Day of Reflection

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Day Of Reflection

Results of the Sacred Heart Parish “DAY OF REFLECTION” 2007

Dear Sacred Heart Parishioners,

On Saturday, January 13, 2007, Sacred Heart Parish held its annual “Day of Reflection”. The purpose of that day was to come together as a parish and determine the priorities which we (the parish) believe need to be worked on for the coming year. This year, a theme was selected that coincides with an up-coming mission that our parish will be participating in. Our theme was, “Stewardship a way of life”. The mission is entitled: “Advancing the mission capitol stewardship campaign”. The focus of this effort is to build a more fruitful church in a constantly changing world. Your parish’s executive committee gathered with those parishioners in attendance and asked questions about the main things that this mission is composed of, Prayer, Time /Talent, and Goals/Needs of the parish.

Questions were asked about each topic, the following information is results that were gathered:

In regards to Prayer,

We asked when you pray. We had many different answers, as prayer is a very personal thing and can be done any where any time. Some of the responses that were shared stated that we pray as we start each day with a prayer of gratitude, or while we are driving in our car, during our own special quiet time, prayer chains, thru music, during Mass, saying the Rosary, in journaling, and end of the day reflection. As you can see the options are endless.

We asked how you make your concerns open to God. The responses were, during Mass, or while praying for guidance or patience, or even in the form of emails.

How should we pray as a parish? Unanimously parishioners responded, “Together!” We should feel comfortable enough with each other that we can openly communicate our concerns and needs with each other. If you were to say thru music, you would have many others that would agree with you because “when you sing you are praying twice”! Adoration is another great time for special prayer. Watch for some special prayers in the Pulse and on the sign in front of church. The Stewardship Prayer will become a very familiar form of prayer to you as we participating in the Faith building opportunity of “Advancing the Mission”.

In regards to Time/Talent,

Part of Stewardship is utilizing the special talents God blessed each of us with. As God’s people, we need to share those talents with each other. By sharing those talents, we are thanking God for this gift and using them in Christian way. At the Day of Reflection, parishioners agreed that our parish needs to recruit more of the talents of our parishioners. In the up-coming months we will begin asking you to share your talents on topics that may be of interest to you. A list of the needs of this parish will be posted in church and announced in verbal and written forms. We would then ask you to give us feedback on these topics and how you may be able to use your talents to enhance them. We may contact you directly or through a survey. By working together, we can utilize our talents in the most effective way possible. Our goal would be to have as many parishioners as possible involved on a given topic so that it can be a successful and meaningful event. No, one person should have to do everything regarding an event, nor should the same people always have to do these things. We are very thankful to those who unconditionally share their time and talents already but by communicating better with each other, listening better to all your ideas, and furnishing a more timely feedback, we can, and will, be a much more vibrant an fruitful church.

In regards to Goals/Needs of the parish,

When we also polled the group of parishioners present at the Day of Reflection as to what exactly they felt are the needs and goals of Sacred Heart Parish, the responses varied from a broad and general statement that our overall goal should be to save souls, as well as assist individuals in strengthening their relationship with God, to more specific detailed suggestions such as promoting and enhancing youth involvement in our parish such as regularly scheduled children’s masses including youth greeters, readers and choir. A nursery area in our church was suggested, along with parenting classes.

The phrase “the need for good communication” seemed to surface quite frequently which is the key to all good outcomes. A suggestion was made of potentially having an individual serve as an organizational task director in our parish. This person would serve as a “go to” type of individual to funnel our needs to and through. Another way to increase good communication was via our Sacred Heart website which would need to be continually up-dated so that all persons within and outside of the parish seeking information could access in a more timely and convenient fashion.

For our parishioners who were unable to attend our Day of Reflection, we asked how we could get their feedback. The idea of utilizing a survey drop box was mentioned. Also a suggestion was offered that we utilize our retired parishioners to make personal phone contact with those not able to be present. In the up-coming year we will be updating our pictorial parish directory, as well as participating in the “Advancing the Mission campaign”, those present felt that both of these events would also be excellent opportunities to communicate with parish members.

And, how do we finance our goals? Prayer remains in the forefront. Prayer combined with our time and talent will produce our financial means. The suggestion of adding additional envelopes to our Sunday envelope supply which would be geared to special projects, i.e. boiler project, was also discussed.

We ask you to think about the results of our Day of Reflection, and pray that God guides our parish towards fulfilling our vision of building a more fruitful church in this constantly changing world.

Times are changing, and change can be challenging, but together, with God’s help, there is nothing we can not accomplish.

Sincerely,

Sacred Heart Executive Committee

Sacred Heart

Day of Reflection

Theme: Stewardship – A Way of Life

September 10, 2005

Attending: Walberto Colon, Mary Jo Ambrosius, Mark Anderson, Ron Henn, Randy Lorge, Fred Ponschok, James Daniel, Bob Dillenburg, Mary Ellen Waldvogel, Tom Berg, Pete Warmenhoven, Rita Simon, Patty Fuller, Geri Van De Loo, Jeannie Sadler, Maryann Gehr, Patty Rindt, Lois & Darlene Krescher, Lynn Braun, Lois Maczuzak, Beth McFarlane, and Rev Len Evers.

Opening prayer was lead by Fr. Len: Diocese of Green Bay, Parish Meeting Prayer for September.

Mission Statement was read by Fr. Len. He asked us to pray about it and keep that in mind as we go through the day.

Ground rules were solicited by Walberto. The group agreed upon the following:

Listen and stay on the issue

Respect others’ opinions

Keep an open mind

Time, stay on time for the day

Ice Breaker & Thinking Activity: Each person was partnered with their neighbor to discuss the question; “What is my blessing from the Parish?” We were asked to introduce ourselves to the partner, get to know some information about them, and find more about their blessing. We wrote our blessings on a piece of paper and posted them on the wall under a timeline beginning 2001 to 2007.

Phase II Mission & Goal: Rita Simon shared with the group three architectural drawings depicting Phase II. The estimated cost is 1.3 million dollars of which $122,000 is already pledged. We can begin the project once we receive 75% of the funding which equals approximately $975,000. There will be a power point presentation in the gathering space following all the masses. Items discussed were: handicap accessibility and seating arrangements, amount of money owed to the bank at this point in time, and ideas for ease of use of the facility by parish members.

Stewardship: Tom Donovan, a consultant on pastoral stewardship from the Green Bay Diocese, facilitated the rest of the Day of Reflection. He shared with the group the Theology of Stewarship not only as time, talent, and treasure, but also prayer, service, and sharing. He also shared a hand-out depicting “Seven Signs of a Stewardship Parish” explaining each aspect; hospitality, prayer, outreach, lay witness, stewardship committee, renewal, and accountability. Everyone was broken down into four groups, and started the rest of the day with a brainstorming session identifying what the parish would look like five years from now. After each group explained their areas that they identified, the entire group tried to group like responses together to eliminate duplicate ideas. We then identified the ideas that we felt were most needed by placing dots next to the topics. Each group was then given a topic to explain how that topic would be addressed by the statement, “We will . . . . . “ The groups then explained the rough outlines of how these topics might be achieved so as to have them become reality and part of our active parish. There was a recap of all the ideas and a challenge to continue to identify how “we will . . .” the rest of the topics.

We re-examined the day, and closed with the Stewardship Prayer.

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