What does the Vicar for Evangelization, Discipleship, and Stewardship do?

Editor’s Note: This spring, when Bishop Carl A. Kemme announced 2025 priest assignments for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, Fr. John Jirak was appointed vicar general and moderator of the curia. In that position, he replaced Fr. David Lies, who was appointed vicar for priests. Meanwhile, Fr. C. Jarrod Lies was appointed vicar for evangelization, discipleship, and stewardship. To help its readers better understand what they do, the Catholic Advance is sitting down for a series of conversations with each vicar. To complete this series, we talk with Fr. C. Jarrod Lies.

What is a brief explanation of what the vicar for evangelization, discipleship, and stewardship does?

I represent the bishop in encouraging parish structures that will allow for greater success at implementing the Stewardship Way of Life and evangelization opportunities to be able to bring people into discipleship.

It’s a way to carry one another’s burdens, as St. Paul says, and to do so as a parish family in that context. Stewardship is to discipleship what works are to faith. So discipleship is our connection to the person of Jesus Christ, where we receive our primary identity and stewardship is the way in which we live out our identity as disciples of Jesus Christ. It’s the activity that we do as disciples on behalf of fellow Christians, and beyond that, the apostolate to the world.

Some may look at grouping evangelization, discipleship, and stewardship together and say that’s too huge. Why are they interwoven?

You evangelize to bring people to discipleship. Disciples then live life in stewardship. The succession of the three terms is intentional. Those all come together. But you are right, it is a huge scope for a single title, which is why I have humorously said that I’m the “vicar for the effective gospel.” 

What is the vicariate itself for? The answer is effective parish structures that allow for an invitation into the worship of God marked by participation in the life of the parish and the faithful witness to the world. Such structures allow pastors to engage in stewardship and evangelization, opportunities to bring people into lived experiences of Christ. And so it really is to help parishes form in themselves those processes and cultures that allow people to evangelize, to bring people to the faith, so that in the faith, they can share that faith with one another in love of God and neighbor.

You have been in the position only since July. Is there anything you want to mention with regard to new directions, initiatives, or themes?

I wouldn’t say it’s new, but one of my greatest concerns is rescuing the Stewardship Way of Life from seeming banal or monotonously repetitive. This is how some people look at filling out paperwork, which destroys the joy of what is actually happening.

You don’t want people to have a mental connotation in which stewardship renewal is much like filing their taxes?

Correct. Renewal is in fact a deeply spiritual discernment. It’s about how beautiful it is that God has created me and given me gifts that are made for loving and serving God and neighbor. I call it the “double dignity” of stewardship. It answers a core illness in our society. Many people today are lonely and isolated. Why is there a greater sense of depression and anxiety in the United States than in third-world countries without anywhere near our physical resources? Because the structures of our culture are leading to a type of psychological isolation in which people don’t feel as though they have something to offer, or they don’t feel as though anybody cares about them. Stewardship, at its core, answers both of those. You have something to offer, and other people need you. A double dignity: I have value – you have value.

Whenever you share your gifts with other people, you are telling them, “A) Hey, I notice you for who you are and, B) I want to be a part of your life.” Our Catholic culture really has to understand that stewardship cures the sense of loneliness by saying each person is gifted and other people need your gifts. Whenever you give yourself to others, people say to themselves, “I was noticed. I was cared for, and it was a gift of love.”

Someone may go into stewardship renewal thinking all they are doing is putting a little dot in the right bubble. No, you’re not, you’re looking at a list of different ways for you to be able to share your gifts, and saying these are the type of people who could use them. It’s a matter of asking “Who am I? What do people need? How can I help with that?” That’s a deeply spiritual discernment that is at the core of a joyful life. 

So that is one emphasis you want to bring in a new direction. Is there anything else you want to mention with regard to new directions, initiatives, or themes?

Yes. The second thing is anything I can do to help with the follow-up after everybody has turned in all the paperwork and the process is done. There’s another piece in reaching out to people and saying, “Thank you for your time. You put your name down, gave us your information and we really appreciate it. And here are some opportunities that go along with what you say you want to do.” Without follow-up, the entire system is dead.

Follow-up goes back to “We noticed you. We noticed that you turned in your work. We noticed that you have been involved and want to be involved.” Being noticed is powerful.

Being noticed has to be important in an epidemic of loneliness. The same is true of gaining a sense of meaning and mission.

Exactly. That’s why it’s a double dignity. “I have something to offer. You are worthy of sacrifice.”

Notice in that entire portion of our conversation, not once did I even come close to talking about Catholic schools or money.

True.

The instinct of stewardship is care for the family, which will include tithing, which then allows for other, bigger and bigger, things to happen, such as PSR, youth ministry, Catholic schools, whatever. It’s bad formation that puts stewardship next to money.

What are some things in your ministry up to this point that have prepared you for this position?

I entered high school in 1988. 1984 was the first year that stewardship went diocesan-wide. I was next door to St. Francis for the first 15-16 years of my life. My parents were having table discussions in our house in which people were talking about the Stewardship Way of Life and how what was being done at St. Francis could be done at our parish of Christ the King. I was there during the move from away from tuition to a tithing-based support model, so I have been around it my whole life. 

In the seventh or eighth grade, I won a Knights of Columbus vocations poster contest. The design was a cross and a halo in the center with the stations of the cross around that. The text said “He did this for you. What wouldn’t you do for him? Consider being a priest or a religious sister.” That was the instinct of stewardship. 

