It's not "show me the money". (editors' note).

Good cooks know the slow simmer is their secret weapon. Let that sauce bubble for another hour, while the flavors reach their peak. Don't rush that soup pot off the stove. Editors, too, know that articles can simmer for a long, long time.

In June of 2001, while visiting the French Quarter of New Orleans, I picked up some Mardi Gras beads for my daughter and, for my son, an antique dollar minted in New Orleans. ("Back when we had a mint, before the feds decided to punish the South by closing it," sniffed the clerk in the coin shop.) I also picked up a lot of good ideas: U.S. CATHOLIC had sent me to the first-ever Pastoral Summit, a New Orleans gathering of Catholic and Protestant folks representing 600 excellent parishes across the country.

With the help of a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Paul Wilkes of the University of North Carolina had spent months combing the country identifying 300 excellent Catholic parishes and 300 excellent Protestant congregations. The New Orleans conference showcased the best practices of these standout local churches.

The Pastoral Summit offered an epiphany among conferences. Rather than being dominated by church officials, grassroots Catholics and Protestants from Seattle and Boston and Lone Wolf, Oklahoma spoke straight with one another about parish problems and solutions, successes and failures. What works, and why? What doesn't ? And what can we at St. Hedwig's and St. Gertrude's actually do about it?

At the summit, Msgr. Thomas McGread of Wichita, Kansas spoke on stewardship, which in his charming Irish lilt came out sounding more like "sterdship." McGread's "sterdship," it turned out, differed in other ways as well. His former parish in Wichita (not in an especially wealthy area) collected enough money weekly to offer a Catholic-school education free of charge to any child in the parish. And his brand of "sterdship" centers around a true spiritual conversion. McGread said things like, "You might hardly mention money for the first year." Amazing: a stewardship program that is not about the money. And yet the money follows.

Can it be? See for yourself in our cover story (pages 12-17), in which Bob Zyskowski highlights two parishes that succeed at McGread's brand of true stewardship--not just collecting money.

By the way, if you're in an excellent parish, or if you're struggling to bring excellence to your pretty good parish, consider going to one of the three Pastoral Summit gatherings planned for this year in San Antonio (April), Indianapolis (June), and Boston (October). (More info at www.pastoralsummit.org or at 910-962-7225.) The summits offer a rare opportunity to learn from the best and to share your own practical wisdom.