The Passionate Steward: Recovering Christian Stewardship from Secular Fundraising

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Summary: The Passionate Steward
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The Church is at a crossroads.

In the United States faith-based charities are being closed as donors shrink from giving money to a Church rocked by sexual abuse allegations. In Canada, lawsuits brought by victims of abuse in the Residential Schools administered by churches threaten to bankrupt the major Christian denominations. Collection plates come back half filled no matter how many times they are passed, and the quest to meet every Christian denomination's financial needs has hurled the Church headlong into the secular, high-pressure, big dollar business of fundraising.

The Passionate Steward: Recovering Christian Stewardship from Secular Fundraising is a surprisingly frank, honest and insightful critique of how the Church's pursuit of financial stability through secular fundraising practices is leaving both the clergy and the faithful feeling alienated from what should be a bastion of morality, values and ethics. As the author makes clear, the problem is not a new one for the Church.

In our ever more impersonal society, when people look to the Church for a sense of community, they are being met instead with the same practices and segmentation they find repugnant in secular society: telemarketing, relentless direct mail solicitations, targeted invitations to big-ticket dinners, golf tournaments, and competition for gift recognition. Theological schools don't teach clergy how to raise or administer money. Laypersons don't always match their practical knowledge and experience with theology and religion. What has been lost is the Christian community's sense of personal stewardship and responsibility for the ministry and financial stability of their Church.

Not only does the author illuminate the historic, causal roots of this problem, but he provides insight, experience and guidance to assist in solving it. If the Church is to be relevant to society as an institution, and provide significant religious leadership to its members, it will need to give witness to its fundamental principles through its service to the poor, underprivileged and powerless. To do this, it must recover stewardship from secular fundraising, and teach every Christian to embody The Passionate Steward.

As a person in ministry, I couldn't recommend this book more highly. No Christian's library or congregation's stewardship or fundraising committee should be without this book.

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Summary: The Right Book for Priests and Pastors
Review: During the past decade there have been a glut of books that purport to teach good stewardship. Unfortunately, at their core is nothing but fundraising practices clothed in the robes of the Church, lacking in Biblical teaching, Church tradition, theological reasoning or even feasible to implement. In short, what has passed for professional stewardship literature amongst the clergy and lay leaders of the Church has given rise to more harm than good. Fewer givers and increasingly empty collection plates are a testament to the failure of these books and our inability to be critical of our own practices.

However, The Passionate Steward: Recovering Christian Stewardship from Secular Fundraising has the courage to challenge the comfortable (though incorrect) practices which we have clung to either out of fear of change or our lack of courage in believing the the private sector's values and practices are not superior to the moral and theological principles to which we supposedly profess as Christians. O'Hurley-Pitts has written a fine work based in superb research, useful data (easy to use in parish teaching) and his clear experience in parish ministry - departing from the cast of "fundraiser" and achieving the call as "minister" where he is clearly called. This author is one of the few who truly understand stewardship as more than giving money - and describes it as what we are called to be as baptized members of the Church.

Whatever command of stewardship I thought I had (and I had much), paled in comparison to the teaching, exploration, command and encouragement the author lays out in an easy to understand, yet compelling and challenging manner. I have purchased this book for each memeber of my congregation's leadership team. If it changes their thoughts and hearts half as much as The Passionate Steward has changed mine I will no longer carry the sole burden for teaching good stewardship to my flock!

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Summary: For the churches to control their own financial destiny
Review: Edited by The Reverend Canon M. Ansley Tucker and enhanced with a Foreward by Archbishop Edward W. Scott, The Passionate Steward: Recovering Christian Stewardship From Secular Fundraising by Michael O'Hurley-Pitts is a clarion warning against the modern-day trend of Christian churches to fall in too easily with secular fundraising efforts, a weakness that has the potential to erode the purpose and theological mission of the church itself. Persuasively advocating "passionate stewardship" as a means for the churches to control their own financial destiny, The Passionate Steward offers a profound and thought-provoking message that is not to be ignored by either the clergy or the congregation.

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Summary: Indispensably Honest and Challenging
Review: Few books have been honest enough to challenge the conventional wisdom that we have embraced in the name of raising money for ministry. The Passionate Steward does exactly that in a concise and forthright manner, and goes even further, treating the gift of time and talent as equally essential to Christian stewardship. The use of reliable sources and the true depth of the book marks it as far above what passes for the run-of-the-mill stewardship or fundraising works now in print. Before you read a "how to" book - read a "why" to book faithful to our biblical and traditional values and gives practical advise for implementation as well.

