Pledging is a critical key to stewardship
Photo from Photos.comIt is difficult to imagine a good steward who has not made a commitment.
Our Mainline Protestant friends ask their congregation members to make a commitment by pledging. Pledging is not a popular concept among Catholics, who view it as a Protestant notion.
Yet, my surveys show that nearly 40 percent of regular Mass-attending Catholics base their contributions of treasure on whatever they can afford to contribute each week. If their checkbook is a little low that week, they contribute little (or nothing). If they don’t attend Mass in their parish on a given Sunday, they contribute nothing that week.
Stewardship involves making a commitment. Pledging (or whatever we prefer to call it) is a critical part of formalizing that commitment. Some parishes have been innovative in asking their parishioners to pledge. For example, some ask their parishioners to pledge an amount of time and talent, along with treasure. Other parishes ask their parishioners to complete a pledge card, bring it to Mass with them on Stewardship Sunday, and place it a basket during a special “pledge card collection.” When the cards are collected the presider ignites a fire and throws the pledge cards into the flames. The message is that parishioners’ pledges (and their commitments) are between them and God.
However it is done, the practical theology of stewardship needs to emphasize the importance of commitment. TP
*This article is excerpted from Today’s Parish magazine (September 2004).
Charles Zech is a professor of economics at Villanova University and the editor of The Parish Management Handbook (Twenty-Third Publications).
