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Outline Your Church Stewardship Road Map How to Avoid the One-Size-Fits-All Trap Joel Mikell & Bill McMillan 2
Table of Contents Introduction 4 Begin with an Assessment 5 Ensure Your Operational Giving Plan is Fully Functional 7 Utilize Special Giving to Respond to Specific Ministry Opportunity 10 Integrate Capital Giving into Your Ongoing Impact Strategy 12 Conclusion 15 Next Steps 16 About the Authors 17 Other Resources from RSI 18 3
Introduction As a leader, you understand the tension between your ministry vision and your financial capacity. You ve probably had several conversations about the limits put on your ministry by financial limitations. You know what it s like to not have the money available to do those things you feel God wants you to do. This leads to a difficult dilemma should you edit your vision to fit the budget or should you attempt to expand the financial base to fund the vision? If you re like most leaders, editing the vision is much easier than expanding the financial base. It doesn t have to be that way. With strategic planning and focused intentionality, you can expand your financial foundation and ministry capacity. When you have a road map, your ministry journey is more effective and enjoyable. Ministry should not be a series of disconnected events; it should be a journey with several wellplanned experiences along the way. Just as a traveler needs a map for his journey, you need a road map to ensure your ministry vision is achievable. It can t be achieved, however, if it isn t fully funded. Each road map should fit a specific church because there is no one-size-fits-all approach. An effective road map includes assessment, strategy, a plan, and implementation. 4
Begin with an Assessment You can t measure your progress until you determine where you are. Perspective will give you clarity, document your progress, and give you greater confidence in your decision making and direction. Gaining an accurate perspective can be one of the most difficult tasks for many leaders. Because you live in the midst of what you are trying to assess, you can often overlook some significant characteristics. It might be helpful to enlist the help of a ministry consultant to help guide your assessment process. There is a new conversation among church leaders when it comes to giving. For many, they feel alone in the questions they are asking: Why aren t people giving to the budget as they have in the past? Who should have access to financial data and who should not? What do I need to do today to overcome a dip in my church s giving? How can I adjust to the new realities of giving? You might feel alone in your questions, but the reality is you are not. There is a growing interest among church leaders to develop a more sustainable funding model that overcomes the roller coaster experience of cash flow, giving, and expenses. The most amazing thing about perspective, experience, and knowledge combined is the feeling of being empowered and ready to take the next step. Fear of what we don t know and what we do know can hold us back. It s difficult to look in the mirror and see the health of our ministry and the churches we lead. But those with the courage to do so will possess the ingredients for ministry advancement. You might plan to meet together with your staff to consider the following questions: Do you know what s holding you back in your ministry? Are you confident that you are leading a healthy church? When was the last time you conducted an exhaustive and comprehensive evaluation of your church? 5
When you have answers to these questions, you are ready to take a closer look at every area of ministry within your church. A thorough assessment will evaluate some or all of the following ministry areas: Staff and ministry organization Ministry planning Age group ministries and programs Leadership development Spiritual growth (discipleship) Worship services Music Effectiveness in your community Stewardship and care of facilities Attitude toward change Technology Assimilation Finances and giving Marketing and outreach Relevance Senior leadership effectiveness Team building All assessments begin with an identification of the standards or expectations against which the characteristics are evaluated. Establishing the assessment criteria is something church leadership teams should do in response to the church s vision and purpose statements. Stopping Points 1. What are five to 10 areas of your ministry that should be part of your assessment? 2. In each area, identify the criteria by which the assessment will be completed. 3. Who can you enlist to help you with the ministry assessment? 4. How will you respond to any negative assessments that result from this process? 6
Ensure Your Operational Giving Plan is Fully Functional Budget giving isn t sexy, but it affords churches and church leaders the ability to fund and sustain ministry. Churches can t effectively benefit from special or capital giving if leaders aren t consistently growing their financial baselines. An operational giving plan is how your church funds the budget. Countless hours are spent formulating budgets, but do you ever take the time to develop a giving plan? How will you motivate people to invest in the budget? How will you prepare to meet unbudgeted needs? Are you leading your church to develop an effective benevolence ministry? These are all questions that church leaders must address as they develop a church stewardship road map. The goal is to stay in the game long enough to make a lasting impact. Special giving and capital giving