Stewardship & Tithing
Welcome to the Stewardship Page of Saint Pius X Parish!
The Capuchin-Franciscan Friars have provided pastoral care to Saint Pius X Parish since its establishment in 1957. We are blessed with a great parish staff and leaders who strive to animate every aspect of parish life. We need your ideas, your energy and your support.
The documents linked below describe "God's Plan for Giving," a plan we initiated as a parish in 2014. We trust that it will bring a measure of financial security and peace of mind to all who participate in parish life.
What is Stewardship? Stewardship is a way of life that sees everything we have as a gift from God. We have all been given great power by God in the form of Time, Talents, and Treasure.
Stewardship is:
- Scripture Based All of the teachings of stewardship come directly from the Gospels, the Old Testament and the letters of the New Testament. Stewardship is not a new fad, or environmental word. Stewardship is the way God has expected His people to live since the beginning of time.
- Dependence on God Stewardship is recognizing that everything we have is a gift from God. We can take credit for nothing. Everything we have and everything we do is a result of some gift that God has placed into our hands.
- Gratitude Stewardship is living a life of gratitude - taking the time every day to recognize the gifts that God has given and to be grateful for them.
- Giving Back Stewardship is returning a portion of our gifts to God. The gifts we return are our time, our talent and our treasure. We return these gifts not because God or our Church needs them but because we feel an overwhelming need to show our love and gratitude to God.
- Transformative Stewardship is transformative. Once we embrace the stewardship message it changes the way we look at every decision we make. Stewardship becomes a total way of life.
- A Love Response Once we allow God to truly take up residence in our hearts we become so overwhelmed by His abundant love for us that we just naturally feel the need to join our lives with Him and dedicate our time, talent and treasure to carrying out God's work here on earth. Our generosity comes from within and not from any external pressure or reward.
- Proportionate Giving Stewardship calls us to realize that each of us is called to give as God has given to us. We no longer base our giving on what others are giving. We no longer excuse ourselves from giving because we do not see others giving. Rather we give in proportion to all that God has given to us.
- Prayer - Spending Time with God Stewardship involves spending time with God. Recognizing that every day is a gift from God, we strive to spend some of each day with God, through prayer, Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, scripture reading, quiet, meditation and other spiritual activities. During this time, we ask God how He wants us to use the gifts He has given to us.
- Participation - Sharing Talent Stewardship involves sharing talent. Recognizing that God has given each individual unique skills and talents so that together we can do the work of Our Lord, we strive to share our own talents and to encourage and welcome others to also use their talents to participate in the mission and ministry of the Church.
- Generosity - Giving Treasure Stewardship involves giving treasure. Giving time and talent does not excuse us from giving treasure. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus challenged us to give as it has been given to us. Aware of our tremendous financial blessings, we strive to give generously to support the building up of God's kingdom. The 10% tithe is a sacrificial goal. Sacrifice means to make holy. We regularly strive to increase our giving, taking small incremental steps toward a full tithe and when possible going beyond 10%. A good steward recognizes everything we have is to be used to build God's kingdom.
- Trust in God Stewardship is trusting God. We believe that our generous God will always provide for us. None of us will ever have all that we want, but we will always have all that we need.
- Accountability Stewardship calls us to recognize that just as in the Parable of the Talents, each of us will someday be asked by God to give an accounting of all that we have done with the gifts that have been given to us. Likewise, parish communities that embrace stewardship must be accountable to the community for the way in which the parish uses the gifts entrusted to it.
- Thankfulness Stewardship calls us to be ever grateful for the gifts that God has given. Not only are we called to be grateful to God, but we also must be grateful to one another. Just as we thank God every day, a stewardship parish must also show gratitude, recognition and appreciation to those who have given generously to the support of the parish.
- Counter-Cultural Stewardship is counter-cultural. While society encourages us to continually strive for more and more, stewardship helps us to recognize that we already have more than enough. In fact, like the loaves and fishes, we have enough to share.
- Discipleship Stewardship is discipleship. We strive to put God first in all things and to follow where Our Lord might lead.
Not only do we ask our parishioners to return a portion of their income to God's church and other good works, but our parish does the same. By "Tithing the Tithe" our parish has returned over $63,000 to various works of charity in the past five years. Several parishioners have shared their experience of tithing with the whole congregation:
A good place to start is with the biblical suggestion of 10%: 5% to the parish and 5% to other good works. Our hope is that you can feel that Saint Pius X is truly your spiritual home, one that you can support financially with a joyful spirit, and a place where your talents and time will be placed at God's service for His glory and your own growth in holiness. May God bless you and those you love!