O'Hurley-Pitts' fine book, full of gravitas for people in ministry today, is pleasingly easily read, clear and inviting. There are few books on the practice of ministry that will reach this level of excellence or relevence for any Church and for the development of the faithful's wholistic understanding that our lives as stewards is intrinsically part of our vocation as Christians! Whether a minister or member of the laity, or a person involved in charitable work at the volunteer or professional level, this book can change your life and therefore the Church's by helping us better explore how secular fundraising has deprived us all of our more worthy Christian and philanthropic values of generosity and caring.

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Summary: Finally - Someone Understands the Church!
Review: In all of my years in ministry I have rarely spoken to people who equally understand the financial needs of the Church being matched with the moral and theological imperatives that accompany our faith. Michael O'Hurley-Pitts' well titled The Passionate Steward - Recovering Christian Stewardship from Secular Fundraising demonstrates that at last - Somone understands the Church.

The illustrations of individual philanthropic givings, useful graphs, charts and easy to read text makes what might otherwise be a boring but necessary read a true joy. The first three chapters layout in a clear, concise and provocative manner the problem, the next few chapters provide an analysis that is compelling and chapters 8-15 provide readers with pastorally sensitive, theologically sound and financially prudent ways to go about solving the financial crisis all Churches face.

Not only is this a fine book for people in ministry, but I have decided to recommend it to friends as the potential for personal growth, reflection and information is unlimited. This has quickly become my new "gotta have" book.

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Summary: A Timely Book for Parishes of All Sizes
Review: In the Passionate Steward, Michael O'Hurley-Pitts delivers a succinct guide to parish stewardship, applicable to Catholic and Protestant denominations, which brings to focus to where it should have been all along - giving as a vocation and not a transaction. Giving of time and money to one's church, the author argues, should not have to be provoked by offers of trinkets and goodies. This book offers definitions of stewardship and suggestions for parishes on how to improve giving without having to resort to means which stray from the Gospel message.

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Summary: Please don't just stop there.
Review: O'Hurley-Pitts did a wonderful job in his book "The Passionate Steward". Our church has taken this path for the past five years in focusing on the spiritual meaning of stewardship instead on the budget. As a result, each year our pledges increased by double digits. Two years ago, we hired a volunteer ministry director and mission coordinator to formalize our volunteer efforts. We still have a long way to go as a main-line church to bring God closer to our everyday life. But we are getting there!

I'd encourage Michael not to stop there and help us dig deeper into the spirituality of stewardship.

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Summary: The Heart of Stewardship
Review: The Passionate Steward is an insightful, well-researched resource for anyone interested in the theological and spiritual principles of stewardship in general and as it should inform the Church's fund-raising activities. O'Hurley-Pitts demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the topic and challenges the reader to reshape and revision current understandings and practices. He gets to the heart of what stewardship is truly about as he presents a holistic vision of Christian stewardship. I give this book to stewardship leaders in our Diocese and recommend it to anyone who is serious about discipleship and the life and mission of the Church. -Robert Cammarata Office of Parish Stewardship - Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, NY

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Summary: A More Excellent Way
Review: There are few books which can make a well-read, highly educated and experienced Church leader stop and reconsider so much of what they have accepted and embraced in the past. This is one of those iconic and timeless books.

O'Hurley-Pitts writes in uniquely clear, compelling and persuasive manner. The Passionate Steward is suitable for individual reading; a parish training and education manual; professional guide; and academic text all at the same time and equally well. Written from years of experience and academic training, this book cuts through years of accepted practices driven by errant conventional wisdom and re-grounds stewardship in the reality of parish life, sound theological precepts and biblical tradition with a view towards the theology and spirituality of stewardship.

The Passionate Steward brakes the mold of books that are mere step-by-step "stewardship" guides and truly parses the issues that create impediments for both parish leaders and the faithful in embracing true Christian stewardship. Concise writing, easy to understand graphs and charts, historic comparisons and helpful critiques allow the reader to get to the heart of the issues. Significant reasearch, good footnoting and a brilliant index makes the book highly accessible.

Although a Roman Catholic, O'Hurley-Pitts' book has been selected by the Episcopal Book Club as one of their four 2003 selections. Promotional cover quotes from Evangelicals to Greek Orthodox religious leaders alike demonstrates that The Passionate Steward crosses all barriers and focuses on the essential truths of Christian stewardship.

The Passionate Steward is an essential tool for everyone in the practice of ministry, parish and diocesan leadership at a very inviting price.