should create infusions of cash that create new thresholds of giving. As a church leader, you should have a clear understanding of the giving cycles of donors. An overview of giving patterns will help you identify peak giving seasons and those times when giving is below average. When you understand the cycle, you can develop a stewardship road map that accounts for the hills and valleys. Not focusing on operational giving health forces many church leaders to rely on crisis-motivated giving. What used to be reserved for ministry expansion now supports ministry implementation. Once again, this situation is avoidable if you understand giving and spending histories. What do we mean by fully functional? It means giving is providing the fuel needed to reach the goals established by the road map. It reflects a sense of intentionality and motivation as reflected in the church s approach to stewardship education. Stewardship road maps should provide for immediate needs and long-term projects. In addition, the road map should support missions causes, debt reduction, savings, insurance, and employee costs. A full evaluation of the giving trends in the church will help leaders determine the speed with which they can progress through the ministry plan. 7
Ensuring the full functionality of your giving plan requires a careful analysis of historical data. If your church doesn t track data, now is a great time to get started. There are a variety of online tools that will help you better understand your congregation s tendencies and its responsiveness to capital campaigns and other special giving opportunities. The key to developing a culture of generous people is vision. The leadership must communicate vision. Campus pastors must echo what the leaders say. The church must know where it is headed, why it is going there, and what is expected of those who become a part. The Bible is right where there is no vision, the people perish. This truth is magnified in the multisite church. Generosity is a byproduct of spiritual growth. The multisite strategy must be based on a desire to see people grow in their relationship with God. If the multisite approach is intended only to increase the worship attendance numbers, spiritual growth will be a challenge and, subsequently, developing a generous congregation will be impossible. Campuses can recreate their attitude toward giving through intentional discipleship. When people are taught the biblical truth about generosity, many of them will respond favorably. However, when made to feel as if they owe the church, they will push back. Cultivating a culture of generosity is a challenge for the single location or multisite church. The key is developing a system that encourages them to give as God calls them give. And once they experience the joy and blessings that come from giving, they ll give generously and consistently, with others following their lead. Funding your annual campaign is critical to bringing vision to reality. With a renewed passion and effort, your annual campaign can become a catalyst for local church ministry and a launching pad toward sustainable ministry funding year after year. Vision is nothing more than a list of possibilities without proper funding. This is why the annual fund campaign is so important; it is not a box to be checked but an opportunity to invite your congregation to co-create and collaborate together on the next year of local church ministry. This is your way to evaluate the resources you have available and to share the excitement you have about the future of your church. 8
When people know the vision and needs of the church, they are much more likely to invest their time, talent, and resources. Try these 12 Tips for Better Annual Fund Campaign Results to motivate your congregation to invest their time, talents, and resources for an even greater Kingdom impact for the coming year and beyond. Stopping Points 1. How would you describe the stewardship habits of your congregation? 2. What are the biggest challenges facing people in their stewardship? 3. What are three things your church can do to help people grow in their giving? 4. If money were not an issue, what ministries would your church empower? 9
Utilize Special Giving to Respond to Specific Ministry Opportunity A strong foundation allows churches to respond to missions, disaster relief, community improvements, and more through specific, short-term giving opportunities. We are all fully aware of the many opportunities churches have to reach out to people during times of need or loss. Unfortunately, many churches miss out on a significant opportunity for ministry because they lack the funding to support their desire to help. Waiting until a disaster happens is too late. Your church can use special giving opportunities to prepare for emergencies and be among the first to respond if something happens. Tornado outbreaks, wildfires, floods, and power outages require immediate response. Many churches in rural communities have built storm shelters to help provide safe places that are opened when storms approach. Other churches have provided food, clothing, and housing in times of need. These issues touch people where they live and give your church a strong connection to your community. You can utilize special giving when you have a temporary project or initiative that is consistent with your vision. Anything that requires a short-term infusion of cash to accomplish can be included in a capital campaign. Any opportunity to reach into your community or the world is significant in the life of your congregation. These are prime opportunities to