Catholic Schools Week Supplement

Parish’s promotion of stewardship lifestyle aids school

In this file photo from 2003, Laura Williams, who continues to teach middle school religion at St. Barnabas School in Indianapolis, interacts with students. St. Barnabas Parish runs its school on the stewardship model, not charging tuition to parishioners who enroll their children there. (File photo by Brandon A. Evans)

By Sean Gallagher

To those who look at the world from the perspective of economics alone, it might be hard in the best of times to make a case for Catholic schools.

If that is true for Catholic schools that charge tuition, it is even more so for those that do not, relying instead on the stewardship of the members of the parish that sponsor it.

Add into the equation tough economic times like the United States is experiencing now, then such “stewardship schools” seem just flat out crazy.

Such is the so-called wisdom of the world.

But the people that make up St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis have embraced a different wisdom—the wisdom of faith.

For Lisa Taylor and many other members of St. Barnabas Parish, it isn’t just about having faith that God will provide the financial resources to meet the school’s bottom line.

It is about shaping one’s life according to the principles of Catholic stewardship: recognizing that all that one has is a gift from God and being generous with one’s time, talent and treasure in response to God’s gifts.

“It’s really about taking a leap of faith and realizing that this is the way that God wants us to live,” said Taylor, a mother of five children, four of whom are currently enrolled at St. Barnabas School.

Over the years, Taylor’s family has coped with her husband’s job loss and an income, once he found new employment, that didn’t increase that much as they went from having one to five children.

But having embraced stewardship as a way of life, for them, there’s no turning back. They are giving more financially to their parish and are also volunteering more in the parish school.

“Our economics didn’t change,” Taylor said. “It’s because God has allowed us to be able to do it. It’s not been easy. And it’s not been perfect. But I just feel like we are where God wants us to be.”

While stewardship as a way of life is the foundation for St. Barnabas Parish and its school of 630 students, there are definite guidelines that help parishioners who enroll children at the school to live that out. (Non-parishioners who enroll students at St. Barnabas pay tuition.)

They are expected to contribute financially to the parish. Five percent of a family’s annual gross income is suggested, but not required.

Weekly attendance at Sunday Mass is required, and a system is currently being established to monitor attendance.

And parents are expected to volunteer in the school.

When Debra Perkins began her ministry as St. Barnabas School’s principal seven years ago, she was a bit skeptical that running a school on the stewardship model was really possible.

“The idea that it really does have to be everybody working together to pay the bills, to make it work, was something that I had to see to believe,” she said. “ … It’s sort of that we cross our fingers and say a prayer. But, seven years down the road, we have to say that it works.”

For Father Randall Summers, St. Barnabas Parish’s administrator, it is certainly about prayer. But it is also about changing the hearts of more and more parishioners.

“We’re continually trying to convert hearts to that,” he said. “It’s not a buzzword. It really is important for everybody to give according to what has been given to them.

“If we were able to convert all of the hearts of the parishioners here at St. Barnabas, I think we would have more gifts and talents and money than we would ever need.”

(To learn more about St. Barnabas Parish, including its school, log on to www.saintbarnabasparish.org.) †