FAYETTEVILLE — Some parishioners at St. Joseph Church got a pleasant surprise this year when they received their annual donation information for the past year.
Father Bradley Barber, in the happy situation of having seen the Fayetteville church’s last outstanding loan paid off, relieved everyone who still owed pledge money of further obligation for the Loan Payoff Campaign.
Father Barber explained in a “state of the parish” letter mailed to parishioners that the monthly “loan payoff” envelope was being replaced with one labeled “building fund.”
“For those of you who had a balance due on your Loan Payoff pledge, this may cause some confusion, which I will eliminate now by ERASING the balance of your pledge,” he wrote. “Besides, it will keep me from having to sign the dreaded “past due” letters!”
Paul Warren, business manager for the parish, explained that the Loan Payoff Campaign was a three-year effort to raise $800,000, the amount needed to cover budget overruns from when the church moved to a new building. Both the church and school moved further to the city’s eastern edge in 2001. The new building was budgeted at $5.1 million and final costs totaled about $5.2 million, Warren said.
The parish launched a campaign in January 2005 to pay off the difference. Since October, the building has been entirely debt-free, Warren added.
Warren estimated more than 600 people contributed to the debt-relief fund during the campaign — 428 of those people are still active in the parish. He said about 154 people still owed something — at least $1 — on their original pledges.
Noel Nieto, a member of the parish finance council, thinks parishioners are responding to their new priest.
Weekly donations weren’t covering the church’s operating expenses when Father Barber came to St. Joseph late last June, Nieto said. The pastor made it clear that no new capital projects would begin until the parish could cover operating expenses — something he also addressed in the state of the parish letter.
“Our operating budget — tied directly to our weekend collections — concerned me. I thought, how can we construct another building whatever it may be — with its corresponding overhead and upkeep, when it did not seem to me we were doing well with what we currently have? For I, as you, read the weekly bulletin and noted the increasing weekly budget shortfall. I wondered why our loving God would give this faith community a new building and meaningful ministries and not provide the blessings to support it through stewardship.”
Nieto said parishioners have responded.
“I would say, since Father’s come … giving’s up considerably. It seems the parish is responding to Father’s leadership.”
Warren said at least 14 people who still owed on the loan repayment campaign have continued to make contributions. Those donations are seed money for the next campaign, and, perhaps not coincidentally, the new committee that will spearhead the project, met for the first time last week.
The church shares a building with the school at its current location. When the building was constructed, it was hoped that, eventually, another building would be built to house the church. That project is probably still a bit further down the road, Warren indicated.
The next project will likely be for administrative offices — a short-term campaign of about three years should cover it, Warren said, and then a campaign for a new church would begin.
The parish currently has 1,480 registered families, but Warren said active parishioners probably number around 3,500 people or about 1,150 families.
