By Kathi Stearns

For the families who comprise the Church of St. Joseph's in Dalton, stewardship is the foundation upon which they hope to define and enlarge the mission of their church.

The parish mission, as stated in the church bulletin, is to be a Christ-centered family thought the stewardship of time, talent and treasure, serving one another and people beyond the parish under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Father Ed Thein said that 50 percent of the people living in Whitfield County and 60 percent of Murray County are unchurched. With such a great number of uncommitted people Father Thein feels that evangelization is a significant part of his calling.

"People who are touched by the stewardship program and see it working might be drawn to the church," Father Thein explained of the connection between evangelization and stewardship. Without the resources established though stewardship, this goal would seem unattainable. But he noted, "As stewardship grow, so does the evangelizing power of the people."

With this clearly defined mission, the pastor feels a need to build upon the framework of stewardship and extend both the number of stewards within the parish and those involved in parish outreach programs.

An area that Father Thein feels he needs to develop as soon as possible is street visitations. "To this date the everyday workings of the parish keep me pretty busy ... but I must find parishioners who are hungry to help serve the church in some way and get them started," Father Thein stated.

For Father Thein, stewardship is a spiritual thermometer of a parish. He explained that in many parishes he had seen a small number of parishioners who did everything. He came to the realization that if a few people did all the volunteer work that did not signify a healthy parish. On the contrary, "if that pool of volunteers did not increase, there was burnout among the active workers."

Upon arrival at St. Joseph's in northwest Georgia in 1988, he hoped the number of volunteers he had actively participating in the church would double each year. Father Thein said he first used the stewardship concept as the "unifying link to pull his volunteers together."

Strong functioning programs already exist with organizations such as CCD, RCIA, St. Vincent de Paul and a children's choir.

But last year when the stewardship program was officially introduced by the archdiocese, Father Thein worried that the concept would not be accepted by parishioners. "Many times the concept of stewardship is perceived as something that Protestants do and Catholics do not," he explained.

He and then parish stewardship director Bill Steve also felt a need to make the archdiocesan stewardship concept very tailored to their parish. Steve explained that if parishioners perceive a program as being mainly and archdiocesan directive rather than a parish program, there will be a less active response.

Faced with these challenges, Father Thein and Steve worked to find the best way to communicate the idea of stewardship to parishioners. Father Thein claimed that the resulting stewardship program has played an integral part in the increased support of the parish in terms of time, talent and treasure.

"The more people who find themselves involved in the parish, the more likely they are to take ownership of the parish and support it." Father Thein also noted that when youth become involved their parents seem to follow.

For his two-county parish there was a need to educate and communicate in order to breathe life into the word stewardship. The parish has a strong Hispanic population which, in itself, presents a challenge in communicating the conceptual idea of stewardship due to language barriers.

Father Thein, who is bilingual, explained that the majority of the parish's Hispanic population are migrant workers who do not have telephone numbers or mailing addresses; therefore the church has a problem getting information to them. He also said that the majority of migrant workers work several shifts a day, making it difficult for them to come for catechesis.

In response, Father Thein developed weekend workshops after Mass so that his Hispanic parishioners can not only celebrate the Eucharist together, but also participate in adult religious education.

"When people come to worship we had the opportunity to follow up with catechesis. If we tried to get them to come back later or on another night we would have lost them." Word of mouth and walking though the diocesan material on stewardship with the Hispanic parishioners on Stewardship Sunday resulted in a great deal of increase in Hispanic involvement, he said. Of 180 Hispanic families, 57 committed time, talent or treasure to the church.

In addition, Father Thein split up the responsibilities of the coordinator of religious education to include one leader each for elementary, high school and RCIA. By breaking down the areas of responsibilities the people involved in the programs noticed a more personal touch and greater numbers became actively involved.

Father Thein said that Scripture calls people to be messengers of their Catholic faith. Stewardship requires that people take ownership of their faith and defend it as modern day disciples. "If I have nothing to defend, I have nothing to lose," he concluded.