"Where your heart is, so will be your treasure." (Mt. 6:21)
Stewardship is a way of life... It is a comprehensive concept, recognizing that we respond to God's generosity, not because we have to, but because God's own goodness draws us to respond. The Bible tells us: "The first of the fruits...shall you bring unto the house of the Lord your God." (Ex. 23:19). It is really the Old Testament concept of Tithing. Every good thing we have - even our very lives - comes to us from God. And it doesn't come in an unlimited fashion. The gifts we have received are loans to us, from God, to be used according to His plan. If you doubt that, take a moment to think about what "possessions" you are going to bring out of this world with you!
Stewardship is emphatically NOT fund-raising - it extends to all facets of life: how we care for and use our time and talents, how we care for and use the goods of nature and how we care for and use the treasures we have been given, whatever those treasures may be. Jesus reminds us that God will not be outdone in generosity and that any sacrifice we make in His service will be rewarded 100-fold in this life and eternal life in the next. So, Stewardship is part and parcel of our partnership with Jesus in bringing salvation to ourselves and to our world - expressed in Holy Spirit's parish mission statement as "making God's kingdom present in our world."
In Holy Spirit we split up the Stewardship campaigns into two parts. In the spring we focus on Time and Talent. That gives us the summer months to get all our volunteers enlisted in the more than 125 ministries and activities in Holy Spirit. In the fall months, we concentrate on Stewardship of Treasure (Tithing) because that is based on a calendar year. The Bible speaks about tithing, which is 10%, divided as follows: 5% to Holy Spirit, 1% to the Archdiocese in the Archbishop's Annual Appeal, and 4% to your other charities. At Holy Spirit, we are asking that you contribute your additional 4% to the Capital Campaign over the next three years.
Many people find it difficult to consider the possibility of giving a percentage of their income to God through charitable giving - and cringe at the idea of giving a full 10%. But, Scripture tells us, "Where your heart is, so will be your treasure." (Mt. 6:21) So, we suggest that if you can't bring yourself to take on the full program, you consider starting with some percentage, even 1%, and see what happens. No one can give you a mathematical formula for how this works because it is not a mathematical issue, it is a gospel issue. St. Peter says: "As generous distributors of God's manifold grace, put your gifts at the service of one another, each in the measure he has received."(1 Peter 4: 8-10). So, it becomes a leap of faith - and we invite you to take that leap of faith.
