Loaves and Fishes: A Process for Offertory Enhancement is a ten-week process designed to foster greater giving at parishes.
Through written materials, homilies and personal encouragement, parishioners will learn how the Sunday offertory presents the dual opportunity to both satisfy their personal need to give and give generously to the needs of the Church. The process consists of materials written by Reverend Daniel Mahan, Executive Director of the Marian College Center for Catholic Stewardship, priest in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and former pastor, and produced and mailed by Our Sunday Visitor on behalf of the participating parish and/or diocese. Project management and consulting services are included to ensure the effectiveness and timeliness of the project.
A successful implementation of the process of offertory enhancement will yield both an increase in gifts given through the offertory and a greater sense of responsible stewardship of all of the gifts a person receives from God, especially one’s time here on earth and the blessings of a person’s unique talents. The real fruit of stewardship and the process for offertory enhancement will not be measured in a balanced parish budget or an army of parish committee members, but rather in changed hearts and a changed world in the parish and diocese.
The personal witness of the pastor, the staff and all key leaders is critical to the success of the process for offertory enhancement. The greatest asset in any parish is its leaders, and nothing can substitute for positive and forward-looking men and women of faith who pray daily for God’s blessings upon their parish.