The Finance Homily

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Nurse_Joy

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We had the parish finances homily yesterday. Included a handout in the bulletin. A couple of thoughts.

Is this an effective way, in 2010, to communicate anything to the faithful? Similarly for making announcements in the bulletin? The assumption that you will reach even 50% of the membership at Mass on any weekend is wrong on a number of levels.

Please tell me a story about a parish that is good at communicating with its members!

Also its such a shame that our priest, who is such a good preacher, ends up blowing 2% of the year on a topic that’s as well covered in the handout alone.
 
Nurse_Joy said:
We had the parish finances homily yesterday. Included a handout in the bulletin. A couple of thoughts.

Is this an effective way, in 2010, to communicate anything to the faithful? Similarly for making announcements in the bulletin? The assumption that you will reach even 50% of the membership at Mass on any weekend is wrong on a number of levels.

Please tell me a story about a parish that is good at communicating with its members!

Also its such a shame that our priest, who is such a good preacher, ends up blowing 2% of the year on a topic that’s as well covered in the handout alone.
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Since not all households registered in a parish attend Sunday Mass regularly I have always felt a direct mail flier to each household was more effective than a homily or bulletin.
 
Our priest explains it during the announcements, not Homily.

A balance sheet is included in the bulletin as an insert. He doesn’t go into great detail but only highlights some entries.
 
At least you only get it once a year, we get it at least 2-3 Sundays a month. Unless the priest is gone (like he was yesterday, so we had a priest who actually gave a homily about the readings, GASP!) :eek: I was in shock.
 
CountrySinger said:
At least you only get it once a year, we get it at least 2-3 Sundays a month. Unless the priest is gone (like he was yesterday, so we had a priest who actually gave a homily about the readings, GASP!) :eek: I was in shock.
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Thank God for your regular priest anyway. 🙂
 
Bob_Aliano said:
Since not all households registered in a parish attend Sunday Mass regularly I have always felt a direct mail flier to each household was more effective than a homily or bulletin.
Click to expand...
Maybe that’s the best we have still. I know at my last parish mailings were done by hand and consumed lots of volunteer effort. Maybe the service who sends the offering envelopes out every couple of months could include an insert or something.

Thinking along those lines, wouldn’t it be cool to get an email from church more often than from Hilton hotels or those darn pills?
 
At my old parish our finance homily came only twice a year. One was right at the beginning of our Parish Share program, when we were told how much money the parish had to raise and send to the diocese. What was always impressed upon us was that whatever we raised beyond that amount was kept by the parish and wouldn’t be “taxed” in next year’s assessment.

Our priest never liked talking about money either but saw it as something that needed to be done. He saw too many people would just see the collection amounts printed each week and say something like “we collected over $5,000 last week, how can we be short” and things like that. Yet, many didn’t realize what all went in to making the parish run and how expensive gas bills can get in the winter etc.

ChadS
 
ConstantineTG said:
Our priest explains it during the announcements, not Homily.

A balance sheet is included in the bulletin as an insert. He doesn’t go into great detail but only highlights some entries.
Click to expand...
That’s pretty much what we do too only it isn’t much of an explanation. Father simply calls our attention to the finance reports that are available in the hall. It’s just once a year for the whole report and a shortened version after the totals are calculated for our annual fundraiser.
 
Nurse_Joy said:
Also its such a shame that our priest, who is such a good preacher, ends up blowing 2% of the year on a topic that’s as well covered in the handout alone.
Click to expand...
He probably realizes how few people actually read the bulletin.
 
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