Join Us at Our Volunteer Fair – Dec. 14 & 15

Dec 4, 2024

 

Make plans to attend our upcoming Volunteer Fair December 14 & 15 and explore the diverse range of ministries and volunteer opportunities available within our church and school communities!

Whether you’re a long-time member of the parish … a school family … or new to the Plattsmouth community … our Ministry Fair is a great way to meet people and learn about the many ways you can get involved AND help light the way to Christ!

  • Saturday, Dec. 14th – 5:00pm
    (following 4:00pm Mass)
    located in the St. John’s school gym)
  • Sunday, December 15th
    (following 8am and 10:30am Masses)
    -9:00am 10:00am & 11:30am -1:00pm
    located in the St. John’s school gym

We hope you can join us!

 

State of the Parish & School – 2023-24

Nov 16, 2024

“Lighting the Way to Christ; Living our lives through Stewardship”

As part of our strategi plan efforts, here is a snapshot of our stewardship efforts of 2023-24, organized into three categories: Prayer, Talent and Treasure.

Prayer  – By the Numbers

The first section of Prayer covers the last five fiscal years, from FY 20 to FY 24. Listed out are the numbers for baptisms, First Holy Communions, confirmations, weddings, funerals and new registrations in the parish.

As of today, we have 548 registered family units in the parish, for a total of 1,244 individual parishioners. There is also data regarding our Perpetual Adoration program, Bible studies, and OCIA (formerly RCIA).
Time and Talent – By The Numbers

We highlighted the different parish ministries and the many, many parishioners who donate so much of their time and talent to our church and school. Our parish would not be what it is without our generous volunteers. Thank you for giving of yourself and your talents for the church and school.


Stewardship of Treasure  – By the Numbers

The below graph shows our profit and loss for each fiscal year over the last 5 years. It includes our regular Sunday collections, total income for both the school and church, total expenses for the school and church, the net income, and the percentage of the weekly collections that are going back to St. John’s for support.

Our Diocese of Lincoln has created a goal for each parish supporting one or more schools (St. John the Baptist and Lourdes Central Catholic for us) to not be paying a subsidy for school support that is more than 80% of regular Sunday collections. Some parishes in our diocese have been over 100% of their weekly collections with school subsidy. That is obviously unsustainable. Thankfully, we are not in that situation. Over the last five years, we have stayed very close to that 80% goal, and that is a testament to your generous stewardship as well as fiscal responsibility from the school expense side. There has also been a net income every year for the last five fiscal years. Thank you for your consistent financial support to the church and school!

 


St. John the Baptist School Summary – By the Numbers

The above graph shows the income from St. John’s (tuition, fundraisers, endowment distributions, et al), the expenses from school (salaries, health and property insurance, utilities, etc.), and the assessment that we pay for our central Catholic high school towards Lourdes in Nebraska City. We are working toward, and making progress on, closing the gap between school income and expenses. We need to be able to both support our Catholic schools from the church side, with the help of the parents paying tuition, but at the same time, not break the back of the parish as a whole, as there are other ministries that we would also like to financially support now and in the future. The projects in our Strategic Plan have been developed to assist us with this task. It is important for us to continue to strongly support Catholic schools; they are an investment for the future of the Faith. On behalf of the parish children who benefit from your generosity, thank you for your dedication to Catholic education.


Parish Overview – By the Numbers

The below graph is the best news of all: the parish debt is coming down significantly! In June of 2020, the debt was more than a half a million dollars. Today it is less than $170,000! Parishioners and donors have been incredibly dedicated to seeing to it that our debt continues to decrease, and hopefully in a year or little more, the entire debt will be eliminated! Well done, Church of the Holy Spirit!


Contributions to Diocesan Giving Programs
These final graphs show our contributions in the last three years to the diocesan appeals for Charity and Stewardship in the Spring, and Bishop’s Appeal for Vocations in the Fall. The total pledges for CSA have decreased since 2022, and while the number of pledges has decreased for the BAV, the total amount collected and pledged so far is exceeding the totals from ’22 and ’23.

