Naperville, Illinois

Stewardship Core Team

The Stewardship Core Team takes its tasks from To Be A Christian Steward which challenges us to assist the parishioners of St. Elizabeth Seton to come to, or deepen, our awareness that stewardship is "a response in faith to Jesus' invitation to follow Him . . . lived out in the awareness that everything we have/are (traditionally time, talent, treasure) comes from God and is meant to be gratefully received, tended with care, shared generously, and returned with increase to the Lord." *

We seek to accomplish this task by:
1) education with the Gospels, the word of God as the teaching element,
2) doing what we say we believe, and
3) offering people opportunities to BE stewards.

* To Be a Christian Steward, U.S. Bishops' Pastoral Letter in Stewardship

Click here to view a presentation of
stewardship activities at St. Elizabeth Seton!

The 2007 Stewardship Core Team leadership includes the following parish member(s):

Chair: Brett Shoup
Vice-Chair: Dave Camp

Media Committee: This group was formed to improve the promotion, publicity, and marketing of the parish to the community and the activities within the parish to its own members. Contact: Jack Amberg

Core Team Activities and Committees:

1. “Season of Commitment.” Each October the Commission engages in our annual drive to increase the parish levels of giving Time, Talent and Treasure back to the parish and to the community of Naperville and beyond. While all members of the Stewardship Commission are expected to participate, the effort is spearheaded by a chair and others who focus on the plan, the church environment, the mailings and the written support for publicizing and promoting this effort. Contact: Jim Duffey

2. Survey of Parish Time and Talent. Every 2-3 years one member leads the Stewardship Commission in the important task of assessing all of the activities of the Parish. We do this by measuring how many parishioners are involved in the parish ministries and how many total hours are devoted to these tasks. It is a critical benchmark to assess our progress. Contact: Keith Avery

3. Tracking of Treasure. Biannually, the Treasurer of the Stewardship Commission obtains a report from the Parish Director of Operations which measures the number of givers, the amount given and the percentage growth over the previous year as well as a trend since 1999. The Treasurer also helps to monitor or budget expenses. Contact: Ken Gerlach

4. Ambassador Program. This program reaches out to mew parishioners with a visit and a gift bag. This personal touch attempts to meet new members in their homes and introduce them to our parish, its services and ministries. If we are unable to meet them, we still call and drop off the gift bag which includes free tickets to the next parish event as well as information about the parish and a DVD which gives an overview of our services and ministries. We encourage their participation the church as stewards and ministers. Contact: Kathy Gleason

5. 20^th Anniversary DVD. This presentation gives an overview of the Parish’s ministries and services and invites members to become good stewards by giving back their gifts of time, talent and treasure. The Stewardship commission created this with the help of parishioner Dave Synder and it will take the oversight of a Stewardship member to keep it current. Contact: Ed Stark

6. Random Recognition of Individual Acts of Stewardship. This simple but powerful activity thanks members of the parish with a letter and certificated (signed by the Pastor) for their generosity to the parish. It requires one member of the Commission to prepare the material, get the signature and send to the recipient. A record is kept of the recipients by the same Commission member. Contact: Tim O'Brien

7. Outreach. The Commission has constantly tried to engage the parishioners in ministries b3yond the parish or invite the community to the parish. Our present effort if the “Christmas in April” project where we team up with another parish to help a family on one day in April. The help revolves around helping them improve their home. One or two members of the Commission organize and recruit parishioners for the one day effort. It requires less time than a trip to Mississippi and thus parishioners can get involved and should generally requires less skip than habitat for humanity. Thus, while the other two projects are very worthy, we think Christmas in April can fill an outreach gap. Contact: Tom Byron, Lori Priddy and Dave Camp

8. Research. One member of the Commission searches for the best practices of other churches as it relates to Stewardship. This provides us with a source of new ideas. We have looked at 4-5 churches via the internet. We have visited churches outside of Naperville and even to different states. Contact: Joe Gilbert

9. Media Support/Bulletin Articles/announcements. One member of the Commission is responsible is responsible for promoting the awareness of our parish to the Naperville community. Specifically the member is charged with writing and submitting to local and diocesan newspapers feature articles or releases or calendar announcements of the newsworthy events of the parish. This same member is responsible for placing needed announcements or articles in the Parish Bulletin. Contact: Jack Amberg

10. Youth/Bearly Stewardship. For several years members of the Stewardship Commission designed and implement projects related to the youth of the parish both around time and talent and especially around treasure. Following our successful efforts to start Life Teen, we established a giving program for the youth of the parish. We are looking for a new member to redesign this program which will start with some research or gather input from the parish’s religion education department. Contact: Ed Stark

St. Elizabeth Seton Parish
2220 Lisson Road, Naperville, Illinois 60565, 630-416-3325

"We shall strive to become more prayerful, peaceful people."

This page was last updated and edited 11/22/07