Raising money will ALWAYS cost you something
The reason so many church leaders walk away from raising money is that it comes at a high cost.
Raising money is going to cost you…
Time….it takes time to share your story and you never get the luxury of only sharing it only once and only through one medium.
Energy…it takes energy to discover what God is calling your church to do or become.
Effort…it takes effort to develop a strategy and define actionable items that create results.
People…it takes people encouraging others to get involved and there will always be someone who will leave your church using money as an excuse for his or her departure.
Money…it takes money to raise money and you might need to look outside your staff for guidance along the way.
Of course, the ability to fully fund your church and facilitate eternal life change and spiritual formation should be worth whatever it costs you along the way.
But if the cost just seems too high and appears to involve too much work, don’t do anything different. Nothing bad will happen immediately. Over time you will help direct money and people to other churches who are willing to incur the cost in exchange for seeing the evidence of life change.
Raising money will ALWAYS cost you something!
Build Community, Fund Ministry Series in Review
Over the last six weeks, 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 and I have discussed key ideas surrounding an emerging conversation that seeks to leverage technology to improve a church’s ability to “make disciples.”
This six part series represents a desire to quantify the assimilation and cultivation process within churches using whatever management system the church currently has in place to measure the behavior and actions of people.What people “say” matters little in comparison to what they “do.” It’s our job as church leaders to facilitate a series of spiritually transformative experiences that help them connect, grow, give, and serve.
Are you taking advantage of technology to improve, inform, and measure your church’s disciple-making process? If not, why? If you don’t, someone else will and chances are it will be an organization OTHER THAN the church. (It’s sad to think that those who lead organizations outside the church are more strategic about reaching our members than we are.)
I hope this series has challenged your thinking about the use of technology in your church and will lead to changes in your strategy to develop the time, talent, and treasure God intended to fund the Kingdom impact he has called your church to accomplish.
Listen or download the entire series.
Podcasts in this series:
1. Lifecycle of church membership
2. Connection creates community
3. Community facilitates interaction
4. Interaction leads to engagement
Build Community, Fund Ministry Series: Engagement fosters commitment
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 fifth (only one more to go!) conversation:
Focus: When someone makes an emotional connection, they begin to identify with the organization. I’m no longer visiting “that” church but “my” church. Ownership is key to long-term commitment which is the foundation of a sustainable ministry.
Key ideas:
1. Should a person have to be physically present to become a member?
2. What about serving? If people who volunteer are the most committed, how are you fostering volunteerism? Are you equipping people to serve “where they are” or in their strengths?
3. When does this become important indicator of commitment? How does involvement translate to first gifts and/or increased giving?
4. Frequency of interaction indicates the potential for commitment.
Listen or download the fifth podcast in this series.
Previous posts in this series:
1. Lifecycle of church membership
2. Connection creates community
Should your church start a business venture to increase cash flow?
The number of conversations I’m having with church leaders about their church possibly starting a business venture is increasing. Some are wanting to absorb a local nonprofit that is doing good work but can’t survive on its own. Some are looking to generate alternative revenue streams to supplement their regular cash contributions.
Whatever your reasoning is for exploring this option, Nonprofits and Business Ventures offers some good advice.
Of the seven points listed, the one – in my opinion – that should be listed at the top is list at #3:
Stay true to your mission. Make sure the for-profit activity fits with your primary mission. It will be easier to get the support of your board, volunteers and donors. Make sure that the business you choose is compatible with your mission and reflects your organization’s values. However, while keeping your mission in mind, do pick the best business idea for your organization. You do need to make money, so pick an activity that is likely to succeed.
It is absolutely essential that you are clear about what you’re doing and how it will help you accomplish your church’s core mission and purpose. That is the “contract” you have with those who financially give and faithfully volunteer to make the ministry of your church happen. You don’t want to do anything to dilute the intensity of that effort or distract from your primary purpose and function. Both could be disasterous to your ability to sustain your current ministry efforts.
It’s a viable option. Just be intentional and know what you’re doing. This is not one of those places where “winging it” is a good idea.
How you present your church matters
Perception is reality. PERIOD.
How people…your people…the ones who sit in your pews…perceive YOUR church…matters.
People gravitate toward things that they connect with emotionally.
What people connect with is what they are drawn to.
What draws them can become their source of inspiration.
What inspires thems shapes their passion and view of the world…and the role they play in it.
That passion drives their interest and willingness to get involved.
Being involved is critical to life transformation.
When we fund the minsitry of the church, we are empowering the Body of Christ to facilitate total life transformation.
Funding church isn’t about budgets and dollars but about extending an invitation to something BIGGER than our own lives.
How we present our church to the people in our pews every Sunday matters. The funding and people needed to accomplish the mission of the church depends upon it.
Think about this carefully.
Here is an example of how one church starts their service. How does your church compare?
Build Community, Fund Ministry Series: Connection creates community
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
Fundraising is not the “F” word
I really appreciate this statement from Marc A. Pitman.
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?
Build Community, Fund Ministry Series: Lifecycle of Church Membership
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 first conversation:
Lifecycle of Church Membership (with focus on assimilation)
Key ideas:
- Ben reviews the Acquisition-Assimilation-Retention-Attrition model from Church Giving Matters.
- Church membership is a process and mirrors personal relationships.
- There is great need for church leaders to manage assimilation proactively.
Listen or download the first podcast.
How important are the 30 seconds before you take an offering?
Below is a video from the Nashville Rescue Mission that does in 30 seconds what we should try to do every Sunday before we take the offering:
1. Humanize the organization. The Nashville Rescue Mission is an organization, but no one sees the organization in the video. Instead, they see the faces of real people that look like the people they work with, the children they see at the local playground, and the homeless they pass on the streets of their city.
Message: It’s about people.
2. Empower the individual. How does one person affect homelessness? One person can only do so much. But what if one person found another…and another…and started working together. Real change happens when people come together for a common purpose.
Message: I can’t do it alone, but we can do it together.
3. Invite to participate in the solution. People are drawn to organizations and causes that help them accomplish something they can’t do on their own. It does no good to leave people feeling bad about what they can’t change. Invite them to play a part in addressing the problem.
Message: We need you.
4. Give a call to action. The video told people what organization can facilitate this process and where they can go to get involved. Don’t leave the “teeth” out of the appeal. Don’t just make me feel something. Ask me to do something. Now. Not later.
Message: The opportunity to join us is right now.
All this was communicated in 30 seconds.
Don’t underestimate the impact the 30 seconds before you take an offering can have on church giving. It could, ultimately, mean the difference between a fully funded budget and an underfunded one.