Thank you to our Parish and school community rep is moving in a positive direction.

 

Get Ready for OktoberFest 2024!

Sep 28, 2024

Join us for the 2nd annual OktoberFest this Saturday, October 5th, beginning at 5:00 p.m. at St. John the Baptist. This event will be a day of fun, excitement and entertainment and is open to the community. Admission into the festival is tree.

All proceeds from this event will directly support St. John the Baptist School.

Finding Happiness at the Fest

The festival includes attractions for the whole family:

  • Food Trucks – La Cabañita Taco Truck, Beyond BBQ, Hy-vee, The Weenie Wagon, plus the Knights of Columbus will be serving food too!
  • Plus, it wouldn’t be a festival without pretzels, pumpkin bars, Union Orchard Apple Cider Donuts, and so much more!
  • From ring toss, dunk tank, and bingo, to plinko and the cake walk, we have games for all ages.
  • New games and activities this year include Hammer Strike, Milk Jug Toss, Chicken in a Pot, Mechanical Pig Racing and Happy Paws Animal Rescue. Plus don’t miss out on face painting, the Pumpkin Patch, photo booths and all the fun inflatables.
  • Live Music by The Old Crustry Minstrels
  • Beer Garden for the 21 and older crowd – Open 5:00 p.m. to midnight, relax and take in the festival atmosphere under the stars. New this year is the VIP UNLIMITED BAR PACKAGE with limited beer stein.
  • Quilt Raffle – Tickets are $1 each or six tickets for $5. The drawing will be held at the festival.
  • Silent Auction – bid on fabulous items and experiences from some of Plattsmouth and Omaha’s best attractions.

Presale Tickets & VIP Discounts

Many ot our games and activities require tickets that you can purchase at the festival. Or, you can take advantage of EARLY ACCESS to tickets and our VIP UNLIMITED BAR Package. When you purchase your tickets for games and activities before October 4th, not only do you avoid busy lines at the festival, but you also receive 10% MORE tickets with your presale package!

Ticket packages can be purchased at the OktoberFest table in the commons after weekend Masses. Or, you can purchase tickets online and get even more bang for your buck!

To view list of attractions at the festival, or to purchase Presale Tickets and VIP Packages, click on this link.

Get Involved

Help make our annual fall festival a success! Volunteers are needed to help with set-up, to work games and activities during the event, as well as post-event take down.

To view volunteer shift opportunities or to sign-up to help at the festival, click on this link.

If you missed last year’s Fest, then you really missed out. To see what you missed, watch below. We hope to see you this Saturday, October 5th!

Cheers! 

Thank You to Our OktoberFest Event Sponsors 

 

Schedule Your Church Directory Picture

Sep 1, 2024

New Church Directory coming soon!

Our Parish is working with Universal Church Directories on updating our church directory … and we want you in it! Photographers will be at Church f the Holy Spirit on select dates in October and November, 


Schedule your family’s professional photography session! Several photography sessions are available in October and November. To view the available dates and times, or to schedule an appointment, CLICK HERE.

Everyone who is photographed will receive a complimentary 8 x 10 portrait, church directory and mobile app! Orders will be ready in time for Christmas! 

Appointments fill up quickly, so schedule yours TODAY! For more information, contact the church rectory at 402.296.3139 or Pat Vaughn at 402.980.9086.

 

Watch the Video from Our Strategic Planning Open Forum

Aug 5, 2024

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend one of our strategic planning Open Forums on July 28th & 29th. We appreciate the effort made to learn and ask questions about the future direction of our church and school. We received some good feedback from both the questions asked out loud, as well as the comment cards we collected. We will be reviewing these and adjusting the plan where applicable. To learn more about the Strategic Planning process, or to submit and idea or question, please click here.

In case you missed the Open Forum, you can watch a video recording of the meeting below. Just click on link below to begin watching.

Join Us for a Delicious Steak Dinner

Jul 22, 2024

Registration for the 2024 St. John the Baptist Golf Classic is full… but you can still join us for the banquet and steak dinner following the tournament on Saturday, August 3rd.