tell ongoing stories of life change and impact and connect operational giving to capital giving. Many people today say they don t support the church financially because they don t see how their donations are being used to serve the community. The best way to eliminate objections is action. When you lead your church to respond promptly to needs, those people who make the claim above will see that their reasoning is invalid. They will understand that their gifts position the church to combine its resources and meet real, relevant needs. When these stories are told, people will have a new appreciation for the ministries of the church and for their participation in those ministries. Talking about money in church can be tough for the person on the platform and the person in the crowd. But we can t expect people to grow in generosity if we don t talk about it. 10
In 10 Things People Want Before They Will Give to Your Church, you ll learn that most people aren t as resistant to giving to your church as you might think; they just need to hear some key things from you. By saying the things they need to hear before they will give to your church, you ll help cultivate a spirit of generosity that will unleash the giving capacity of your church and maximize your Kingdom impact. People aren t interested in funding your projects, but they are interested in investing in things that matter to them. This is where the real conversation around money should begin. Somewhere along the line, church leaders got the message that they shouldn t talk about money in church. And that s not okay. People want to give to organizations that are making a difference, but if you re not telling them how their money is changing lives through your ministry, they will give somewhere else. That s why we ve prepared this list of 25 fear-busting tips for you to talk about money in church with confidence and conviction. Our hope is that you find an idea that will help you ignite giving in your church so you can fund even more ministry, outreach, and life change than you can today. Stopping Points 1. What are some of the crises your church has responded to in the past? 2. How did you fund the responses? 3. What are some potential crises in your community or on your international radar? 4. Take some time to develop a working budget for meeting emergency needs over the next three years. 5. What steps do you need to take now to prepare a road map to meet unexpected needs as they arise? 11
Integrate Capital Giving into Your Ongoing Impact Strategy Every organization comes to a point when a substantial infusion of cash is necessary to accomplish mission-critical construction, campus launch and development, and long-term mission projects. It is an opportunity to create new baselines and ministry thresholds faster than otherwise possible. The conversation about ministry funding can feel like a maze of complexity. It s no wonder some churches simply give up trying to make sense of it and just hope for the best. But that s not you. You likely already have an important ministry goal in mind. You know what you want to accomplish, but you re not sure how you re going to get there this time around. It s possible you ve heard a variety of different approaches to raising money in church. Raising money for ministry isn t something new. And there has always been more than one way to do it. Two of the most popular approaches today are single-fund and multi-fund capital giving efforts. If you re trying to decide whether a single-fund or multi-fund campaign approach is right for your church, you ll want to read through One Vision, One Goal What Churches Need to Know About Single-Fund Campaigns. It s designed to give you the information you need in a no-nonsense Q&A format to help you decide which approach will ensure you fully fund your vision. No church is the same. In turn, no plan for ministry funding should be identical single-fund, multifund, or any combination of the two. One Vision, One Goal What Churches Need to Know About Single-Fund Campaigns will empower you to choose the approach that best fits the culture of your church so you can move toward the vision God has uniquely gifted and equipped you to accomplish. Most of the problems churches face are merely symptoms of a foundational issue spiritual vibrancy. Taking advantage of opportunities to raise the level of conversation about giving and financial issues opens the door to spiritual growth and development. If you don t combine capital giving with encouragement toward other types of giving, your progress will be temporary and giving will return to its previous normal state once the campaign is complete. The end of a capital campaign can catapult you toward the next stop on the road map or it can lead 12
to a collective sigh of relief from staff, volunteers, and the congregation. Capital campaigns open the door for conversations that are almost impossible at other times. How can you integrate capital campaigns into your ongoing impact strategy? As you look into the future, identify those events or seasons when you need increased funding. One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is failing to anticipate the resources needed for key initiatives. This puts an undue strain on operating resources and often leads to panic-driven responses by the leadership team. This is almost always avoidable. The key to effective implementation is thorough planning. Sometimes capital giving combines on-campus and off-campus beneficiaries. This might be a new approach for some, but it more accurately reflects the ministry rhythm of most churches. A