In November of 1998, the Stewardship Committee was presented with a unique challenge. An anonymous parishioner donated $10,000 to the parish with the proviso that it be used as seed money to encourage the parishioners to follow the teaching of the Gospel of Matthew 25, 14:30, "The Parable of the Talents". The donor cited a similar project that had taken place at a Pennsylvania parish in 1993-94 with great success. The St. Agnes Stewardship Committee embraced the concept and decided to try it out among its members before launching the program for the whole parish. Each committee member accepted an envelope of cash, with amounts ranging from $10 to $60. The committee prayed for direction as to how we should live out the parable by combining the treasure received with our time and talents to return the fruits of our efforts at the end of nine months. The individual projects varied from a musical concert, making and selling Mother's Day corsages, stock market investments, sponsorship for losing weight ($ per pound), tutoring disadvantaged children, etc. From the original $850 distributed, $5,292 was returned. The lessons gained from this trial effort inspired the committee to roll out the project to the entire parish during the Annual Stewardship Renewal in November, 1999.
The renewal festivities that year had the theme "Come Share the Master's Joy". A total of $12,600 in varying amounts was distributed at all of the Masses that weekend. Committee members made ourselves available to parishioners for any questions or advice related to this major effort. Each week the committee wrote articles in the parish bulletin describing what parishioners were doing with their "Ventures in Stewardship" projects. Articles were also written in our monthly parish newsletter to sustain the interest of parishioners. Two Arts and Crafts Fairs were organized by the committee to provide a venue for parishioners to present their services or sell their projects. The response was overwhelmingly positive. School and CCD children had bake sales, sold handmade Christmas ornaments and CD's of their annual Christmas Pageant. Parishioners held garage sales, made and sold rosaries, raffled Pokemon cards, sold homemade bottled salad dressing, sponsored "Dessert of the Month" raffle, sponsored a local musical theater presentation as a fund-raiser, gave the money to charity, gave up Latte's and brought sack lunches to work and donated the money they would have otherwise spent to the parish.