions. Truly reminds me of Pentecost. I'd love to hear how this international aspect affected you or maybe currently motivates you to spread the Kingdom!

My Master's vineyard is rapidly growing, and we're going to need a lot more workers. Will you, go too? Hope to hear from you! See you soon.

What a week!

This week at the ICSC annual conference, we learned so much! There were almost 1,300 people there representing six of the seven continents.

Sunday morning before the conference began, I had breakfast with three of my OSV associates - (standing from left to right) Diane Brumbaugh, Jill Adamson, and Lori Neumann. Joining us were Chris Ehler and Michael Byrne (on the right) from Brisbane, Australia, and Jim Kelley with the Diocese of Charlotte (in the middle above Minnie). Since the conference was at one of the Disney properties, the restaurant wa filled with families and young children getting their picture taken with some of the Disney characters. We didn't want to be left out! Michael's grandchildren in Australia were most impressed to get his email with Minnie's picture.

The conference was far from a fantasy, however. In fact, this was the very point of the homily given by Archbishop Richard Smith from the Archdiocese of Edmonton at Mass on Tuesday afternoon. How ironic that we are so close geographically to Disney's theme parks and imaginary characters, yet we focus on the real presence of Christ, and the great importance of spreading His kingdom rather than a "Magic" one.

Our days were filled with prayer, friendship, meetings, music, food, workshops, laughter, conversation, creativity, making new friends, planning, reconnecting, listening, amazing Liturgies, and so on...the list is endless. This conference was one of the best yet. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting notes from what I learned these past few days, including some great links and examples of parish stewardship in action. I invite you to post your ICSC conference experiences as well. Every conversation matters.

For now, back to the vineyard. Why don't you, go too?

My introduction to the ICSC

I remember my very first ICSC, International Catholic Stewardship Council conference, (then the National Catholic Stewardship Council). It was October of 1995 in Chicago, and I was excited to meet and learn from representatives from parishes and dioceses across the country! I was born and raised Catholic, attended Catholic grade and high school, and yet was very curious about this word "stewardship" that I certainly didn't remember hearing about before.

After setting up our exhibit booth for Our Sunday Visitor, I went to a presentation given by Monsignor Joseph Champlin and a couple named Dutch and Barbara Schultz to learn more about this term. I was astonished to discover that stewardship, the way of life, is how I was raised, how my husband and I strive to live, and I didn't have a clue. We were "unconscious stewards" I like to say. This was definitely a turning point in my life...one of those "Ah Ha!" moments.

At the conference, I was most impressed with the people; they were warm, spirit-filled, giving, welcoming, eager to learn and happy to share their knowledge and experiences with others. That's true today too! I remember in particular, the folks from Christ the King Parish in Jacksonville, Florida. Hospitality is one of the keys to a solid parish stewardship foundation, and this parish had it down pat. Since this was our first time attending and exhibiting at the conference, the Christ the King contingent adopted my co-worker, Sharon Kaiser, and I, checked on us often to make sure we were ok, and brought us candy from the other exhibit booths. To this day, I still fondly think of that group when I attend the annual ICSC conference.


What grade would you give your parish stewardship efforts? Need to inject some new ideas and enthusiasm into your committee? There are LOTS of good resources, opportunities for networking and workshops on hospitality and other important stewardship topics at the 2011 ICSC conference in Orlando. I hope you'll join me and the over 1,000 other stewards from around the world who will be there. The dates are October 23-26 and you can find more information at http://www.catholicstewardship.com/. Please be sure to stop by the Our Sunday Visitor booth so I can meet and personally thank you for following the blog. In fact, I'll even be blogging from the conference, so be sure to check back frequently for live updates from me and some of my co-workers about what's new and exciting, and what we learn each day.

Well, back to the vineyard. You go too...how about the vineyard in Orlando in October?

You lift and restore

I always find myself renewed and restored after meeting with people who are focused on stewardship for themselves and for their parishes. The positive energy certainly helps, but I think the greater impact comes from the genuine desire to make our parishes better by addressing challenges and sharing successes as a team. Rather than talking about “returning to the Lord with increase”, you are living it and doing it. This attitude and group energy is the reason I look forward to International Catholic Stewardship Council (ICSC) conferences and events.

Last year at the ICSC conference in San Diego I had the opportunity to meet with many parishes and dioceses. It was enervating to see Fr. Andrew Kemberling and Mila Glodava during their book signing at the OSV booth. Fr. Andrew and Mila, along with the broader team at St. Thomas More parish in Centennial, CO have fostered an active and engaged community through their work. And last year at ICSC they were excited to be able to help others based on what they had learned.

Candelario deLeon and Ethel Dulak from the Diocese of Corpus Christi talked about the work they had been doing with each parish to help them create plans, then start very basic efforts to engage the parishioners at the parish. This process evolved over several years and has helped to bring the Catholic community in the diocese together .

Rick Fersch and Scott Bader from the Archdiocese of Seattle provided guidance for both parish and diocesan work. They also shared information about their exciting new program for leadership development.

These examples and many more individual meetings are the type of information that people share. And they are excited about the energy at their parishes and organizations.

My wife and I have been members of many different parishes as we have moved to different locations in the country. The impact of parishes and dioceses who focus on engagement and hospitality is dramatic. When I participate in regional stewardship events and at ICSC I am reminded that I have a responsibility to help. I also am reminded that there is a strong community available for support and that as a community we can advance our parishes and the Catholic faith.

What about your experience? What have you heard at past events? What are you hearing this year?