healthy, sustainable financial environment strengthens the ongoing ministries and facilities of your church. You might need money for a new building or the renovation of existing facilities. There might be a ministry project that is outside the financial boundaries of the operating budget. There are additional beneficiaries of your church s financial vitality ministry partners in your community or around the world that you are helping fund. You might be assisting a crisis pregnancy center in your community or digging wells in a Third World country. By combining the beneficiaries into one consolidated campaign, people who are more likely to give to on-campus beneficiaries will have just cause to do so. The same is true about people who are passionate about mission causes outside the church. Leaders make a tragic mistake when they assume that everyone in the church is passionate about the same things the leaders are most passionate about. That s not true. When you guide your church toward an exclusive focus on a singular ministry effort, you run the risk of uninviting some people to participate. By understanding the dynamics within your congregation, you can be better informed and produce a road map that is fueled by their expressed interests and desire to be involved. There are multiple ways to implement a capital giving effort, and the approach should fit the needs, characteristics, and culture of the church. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. That s why it is so important that leaders know their congregations and lead by capitalizing on the inertia within the body. Everyone s been through a capital campaign. Some have been great experiences. Others not so much. And skeptics love to use any failure as a reason not to support the next proposed capital funds effort. 13
The good news is you don t have to make the same mistakes again. We ve outlined them for you in 11 Fatal Mistakes Churches Make During Capital Campaigns. This guide will help you identify potential pitfalls and navigate around them so you are best positioned to reach your ministry goals with energy, purpose, and momentum. Capital campaigns are an incredible opportunity to share vision and call people to greater levels of commitment and resolve. Anticipate and avoid these 11 Fatal Mistakes Churches Make During Capital Campaigns, and you ll be more likely to reach your financial goals, maximize your impact, and move people to deeper levels of engagement in Kingdom-focused ministry. Stopping Points 1. What are some on-campus initiatives that you need to fund in the next three to five years? 2. What are some off-campus initiatives that you are currently funding or plan to fund? 3. Describe the demographic makeup of the portion of your congregation that would be most likely to support each on-campus and off-campus initiative. 4. What strategies can you use to promote the initiatives to each segment of the demographic and to encourage them to participate financially? 14
Conclusion The needs of ministry have become more complex over time; therefore, the road map must be a multi-faceted approach that includes an accurate baseline, checkpoints, and clear destinations. Today s givers aren t motivated by the same things that motivated givers a few decades ago. There was a time when giving to the church was part of the fabric of our culture. In those days, the church was viewed as more relevant and vital than it is today. Today s givers want to use their financial resources in ways that connect with their motivations in life. When they understand how they can invest through your ministries, they will join you on the journey. Almost everyone appreciates honest communication. When you share your perception and vision, you are being honest with others about the present situation, the hope for the future, and the process for achieving the vision. Information is far more powerful than ambiguity. Information builds trust, cultivates an atmosphere of teamwork, and creates ambassadors who are glad to vocalize their excitement about the direction of the church. Your road map is critical to helping you stay the course and bring to life your God-breathed vision for your ministry. With a good map, you can be confident in the journey. Without the map, your journey will look more like a circle. 15
Next Steps 1. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. 2. Subscribe to our blog on rsistewardship.com 3. Sign up for our e-newsletter. 4. Call us at 1.800.527.6824. 5. Contact us to discuss your church s needs. 16
About the Authors Joel Mikell is president of RSI. With more than 25 years of local church ministry experience, he brings a passion for helping churches cast their vision to reach people for Christ, as only a pastor can. He has helped church leaders raise more than $400 million for kingdom projects and has had the privilege of working with some of the most well-known churches and church leaders across the country. Joel can be reached at joel.mikell@rsistewardship.com, Twitter ( @joelmikell ), or Facebook. Bill McMillan served for more than 20 years as both a pastor and a pastoral counselor before joining RSI. He currently serves as executive vice president. Bill has led thriving stewardship campaigns in churches of many sizes and denominations, raising millions of dollars for local ministry. He is an excellent communicator and project manager, whose consulting hallmarks lie in communications strategy and major gift development. Bill can be reached at bill.mcmillan@rsistewardship.com, Twitter ( @billmcmillanrsi ), or Facebook. 17
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