Stewardship MD

Overview and Facts

What is Stewardship Fatigue Virus Syndrome? Stewardship Fatigue Virus Syndrome is a common virus infecting parishes having lived the Stewardship Way of Life for several generations, but complacency, apathy, and forgetfulness has created an atmosphere of entitlement and lethargy. A virus is dangerous because this small infectious agent can replicate inside the parish life and affects all types of parishioners and ministries, including the head (the pastor).

Symptoms and Types

About 8 out 10 parishes who have Stewardship Fatigue Virus Syndrome have no symptoms at first. When symptoms do appear, they include the following:

Mild Symptoms Include:

• Complacency in parish activities
• Little to no increase of Time, Talent, and Treasure forms at renewal time
• Amnesia of preaching stewardship year round
• Using stewardship and stewardship hours to describe volunteering, instead of a way of life
• Loss of the ability to articulate what stewardship is
• A general dissatisfaction in parish life, parish leaders, parish ministry
• Lesions of competition, complaining, and comparing form
• Decline in number of Time, Talent, Treasure Forms returned at Renewal
• Lack of yearly renewal with Lay Witness talks, Ministry Fair, or Pastor’s homilies
• Atrophy in parishioners commitment of participating in ministries
• Stewardship of Treasure deterioration
• Attendance at Sunday Mass decays
• Parish leadership and pastor begin process of blaming
• Parishioners are not seen as gifts to be received, but constituents to be serviced

Severe Symptoms Include:

In mild cases of Stewardship Fatigue Virus Syndrome, symptoms can last 3 to 12 months. If a parish gets a more severe case of Stewardship Fatigue Virus, symptoms can last for years. Severe cases that involve problems with the core leadership and pastor are rare, but they can cause death of the parish.

Diagnosis and Tests

If a pastor suspects a parish may have contracted the Stewardship Fatigue Virus Syndrome, he will ask questions to find out the severity of the symptoms. The following are some tests he can use:

Testing for antibodies.
When antibodies are present, then a virus is present. Antibodies include the above symptoms and can be tested by:
•Small group parish leadership analysis of councils- (Pastoral, Finance, Stewardship, Education, etc.)
•If a parish does not have such councils, it is evident the antibodies are present.
•Ask the following questions of these groups:
• In speaking to a new parishioner, what would you tell him/her about the parish?
• If you were the pastor of the parish, what positive and negative resources in the parish would you see?

Spinal Tap (lumbar puncture): Data Analysis Such analysis allows the pastor to understand how widespread the virus might be.
Reports on Families
• Number of families registered this current year
• Number of families registered over a five year period (is parish growing/shrinking, average age)
• Age of Head of Household of new families (Is the parish aging or young)
• Number of families registered who live outside the parish boundaries
• Number of families registered with children in:
• PSR
• Parochial Grade School
• Catholic High School
Reports on Individuals
• Total number of individuals registered in the parish
• Number of individuals in different age brackets for this year
• Break into groups of 0-10, 11-19, 21-30, etc.
• Number of individuals in different age brackets over a five year period
• Break into groups of 0-10, 11-19, 21-30, etc.
• Breakdown of stewardship of Time and Talent forms completed per individual:
• According to date family/individual registered in the parish [involvement of new parishioners]
• According to ages [to see the most and least active groups]
Reports on Sacramental records
Over a five year period:
• Number of Baptisms
• Number of First Communions
• Number of Confirmations
• Number of Marriages
• Number of funerals
Reports on of stewardship of treasure giving per family:
• Top giver amount to lowest giver scale (i.e. many people giving little, few people giving a lot, etc.)
• Parish-wide break down of head of household giver’s according to ages:
• Break into groups of 20-30, 31-40, 41-50, etc.
• Are all the age groups giving proportionately and consistently?
Number of families whose pledges from 5 years ago:
• Stayed the same
• Increased
• Decreased