Develop your stewardship strategy
People enter every situation with preconceived notions. This is an educational fact. Sometimes, our preconceived notions are completely off base. There are other times when when we know exactly what to expect.
Skeptical people have their guns loaded and are looking for reasons to be more skeptical. When it comes to church, unengaged people expect to be made to feel guilty about not giving. We often play right into their hands by turning a sermon about Noah’s Ark into a challenge to give more. Our financial pleas are often forced and unnatural. We come across looking more like a poorly produced telethon than a church. And the skeptical grow more skeptical, perhaps even cynical...
Stewardship is an indicator of spiritual health
I’ve never met anyone in the context of the church who says that he or she doesn’t want to grow spiritually. But when asked what it means to be spiritually healthy, the responses vary. It’s obvious that most everyone wants to be spiritually healthy; we just can’t agree on what healthy looks like.
Spiritual health is an ambiguous term. It often is described in relationship to a previous spiritual condition. In other words, we determine our current health based on how healthy we have been in the past. The problem with that approach is that we become the standard by which spiritual health is judged. That’s not biblical. It’s not even healthy...
Increased attendance doesn’t translate into increased giving
You’ve probably seen this diagram used in conjunction with a variety of ministry conversations. I’d love to give credit to its originator, but it has been so widely circulated that I’m not sure who that person is. I can do little other than acknowledge the fact that I borrowed it.
The challengefor most churches is moving people from the outer circles to the inner circles of this diagram. This is true when it comes to involvement and it’s also true in the area of giving...
Asking “why?” in church…especially about giving
You might have been raised in a family where asking why wasn’t allowed. You could have been raised in a family where asking why was a part of the routine. The fact is that asking why is a part of our culture. We ask that question all the time from a variety of organizations, causes, and leaders.
One of the few places we ask why is church. We seem to have some kind of aversion to questioning things of God or anything connected to things of God. I’m not sure where that idea originated, but it is causing problems for the modern church.
Today’s empowered donor doesn’t mind asking why...
Maximize your budget dollars for ministry
USA Today reports that soon customers in half of the United States will no longer receive phone book deliveries. That’s not surprising. Many people rely solely on online information making the phone book obsolete. There are a few things around our churches that should go the way of the phone book. Almost every piece of paper represents an expense that could be eliminated.
Balancing the church budget is a lot like balancing any other budget. There are two sides of the equation—income and expenses. Most churches focus primarily on the income side and go to great lengths to get more people to give and the people who give to give more....
The Stewardship of Consumer Confidence
We often hear news reports about the status of consumer confidence. Basically, this is a report about the willingness of people to spend money. The more confidence people have in the economy, the more willing people are to spend or invest.
If people give to your church based on their confidence in your church's ability to manage resources, how likely are they to give? What is their level of church confidence? Do they trust that your church is being efficient, conservative, and responsible? These are big questions for the postmodern church.
Let's be real honest...
Overcoming the summer giving slump
Most churches anticipate a decrease in attendance and, subsequently, giving during the summer months. This is a relatively new phenomenon. It suggests a few things about today’s givers.
First, most giving is from discretionary funds. This makes sense because givers hold back when vacation time comes. They also hold back when they have to pay for childcare rather than sending their kids to school. It’s almost as if they want to give and will give as long as there is money left over. The problem is that there isn’t much money left over during the summer months....
Change the climate of giving in your church
We all probably agree that the climate—when it comes to giving—in most churches is unfavorable at best. We haven’t done a good job of raising faithful givers. We have celebrated attendance so much that most people believe they’ve met the expectations.
Some churches are having great success by challenging new members to sign financial commitment cards as a part of the membership process. Some go as far as to send “bills” when people fall behind their pledged amount. We aren’t arguing the validity of these strategies; we are simply pointing out the efforts being made by some churches to change the climate of giving in their church....
Discipleship key to overcoming poor giving habits
We underestimate the resistance when we attempt to hold people accountable to the church for management of their personal resources. Keep in mind, the people who really want to give are giving. The others are consumers, and consumers resist being held accountable to businesses. They have a different attitude. They often think, “You should be glad I’m in your store. You are accountable to me, or I’ll shop somewhere else.” Marginal church-goers often carry the same attitude.
This is the very reason that the people who complain that you talk too much about money are, in fact, the people who aren’t giving at all....
A lot giving a little is still a lot
Everyone has a vast network of relationships. Most would agree that relationships are the fabric from which life is made. There are few things we do that don’t involve relationships. So, how do relationships and giving sync up? After all, isn’t giving a private matter?
Adults invest in things that matter to them. They invest their time, talents, and money based on...
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