Christ the King Parish Greenmeadows started down the road of ‘Stewardship as a Way of Life’ 11 years ago, in 2005. Today, we are proud to say that we are well and truly ‘on our way’.
But it’s not because CTK is now a major Sunday collection earner among all the parishes in Metro Manila – we’ve been in the top tier ever since the Church was inaugurated in 1988 and collections have never flagged. And it’s not because we now have a huge army of volunteers – CTK has never lacked for people to join its ministries, mandated organizations and renewal movements ever since the mid-90s.
A parish is truly a ‘Stewardship Parish’ when the parish community, as a whole, recognizes that all they are and possess are gifts from God and therefore the community feels obligated by God’s generosity to ‘receive God’s gifts gratefully, cultivate them responsibly, share them lovingly in justice with others, and return them with increase to the Lord.’ A stewardship parish is a parish made up of believers who recognize that they own nothing, that they are simply caretakers, stewards, of all God has entrusted to them.
One of the hallmarks of a stewardship parish is hospitality. Hospitality means greeting and treating all who enter the door of the church, rectory, parish office, formation talk hall, or who call on the phone, with the love of Christ. Hospitality is not just the job of the ministers of hospitality or ushers. It is the obligation of every single person who worships, works or volunteers at the parish. We must be welcoming to all as Christ welcomed all.
We are each and all uniquely gifted by God in a variety of ways. Once we realize how generous God has been to us, we respond with gratitude by developing all our gifts to their full potential, using them well to serve others, and sharing them generously in proportion to what we have been given. A stewardship parish reflects the belief of its members that all is a gift from God and we must be good stewards of those gifts.
A stewardship parish, like the communities of the early church, is comprised of believers who proclaim the love of Christ throughout the week by their words and deeds, and who gather together on Sunday around the altar to break open the word of God, to receive Christ in the Eucharist and to offer a portion of the gifts they have received back to God in thanksgiving.
At CTK, many of our parishioners have been very blessed, in work, in career, in family, in health, in the circle of friends. These same parishioners believe in ‘giving back’. At Christ the King Parish Greenmeadows, stewardship is becoming a ‘way of life’.
