The mission of St. Mary Parish, located in Derby, Kansas, is to be Christ's presence on earth, furthering a just society. In 1882, St. Mary Parish started as a mission church with twelve families. Today there are 1,033 families in the parish as well as a private, tuition-free Catholic school for its young parishioners.

"Before implementing the Benevon Model," says parish administrator Andrea Eastman, "we had to come up with all these different ideas—a different marketing approach every year." St. Mary Parish is on its way to becoming a true stewardship parish, but they were lacking a system for building sustainable funding.

One day in early 2006, Father Wayne Schmid gave Eastman an article to read about the Benevon Model. They liked the article, looked at the Benevon Web site, and started the process. A team from St. Mary Parish attended a Benevon 101 Workshop in May of 2006 in Minneapolis. Since implementing the Benevon Model, the team at St. Mary Parish has had great financial success and has also had much more one-on-one contact with parishioners. The parish has also grown with more families and the Sunday offerings are up. The team has been able to eliminate a lot of their old fundraisers and the Benevon Model has provided them with the system, tools, and framework to make their programs sustainable.

The team at St. Mary Parish named their Point of Entry^® the "Faith in Action Tour," holding two per month at 8:00 a.m. when the children arrive to school. They refer to their Ask Event^™ as the "Annual Stewardship Renewal Luncheon." After twenty-nine Point of Entry Events and good one-on-one follow up, they put on their first Ask Event on April 15, 2007 (yes, tax day!). The theme was "From a Flame to a Blaze." The Ask Event video was very moving. The first line was "From a flame to a blaze: our faith is burning brightly, lighting the way to our future."

The Ask Event raised $5.5 million in gifts and pledges from 414 guests with 284 families joining their Multiple-Year Giving Society^™ ($1,000 or more a year for five years). The Multiple-Year Giving Society is called Benefactors of St. Mary Parish; the levels are $1,000: Faith, $10,000: Hope, and $25,000: Charity. Father Wayne gave a Leadership Gift of $100,000 over five years from his retirement fund. Eastman said, "He was trying to demonstrate both his support of the community and also show that if he can do it, others can do it as well." She also said that the parishioners enjoyed the event because it connected them to the powerful mission of St. Mary Parish while allowing them all to gather together.

A parish member donated the cost of the Ask Event video. The video had Christian music and images of parishioners, Father Wayne, and baptisms. It featured a range of parishioners, from a man who has been a parishioner since 1957 to young children who attend the school. The video included several emotional stories about parishioners, including a boy who beat cancer and was grateful to his fellow parishioners for their prayers and support to both him and his family. It also highlighted the excellence of the school in providing a faith-based education with strong academics. The video told the story of a current student who was bullied at her previous school and became extremely depressed. The school at St. Mary Parish has been her refuge, and her teachers say she has truly blossomed.

A parish member named Bonnie was the testimonial speaker at the Ask Event. She told her story about how her husband left her with five children to support. St. Mary Parish helped her get back on her feet. She is an active parishioner and has a newfound confidence and hope for the future. Father Wayne gave the Visionary Leader^™ Talk, and the pitch was delivered by a parishioner who had been a student at the school and is now on the Finance Council.

When asked about her experience working with Benevon senior coach, Sharon Ervine, Andrea Eastman says, "Coaching has made a tremendous difference." She adds that Ervine "can act as a moderator—a neutral party who can challenge us from our own frame of reference." Ervine helped the team at St. Mary Parish by being honest and helping them get the right words down in their writing. Father Wayne said conversations with Ervine "give me a direction and guidance."

When asked about what advice she has for other churches implementing the Benevon Model, Eastman said, "Don't be afraid of recognizing your donors and talking with them directly. And don't be afraid of putting a face to how your church community can make a difference in people's lives. I think we have a tendency to want to be very confidential, but if you just ask those people, they'll tell you if they don't want you to tell their story." She also said that it's important to emphasize your needs. "We're not afraid to tell people the specifics of what we need."

In September 2007, the team at St. Mary Parish attended a Benevon 201 Workshop in Chicago and also joined the Benevon Five-Year Sustainable Funding Program^™. They will continue building a blaze of faith as Christ's presence on earth.