Stewardship’s Talent and Time and the Bulletin Report on Treasure

Feb 23

Letter from the Pastor
Feb. 25, 2024

I had asked the friars to address at last weekend’s Masses our use of Time, the third and final aspect of Stewardship. Two weekends ago a merry band of parishioners spoke about how we could use our Talents to be stewards of St. Francis Parish & Center. A great thank you to Edna Suckow (5 PM), Noreen Kinevvy (8:30 AM), Bobbi Greene (10 AM), and Mark and Angela Burgan (11:30 AM), for their wonderful presentations to the community. Thank you for taking the time, using your talents, and helping us continue our conversation on Stewardship: The Joy of Sharing the Gospel.

Regarding being stewards of our Treasure, we are making a slight change in our weekly bulletin. A few months ago, I asked the Parish Finance Council their thoughts on the weekly collection report in the bulletin. Their thoughts were the same as mine. We all agreed that it was disheartening to see that we kept missing the mark. Something was not right. It seems that week after week our first collections were not meeting the targeted amount, yet when we received the monthly financial reports the collection numbers were very good. We were getting mixed messages. One very astute young man, I was told, noticed that same discrepancy and ask his mother, “How could the numbers in the bulletin keep showing that the collections are not meeting our need, yet Fr. Fran keeps telling us that we are doing well?” That was my question also and why I asked the Finance Council for feedback.

Joe Mack and Joe Hummel, members of the Finance Council, and Stacey Kelsall, our Comptroller, started to dig into the numbers to find the cause of this confusion. We knew we could not simply divide the budgeted amount by 52 weeks. Certainly not on Long Beach Island. Everyone knows that Mass attendance fluctuates due to the time of year, number of Masses, and number of churches open, etc. We also know that the weather can make or break a weekend’s collection. If the weather is bad, it is not that people do not come to Mass, they don’t come to LBI. If the weather is perfect, we could have a blockbuster weekend in January. The shift can literally be that dramatic. But you know that. It is part of life at the beach, especially in the winter.

Somehow, the original parameters to calculate the targeted weekly numbers were a bit off. So, the team of three decided to rework the list to reflect goals that are a bit more realistic. They reviewed the historical data for each week of the year, and they took into consideration the many variables that could affect a seasonal parish such as ours. The results of their work are now being published in the bulletin. To counterbalance the variables, they all agreed that this new scale would present monthly averages.

Keep in mind that we are only talking about the first collection. Some of the second collections do stay in the parish but many are directed outside of the parish, such as the Peter’s Pence collection is sent to the Vatican, the Catholic University of America second collection goes to the Bishop’s Conference, and the collection for the Diocese of Trenton retired priests goes to the diocese.

I hope this answers that young man’s questions as it did mine.

We have a brochure for Time and another for Talent at the doors of the church. Please take a copy of each and consider how we can all be stewards of our great community. As always, thank you for your continued support of St. Francis Parish & Center.

Peace and All Good!