The God who gave us everything asks for a return given out of an attitude of gratitude. It’s the recognition that Christ, who died for us, can call us to respond. That’s why vocations are so strong in the Diocese of Wichita, because if he gave everything, then who am I not to give everything? It’s a simple step from 10% to everything. God gave all. The Father poured out everything in his Son and then endows us with the life of the Holy Spirit to be bound up in this great gift of life. As a kid making that poster, I had an instinct for that, and it turned into my life. 

After I was ordained, I was assigned to Our Lady of Lourdes in Pittsburg, which is a wonderful place that has everything. The campus had nursing homes and a Catholic hospital, Catholic cemetery and high school and grade school and a Catholic college campus center. Seeing the ebb and flow of parish life was incredibly exciting. 

Then I was assigned to Bishop Carroll, which immediately sent me into the theological and spiritual sides of it as I taught the kids. That was when the current definition of stewardship was developed with Bishop Jackels and Fr. John Lanzreth. Being at Bishop Carroll for eight years meant that I had to learn to say it, to teach it to kids. We put in structures such as service hours that allowed the kids to put in their own stewardship as acts of gratitude back to their pastors along with writing thank-you letters to their pastors and such. 

Then I was placed at St. John Parish in Clonmel. It didn’t have some stewardship structures, such as a paper renewal, that the bigger parishes have. But small parishes are intrinsically stewardship parishes. People just did what needed to be done, but I was able to bring the paperwork, lists, and renewal into that, and I started a Stewardship Council of parishioners. After starting there, I went into the stewardship parish of the United States of the World at St. Francis. 

I didn’t want to fail those parishioners, so I wrote my license thesis on stewardship to help me understand the entire scope of stewardship to the best of my ability. The whole point of that thesis was to make a single-source summary of all of our resources in the Diocese of Wichita. It was not about what I thought stewardship was, but what the diocese taught about stewardship. I applied that at St. Francis, and took the structures to another level. 

My entire formation, from youth to high school to personal to theological to pastoral, has led me to this point right now to be a spokesperson and an encourager of the Stewardship Way of Life and of the gospel of Jesus Christ for discipleship.

When it comes to temperament and personality, are there ways in which this work fits like a glove?

I have two sides that sometimes don’t necessarily fit together. I am a very public person. Whenever it comes to speaking and teaching and preaching, I have no problem being in front of people, and so I’m very expressive and I’m verbose. 

I have no idea what that’s like.

Right. God gave me words, and he gave me a way of speaking that can rouse people. I am very, very thankful for the beautiful gift of being a preacher and a teacher. 

At the same time, on the back end, I have a passion for organizing and synthesizing things, whether that’s physically cleaning places or the enjoyment I get out of taking many resources and making them into a single thing. My thesis is very much part of what I am doing. On my desk are three projects: A bunch of pieces of paper that say a bunch of stuff, all of it in a slightly different way. Let’s get it all on one piece of paper or space. I have a unified document on what the various parish councils are, and how they relate and how they’re different. That is going to help somebody a lot someday, hopefully in the very near future.

Are there aspects of the job that you expect to stretch you?

A large parish, and St. Francis is no different, stretches the pastor in many different ways and takes his attention in so many directions. As one priest once said, “It’s hard to change the plates.” You’re constantly changing plates in parish ministry. Some days I would go home, slump into a chair, and think “That day just happened like that.” It just happened like the radical nature of extremes that can be contraposed. 

Those plates, are we talking about metaphorically carrying a stack of dinner plates?

All the different issues, and you can go from a major issue to a minor one so fast it’s ridiculous. That forces you to keep your head on a swivel, constantly looking for the next thing. You’re always alert. There’s always an intensive alertness for whatever could come next, even on your day off or whenever you think you’re relaxing. That’s when something comes up, right? 

Moving out of that framework and into one with a more homogenous scope is better defined. 

I am not in pastoral ministry, but a vicariate that is supposed to be directed toward pastors in the Diocese of Wichita. It’s very clear as far as scope and outcomes and I am very thankful for the unified focus. My biggest concern is that the things we do here are relevant and actually move the needle for creating disciples inside a parish. The outcome is the worship of God. Whatever we do here should create structures by which God is worshipped and changes lives. 

I asked the other vicars about working alongside their brothers, and since one of them is your brother, the question applies to you too. What has it been like?

We are in the same apartment pod at the priest retirement center. It has been very nice. Being on the bishop’s leadership team means we have a lot more shared information, so our conversations are more fluid and open than before. Our skills, talents, and abilities are very different, but at the same time, we are good brothers, so it’s nice that we can ask how each other are doing. Having his wisdom and perspective to inform my first steps is very powerful.

I also asked the other vicars about their ‘Welcome to the NFL’ moments, which can pertain either to the priesthood in general or to the specific position.

Before July 1, the bishop asked me to start attending the Bishop’s Leadership Team meetings. The ‘Oh my gosh, I’m here’ moment, even before I was announced as vicar, was joining the bishop, (Vicar General) Fr. John Jirak, (Vicar for Priests) Fr. David Lies and (Diocesan Chancellor) Fr. Brian Nelson for an entire day of learning to be a team together. The conversation that came out of that was surprising, lovely, challenging, honest, and candid. I thought “This is real.”

Was team chemistry good?

Oh yeah, without a doubt. And without a doubt that has continued.

Anything else?

I want the diocese to know that the great gift of me being a full-time vicar is my radical availability to priests and parishes. Reach out to me for clarity, conversation, parish missions, retreats, town halls, parish visioning, or anything that has to do with leadership inside the parish. Use me. I am ready. The team in this office, with (Director of the Office of Leadership in Missionary Discipleship) Ryan Purcell and (Director of Stewardship) Audrey Ronnfeldt is great. Don’t hesitate to call us.