Bridges: Toward the Inter-Parish Regional Community-- Deaneries, Clusters, Plural Parishes

This simple and direct program guides you through each step of the process, making stewardship an expressive and meaningful act for each parishioner. It is designed to motivate parishioners to increase both their Offertory gifts to the parish and their acts of Christian service to the wider community. The idea must be emphasized that they are accountable for the gifts God has given them and they have a responsibility to share those gifts with others.

Used successfully nationwide, this program focuses on any four-week period (with a fifth week for follow-up), and provides a Review Kit for the pastor and staff members, plus material to be sent to each parish household.

As priest and other shortages -- such as money -- increasingly force parishes to share resources, the need for understanding and planning increases. In Bridges Father Howes meets that need by examining this new "regionalism" as it occurs not only in the North American Church but in the civic and business sectors as well. With years of experience as a pastoral planner, he provides a theoretical and practical guide focusing on the process and policy of sharing resources between parishes and dioceses to aid the growth of regional churches.