In new book, authors share recipe for stewardship success

A new book about stewardship scheduled to be out next month is penned by local authors.

The book, “Making Stewardship A Way of Life” ($34.95), is a collaborative effort by Father Andrew Kemberling, V.F., pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Centennial, and Mila Glodava, the parish’s director of stewardship and communications.

Published by Our Sunday Visitor, a Catholic publishing company, the book is being touted as the ultimate stewardship guide. It strives to inspire people to make more time for God in prayer and worship; to give of their talent, time and treasure; to promote vocations and to preserve the earth for this generation and the next.

Father Kemberling, who calls himself a “stewardship priest,” said the potential for stewardship is enormous. He has seen firsthand how it works and wants to share it with as many parishes as possible.

“Stewardship is a method of evangelization,” he stressed. “Evangelization of the world we live in. It’s a very materialistic world and, through stewardship, we bring about this evangelization and its consequence—holiness of the laity.”

When Father Kemberling became pastor at St. Thomas More nine years ago he brought a deeper spirituality to the stewardship already working rather well in the parish. He’s quick to say however, that the idea was not of his own invention.

“The National Council of Catholic Bishops (now the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) put out a document (in 1992) called ‘Go and Make Disciples,’ which is a national strategy for evangelization in the United States,” he said. “It was the bishops’ plan to show parishes how to set up goals and objectives. It gave you three main goals: share our faith, invite all people and foster Gospel values.”

Glodava, along with Father Kemberling, began to do a series of workshops on stewardship not only locally, but around the world.

“In 2002 we gave a workshop in the Philippines which was met with great success,” she said. “Soon we were getting calls from all over, asking about our workshops. There were so many we couldn’t possibly have gone to all to make a presentation so the idea for a book seemed the right choice.”

Using materials they had distributed in workshops, the compiling of the book began. The authors were pleased that Our Sunday Visitor not only expressed interest in their book, but also offered to publish it.

Father Kemberling said that while the book certainly didn’t write itself, much of the material fell into place because of the wealth of material they had used in lectures and workshops.

“A lot of our material began as simple handouts,” he said. “Eventually we brought it together in booklet form. When Mila and I begin compiling (the book), much of the material we’d already organized into those booklets.”

The basic premise of the book is: stewardship works. According to Glodava, it’ll work for any parish.

“It doesn’t matter how big a parish is, or how much money it might have,” she said. “’Making Stewardship A Way of Life’ is a plan that can work anywhere. All people have to do is turn the page, read and follow. It’s a recipe for success for the parish.”

“Making Stewardship a Way of Life” is scheduled to be available by Nov. 1, but advance copies can be ordered online at a discount. The book can be ordered online at www.barnesandnoble.com or www.amazon.com, or directly from Our Sunday Visitor by calling 1-800-498-6709. Once published, it will be available in bookstores, including the gift shop at St. Thomas More Parish.

Father Kemberling said he hopes the book helps people deepen their faith and live it in a concrete manner.

“I want people to go through a personal conversion where they grow in holiness,” he said. “That’s the ultimate goal, one that’s achieved by stewardship. It’s a spirituality that you apply to your life, to the way you live and how you operate in the world.”

--John Gleason
Reprinted with permission from the Denver Catholic Catholic Register, Oct. 14, 2009