"New Beginnings" Lenten Program
Over the past three Lenten seasons the parish used the Disciples in Ministry program and it was a powerful adventure that bore many fruits. One group traveled to the penitentiary in Jesup to carry the program to them. Another group wanted to reach out to others and raised enough money to sponsor three candidates for the Smile Program. Yet another worked at cleaning up the St. Vincent DePaul building. There were many relationships repaired in the parish and many new ones formed. Some groups have continued to meet to carry on the process of small faith group sharing.
As we looked forward to this Lent we realized that it was important to somehow carry on this initiative that had been so rewarding to so many for so long. Father John picked up on a phrase that was to give us a hint of how to proceed. The phrase was, “Stewardship is the Disciple’s Response”. In that phrase we realized that if we had, in fact, become a little more of a disciple of Jesus than we once were, then the next step was to learn how to respond to His call to be better stewards of our time & talent.
We realized that many of us are willing to be generous but honestly don’t think we have many talents or gifts that are worth sharing. We often have talents to get along in life but fail to view them as something to share with others. Nor do we recognize that everything we have was given to us by God. So, it began to dawn on us that what was needed was a mechanism to help us discover our talents, recognize them as gifts from God, and how we might share them with others in our parish family.
With that insight, we set out to find a Lenten program that would do just that, help identify our gifts & talents. We contacted Margo Truett from St. Ann’s in Columbus, GA. Margo and St. Ann’s Parish are recognized at the Diocesan and National level in stewardship and we asked her to come down and share with us her journey in this whole arena. You may remember she spoke at all the Masses on the last weekend of January.
Before she left, we asked if she knew of any programs that would be helpful in identifying gifts & talents, and she recommended the one then use at St. Ann’s. It’s called, “New Beginnings”, by Paul Wilkes. At St. Ann’s this program is provided several times a year to refresh those who have already been exposed to it as well as new comers who see it for the first time.
It is a three week program that we will make available on March 5th, 12th, and 19th after the 10:30 am Mass in the Parish Hall, right after coffee & donuts. Each week there will be a short presentation followed by small group discussion. At the end of the second week, participants will take with them a series of questions that they will answer and then bring back to week three. Each person will score his own sheets in that third week and in so doing will discover the areas in which he most likely gifted.
Two weeks later there will be a Ministry Fair held at the same time and place. In the Parish Hall every parish ministry will have a table with materials explaining that particular ministry. Parishioners, who have their scored sheets from week three, will be able to find the area in which they scored the highest coded to match the available ministries. If there is no match for your talent you will have the opportunity to start a ministry in that area.
Father John has generously agreed for the parish to provide snacks and refreshments.
There is nothing quite as satisfying and fulfilling as serving others with the talents God has given us. Come be a part of this undertaking and let’s make St. William an even more exciting place to worship and experience the sense of community.
Last Published: February 26, 2006 3:05 PM
