How to get people involved in the planning for a stewardship renewal program

A stewardship renewal program provides an opportunity for getting people actively involved to share what they do best.

The purpose of the planning meeting is to start getting people involved in the practical aspects of the plan for the stewardship renewal.

Before the planning meeting it is recommended to kickoff the stewardship renewal.

People want to be involved. Help people with a plan to share their time and talents so that everyone can be connected with the stewardship renewal. Planning should always be a consultative process that provides an opportunity to share what it means to belong.

Checklist for the stewardship renewal planning meeting

1. Introduce a stewardship renewal prayer - This is an integral part of any stewardship program.
2. Give your parish stewardship renewal a name - A theme helps people identify and communicate the parish vision, need and challenge.
3. Begin to organise the participation postcard - A participation postcard can be used in church and online to help communicate the theme of the stewardship renewal and provide an opportunity for people to become involved. The design of the participation postcard will typically include on one side a meaningful photo of the parish with the stewardship renewal theme name and on the other side information along with instructions for how to become involved. The participation postcard should should be produced as early as possible.
4. Begin to organise the stewardship renewal vision statement - The parish vision statement is used to help communicate the needs of the parish in a narrative format. The parish vision statement can be shared with a brochure, poster, audiovisual and/or online. Producing the parish vision is an opportunity to get people involved with the compiling of content, design and production.
5. Begin to organise parish information - During the awareness phase of the stewardship renewal program people will want to know more about what the parish does in the community. Ensure that parish information packs and information online are all updated to reflect what the parish does in the community.
6. Begin to organise progress reports - It is important to share regularly throughout the stewardship renewal progress reports containing key dates and activities with the parish. During the awareness and commitment stages of the program a progress report should be shared weekly via the weekly bulletin, email and online. Progress reports provide a special opportunity to continue to engage people in the story of the parish.
7. Begin to organise the parish family list - The parish family list is used by the stewardship renewal sharing team during the awareness phase when they invite the parish family to be involved in the commitment phase of the program. The team compiling the parish family list should have an up-to-date list available midway through the program.
8. Begin to organise for the awareness phase sharing meeting - Organise a time and format for the stewardship renewal sharing meeting. It is during the awareness stage that all the hard work from planning and organising are put to work to help share with the parish family the stewardship renewal message. Everyone involved in the program and the parish is invited to be involved in creating awareness and sharing about the stewardship renewal.
9. Begin to organise for a parish celebration - A key focus and feature of a stewardship renewal can include a parish celebration where the parish family comes together to share the parish vision.
10. Begin to organise a commitment weekend for stewardship renewal - This is when the parish makes a commitment to putting everything in the parish vision into action.
11. Schedule the stewardship renewal calendar - During the stewardship renewal, timelines and planning should take into consideration how people will respond to requests for involvement for each of the above recommended steps. Flexibility should be allowed for how people will approach how they would like to participate. Scheduling should avoid school holidays and other seasonal events. Add to the schedule who will do what and when. The checklist is organised in a recommended sequence for scheduling. Allow at least three months as sufficient time for organising everything before the awareness and commitment stages of the program.

The next step after the planning meeting and organisation the awareness phase when more people are invited to become involved.

🧐  KEEP IT SIMPLE - It is important that as a result of the stewardship renewal planning that what is organised is doable and can be easily achieved by all involved.

Next steps

Use the chat to organise a free personalised stewardship renewal planner for your parish.

Use the workshop to organise the team at discover church stewardship to join your parish team online to help with organising a stewardship renewal.

Need something more? organise an online chat and let's see if we can help.