RE-THINKING STEWARDSHIP AND CHURCH FUND-RAISING

It's the season of two or three hundred thousand stewardship campaigns in churches across the USA.   We do very expensive church in the USA, and fall is the usual season where we rally the saints to foot the bills for another year.  Here are seven key thoughts for those of us who lead judicatories and long to see financially sustainable ministries within our denominational tribe:

1. Never run a stewardship campaign in a crisis situation. I live in Washington DC, and (as of this writing) the government was still closed and a lot of people were very anxious about mounting VISA bills and mortgage balances.  It would be ridiculous to run a stewardship campaign anywhere near Washington DC or Estes Park, Colorado, or in any community that is suffering economically during a government shut down.  And if they were to go over the cliff next year, most stewardship campaigns are OFF.  We can cut our costs and hunker down for a recession, but we simply cannot conduct stewardship campaigns with today's people during an economic crisis without losing credibility.

2. Spring is often a better time anyway.  If any of your churches were worried about a fall campaign, ask them to imagine how much easier it will be after Obamacare is implemented, the government has made its compromises, 2014 salaries are known and Christmas bills are nearly paid off.  Spring 2014 could make a lot more sense than Fall 2013 for a good stewardship campaign.  When I served Gulf Breeze UMC, we switched to spring campaigns and our best estimate is that we did 7 percent better the first year than had we just stayed with fall.  (Church budgets can begin in April or in June.  Many pastors do not know that this is an option.  They simply set the pastor salary at last year's level in a UMC charge conference and raise it in the late winter or spring after the campaign.)

3. Online giving is the way to get money out of Millennial pockets.  There is no excuse for any church of any size not promoting online giving, including monthly pledging that debits them x amount each month.

4. Many of our new churches will meet their people benchmarks and lag behind on their financial benchmarks!  This is the emerging story in church planting!  You get to 200 average worship attendance in 1985 and the church is ready to pay its bills and buy a piece of land.  You get there in 2013 and land is out of the question, and even the bills are dicey.  So, I encourage all church planters and all pastors working with people under the age of 35 to get training and coaching in fund-raising. .  It is more than just stewardship.  It is about fund-raising, thinking broadly how to cultivate the funding streams to support ministry. Or plan to change the financial paradigm so that the per capita costs are much lower.  (I am part of a new church start with no payroll costs, just $500 a week for facilities.  This is very twenty-first century.)

SIDE NOTE - Epicenter Group is checking what kind of interest there is out there for fund-raising training that teaches congregational leaders to think multiple income streams in order to sustain a ministry financially.  Let me know if you or folks you know would be interested.  We are talking to a highly skilled trainer about doing several weeks of web-based training.

5. Tithing, percentage giving and Sacrifice have not gone out of vogue!  Invite people to an amazing vision of community and world impact and expect amazing faith response!  Don't sell your people short, regardless of generation!   (I still love Cokesbury UMC Pensacola's invitation to Tithe or Your Money Back for Three Months.  It helped them double their income a few years ago, and no one asked for money back.)

6. Herb Miller taught us a generation ago that it's better to teach stewardship commitment and focus on the joy of one's faith relationship with God than to simply pledge a church budget!  That is even more true now than it was in 1980!  This generation has no interest in sponsoring the church as institution (beyond the price point of monthly Rotary Club dues), but they do want to change the world and bless people in tangible ways!

7. Personal testimony is powerful.  Whether the testimony be related to adventures in letting go of money and trusting it to God or anything else related to the journey of faith, it is good to put ordinary people up front on a regular basis.  However, if you plan to do this for stewardship campaign season, then plan to do it year round.  Otherwise, the testimony becomes just a fund-raising scheme in the eyes of many.