Want to increase giving? Think stewardship

Catholic New World staff writer Michelle Martin talks with Charles Zech.

Charles Zech, an economics professor at Villanova University, jokes that he has spent 51 straight years in Catholic education. So it should come as no surprise that Zech has devoted much of his time to studying church giving patterns, especially those of Protestant and Catholic congregations. Zech, who authored “Why Catholics Don’t Give … And What Can Be Done About It” will bring his message to Chicago at the Oct. 5-8 conference of International Catholic Stewardship Council with a talk entitled, “Seven things that the Catholic Church can do to increase giving.” His list includes:

- Build community

- Give parishioners an input into parish decision-making

- Teach stewardship

- Minimize your use of volunteers

- Implement pledging

- Give special attention to the young and wealthy

- Remind parishioners that contributing through estate planning is good stewardship.

 

The Catholic New World: How did you start studying religious giving patterns?

Charles Zech: I used to study urban economic problems—housing, employment things of that nature. One day—I think it was the Holy Spirit— I said to myself “I wonder if there’s been anything done on the economic aspect of churches.” Then I said, “I wonder where that came from.” When I checked, I found that nothing had been done, nothing of quality, so I said there’s a real niche for me to make a contribution to the church. That was in 1991.

 

TCNW: How consistent are patterns of religious giving?

CZ: The one consistent factor, year after year after year, is that Catholics give at half the rate of Protestants. The typical Protestant household gives 2 percent of its annual income to the church and the typical Catholic household gives about 1 percent. That’s the average. Some Protestant congregations are much higher, at 8 or 9 percent, but more are around 2 percent or a little lower.

 

TCNW: Why is there such a difference?

CZ: The big difference is the teaching of stewardship. Protestants do a much better job of teaching stewardship.

 

TCNW: When you say “stewardship,” what do you mean?

CZ: For so many priests or other Catholics, it’s nothing more than another fundraising gimmick, but that’s not what it means. Stewardship means changing people’s attitudes, changing their hearts, how they view possessions and money and material things. Stewardship asks people, “What do you own and what owns you? What’s really important to you?” Stewardship tries to get Catholics to develop a need to give instead of just giving to a need.

So many parishes say, “We have a budget we have to meet, we have to fix this problem, we have to meet these particular needs.” That’s short term. You have to teach people to see that long term, they need to use their resources for God’s mission on earth.

 

TCNW: My suspicion is that no matter how you say it, most people are going to hear it as another way for the church to dig its fingers deeper into their pockets.

CZ: Absolutely. It takes persistence. They tell us it takes 5 to 7 years to get the message across. The first response is that this is another fundraising gimmick.

 

TCNW: How can parishes maintain that when priests and pastors are moved every few years?

CZ: You develop a core of lay people who won’t give up when a new pastor comes. It takes some real lay leadership. The pastor can’t do it by himself, even if he’s there for 20 years.

 

TCNW: Then why is one of your recommendations “minimize your use of volunteers”?

CZ: Let me explain that. I went to visit a good stewardship parish once, and when I sat down with the pastor, I didn’t want to start by talking about money, so I started talking about time and talent. I asked how many volunteers he had. He said, “We don’t have any volunteers here. We have ministers.”

What’s the difference? What’s the connotation of volunteer? If I do it, it’s OK; if I don’t, it’s OK. We get people to view their role as a ministry and they take it more seriously, and they become more of a stakeholder, and they contribute more dollarwise. Money follows ministry. Through our baptism, we have both the right and responsibility to minister to God’s faithful. The more time and talent people contribute, the more treasure they’ll contribute, also.

The flip side is that parishes have the responsibility to not only train them, but to hold them accountable. That sends the message that this is important. A lot of people start as volunteers, and what you have to do is convert them into ministers. Over time they see other folks taking their roles seriously and they take on that attitude.

 

TCNW: Do you know of any parishes/dioceses that have implemented your recommendations? What results have they seen?

CZ: Most of the parishes I’ve found are already working well. They’ve helped me more than I’ve helped them. What makes a good stewardship parish?

One is high giving of time, talent and treasure. But also, it’s just the attitude. They have a change of heart: any gifts they have are given by God and they’re asked to use those gifts to further God’s work on earth.

 

TCNW: Why do Protestant churches tend to be better at stewardship?

CZ: For Catholics it’s kind of a post-Vatican II idea. For Protestant churches, it’s been around for a long time, the idea that people have a role in the church. One difference is size. The typical Protestant congregation is about one-fifth the size of the typical Catholic parish. That makes it easier to get the message across, to develop community.

In Protestant churches too, people have input where the money goes. In most Catholic parishes, the pastor decides by himself, or maybe with the input of a few finance council members, although they are rubber stamps in many cases.

Most Catholics understand that the pastor has the final say under canon law, but there needs to be an input.

 

TCNW: If stewardship is a post-Vatican II idea for most Catholics, how did the council change giving patterns?

CZ: Pre-Vatican II, both Catholics and Protestants were at about 2 percent. Post-Vatican II, people would look at their parishes and say, “Vatican II is telling us all this stuff about the way the church should be, but my parish isn’t like that.” It woke a lot of people up, and they got angry and reduced giving. That’s my interpretation.

Father Andrew Greeley’s interpretation was that Catholics became angry with the hierarchy over sexual ethics issues—birth control, divorce and remarriage, things like that. Whatever it was, something happened in the 1960s for Catholics that didn’t happen for Protestants.

 

TCNW: Have you seen a movement towards stewardship among Catholics?

CZ: Almost every diocese has recognized the importance of stewardship. Some still see it as a fundraising tool, but more have realized that this is want the church is all about, this is what we should be doing even if we had more money than we could ever spend: teach people how to deal with possessions, what’s important in their lives, that we all have a role of fulfilling God’s will on earth.