One of the great things about hosting a blog like Church Giving Matters is that I get a good excuse to hang out with really great people doing BIG things for the Kingdom. I’m so excited about this new series entitled “Build Community, Fund Ministry.” It is a first attempt to make the connection between the process of member assimilation and ministry funding.

To help, I have Lauren Hunter with ChurchTechToday.com, Steve Caton with Church Community Builder, and Tom Roepke a really innovative church leader who has experience in institutional fund development and currently serves in a local church setting. This is a six part series. Each Monday, I’ll post a new podcast capturing our discussion. I will also post a brief outline so that you can quickly preview what will be discussed.

I hope you are as blessed by this series as much as the four of us were in the process of creating it.

Here is the outline of our second conversation:

Key ideas:

1. Movement to an emphasis on large group participation only makes it easy for people to go unnoticed.

2. Measure more than who is coming in the door and who is leaving. The most undervalued and mismanaged aspects of church membership are assimilation and retention.

3. Leverage technology to make assimilation less intuitive and more systematic. Drive social media activity toward a measurable outcome.

Listen or download the second podcast in this series.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Lifecycle of Church Membership

Every church should have a social media strategy. Even if you’re not “there,” the person in the pew has already made social media a part of their lives. By not having a strategy, we are self-limiting our communication efforts. With so many nonprofits fighting for the mindshare and dollars of the person in our pew, the church simply can’t afford to ignore the ministry value of this platform.

I was reminded of it after a conversation that left me with an even greater sense of resolve and clarity about my role in helping churches fund ministry. It was also a reality check that there is an intentional effort by organizations outside the church to capture the dollar of the people who sit in our pews every Sunday morning.

Recently, I met with the leader of a very large Christian nonprofit. My intent was to get to know him as a partner in ministry to the community. Something unexpected happened during our conversation. The more he learned about what I do, the more visibly uncomfortable he became with the direction of our conversation.

He finally said what was on his mind. He was appaled at the idea that any church would actively engage with someone like me to improve giving in local churches. He believes that people give faithfully to churches already and don’t need encouragement to give more. As he unpacked his history as a preacher’s kid, I began to understand that some of his perspective was deeply rooted in bad experiences and faulty assumptions. I also observed the contrast in his belief that it was OK for his organization to ask those same pew sitters to financially underwrite his organization and cause.

I don’t believe in scarcity. I believe in multiplying dollars rather than arguing over how to split dollars. I also believe that whatever God has called us to do, He will also ensure we have to resources to accomplish the task. However, I don’t believe it’s given to us on a “silver platter.” Church leaders have to cultivate it.

This experience also reminded of a sobering reality that the church is competing for share of mind and share of dollar with many other organizations and causes. It’s the responsibility of the church leader to ensure a compelling case has been made so that the time, talent, and treasure God intended to fund the Kingdom is appropriately invested by the person in the pew.

What keeps me up at night is wondering how much money finds its way elsewhere because we, as leaders of His church, refuse to overcome our reluctance to talk about stewardship and generosity. Sometimes it just makes me sick to my stomach.

Reality check: The more we remain silent about the subject of money, the more we help fund someone else’s budget.

It’s “game on.” Are you ready?

Everything I know about social media I learned from this guy. Seriously!

I asked Bill why church leaders should attend this event even though it’s not directly tied to local church ministry. Here is what he said:

Boot camp is important because it’s going to equip and empower with a plan just for you. It’s not just an info session like some seminars.

My interest in social media and the interest of the clients I work with related to social media is NOT about looking “cool.” My clients are interested in a social media plan of action that will make a difference in their ability to increase giving capacity, multiply ministry opportunity, and maximize Kingdom impact.

Again, I learned EVERYTHING I know about social media from Bill Seaver.

If you can, I would suggest you make plans to attend. This event would be a great place to start learning how to communicate in ways that are already native to the people in your pews.

Before you can leverage social media to increase funding, you have to understand how it works.

1. Tithing tricks you don’t want your members to know about

2. 11 ways to turn year-end statements into dollars

3. How important are the 30 seconds before you take an offering?

4. Morning Star Church pastor talks about recent giving letter to congregation

5. 10 ways to ensure “no Sunday services” doesn’t break the church budget

6. 3 questions every church leader needs to ask when giving is down

7. Five ways to DECREASE giving in your church

8. The economy’s impact and I DON’T CARE!

9. Read this before your giving goes mobile

10. Individual charitable giving predictions for 2010

To help, I have Lauren Hunter with ChurchTechToday.com, Steve Caton with Church Community Builder, and Tom Roepke a really innovative church leader who has experience in institutional fund development and currently serves in a local church setting. This is a six part series. Each Monday, I’ll post a new podcast capturing our discussion. I will also post a brief outline so that you can quickly preview what will be discussed.

I hope you are as blessed by this series as much as the four of us were in the process of creating it.

Here is the outline of our first conversation:

Lifecycle of Church Membership (with focus on assimilation)

Key ideas:

1. Ben reviews the Acquisition-Assimilation-Retention-Attrition model from Church Giving Matters.
2. Church membership is a process and mirrors personal relationships.
3. There is great need for church leaders to manage assimilation proactively.

Listen or download the first podcast.

Here is the article as it appears in the February 2010 edition of the magazine.

The person is the pulpit can no longer demand money (as if that were ever true) from the person in the pew. The shift that has taken place in the larger charitable giving world has also influenced how the people who sit in our pews think about church giving.

What does this new reality look like? It’s no longer “church-centric.” (Hint: It’s not about you and your needs.) The new reality of church giving is “giver-centric.”

The best way to address this new reality is to begin seeing the person in the pew as an investor:

1. Investors possess the cash you need. You need them to fund the vision God has given you.

2. Investors have a right to know how their money is being spent.

3. Investors deserve to receive a regular report outlining the impact or “ministry ROI” achieved with their investment.

4. Investors have the right to say “no,” “not now,” “let’s talk about it” and be listened to.

5. Investors should be allowed to participate in the discussion of how the money will be used by the organization.

Are you prepared to meet the demands of the new, empowered person in the pew who possess the leadership and funding you need to accomplish the vision God has placed on your heart for your church? If not, it’s going to be difficult ride.

Those who find a way to incorporate the changing landscape of church giving into their communication strategy and organizational process will find an endless source of resources available to DO MORE MINISTRY.