{"id":14654,"date":"2007-07-12T11:51:39","date_gmt":"2007-07-12T11:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2007\/07\/12\/le-8l3-8l3090\/"},"modified":"2007-07-12T11:51:39","modified_gmt":"2007-07-12T11:51:39","slug":"le-8l3-8l3090","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/le-8l3-8l3090\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Generous Givers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nI <\/strong>never preach on giving or ask for money,”\nI once told a fellow pastor. “I just leave it up to the people.”<\/p>\n

\n“Do you teach your people to study the Bible?” he asked.<\/p>\n

\n“Of course,” I said.<\/p>\n

\n“Do you teach them to pray?”<\/p>\n

\n“Certainly.”<\/p>\n

\n“If you taught your people to give in a biblical manner, would they receive\nmore or less blessing from God?”<\/p>\n

\nI sat in silence. I realized I was hurting my people, not helping them. In\naddition, our church was in severe financial stress.<\/p>\n

\nWhen I went home, I committed myself to teach all of God’s Word, including\ngiving. In the years since, I have seen God work in our church in amazing\nways, and he has brought our people to new levels of maturity.<\/p>\n

\nHere are 12 principles I’ve learned about growing givers.<\/p>\n

A Full-Orbed Approach<\/h2>\n

Often church leaders work countless hours planning how to limit spending,\nbut they focus little attention on how to increase giving. We succeed where\nwe focus our time and energy.<\/p>\n

\n1. Plan ahead<\/strong>. To be effective, we must prepare for our resource\ndevelopment strategy as carefully as we do for our music program.<\/p>\n

\nThe biggest reason capital stewardship campaigns increase offerings by more\nthan 50 percent is not the new building, but the church’s thoughtful strategy.\nChurches can attain similar results every year without a building project.\nIn my first church, when I implemented a thorough plan, offerings increased\nby more than 20 percent in one year.<\/p>\n

\nA good plan includes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \na specific strategy to communicate positive stewardship all year long;<\/li>\n\n
  2. \nan annual stewardship emphasis;<\/li>\n\n
  3. \ninstruction on finances in new-members classes;<\/li>\n\n
  4. \ncontinual communication of a compassionate vision;<\/li>\n\n
  5. \nbiblical teaching on giving;<\/li>\n\n
  6. \npersonal testimonies;<\/li>\n\n
  7. \nan annual church-wide resource development emphasis;<\/li>\n\n
  8. \nannual commitment cards;<\/li>\n\n
  9. \nspecific giving projects;<\/li>\n\n
  10. \npractical help in how to fulfill commitments;<\/li>\n\n
  11. \nkeeping healthy relationships in the church.<\/li>\n\n<\/ol>\n

    \n2. Emphasize discipleship<\/strong>. God has supplied three resources necessary\nfor fruitful ministry: (a) human resources, (b) divine resources such as\nprayer, and (c) physical resources such as buildings and money. How we develop\neach of these determines the success of our ministries.<\/p>\n

    \nEffective resource development is not a money grab. It has a spiritual foundation\nthat makes discipleship its primary goal. The key to resource development\nis growth in people.<\/p>\n

    \n3. Bathe in prayer<\/strong>. Without prayer a financial program loses its spiritual\nfoundation. We begin our stewardship focus with a call to prayer. We hold\nspecial prayer times and conduct a 24-hour prayer service. When we pray,\nGod softens hearts, cleans up attitudes, changes lives, clarifies priorities,\nand opens checkbooks.<\/p>\n

    \n4. Identify specific goals<\/strong>. People don’t like to spend more unless\nthey get more. Therefore we wishlist new projects that increased giving will\nbuy. This builds ownership.<\/p>\n

    \nEarly in the budget process, we ask all leaders to make a wish list of new\nministries or purchases for their area. Our leadership team then determines\napproximate costs for each request and develops a priority wish list. Because\ndifferent things motivate different people, our wish list includes both staffing,\nsuch as adding a part-time children’s director, and property, like new video\nequipment.<\/p>\n

    \nWe do not allow people to designate their giving to these projects, though,\nbecause that would undermine giving to our general budget. Instead we say\nif our total offerings exceed the budget, we will undertake wish-list items.\nThen they know their increased giving will make a difference. Because people\ndon’t want to give to something as uneventful as the general fund, we changed\nits name to the ministry fund, which shows that its purpose is people oriented.<\/p>\n

    \n5. Get commitments. <\/strong>If I don’t get a specific commitment from people,\nmy Bible teaching has little effect. The first year we had a stewardship\nemphasis, I taught God’s financial principles for four straight weeks, and\nthen I sat back and waited for the offerings to go up. The line on our offering\ngraph remained horizontal. I couldn’t figure out what went wrong until I\ntalked about it with another pastor. “How much increase did the people indicate\non their commitment cards?” he asked.<\/p>\n

    \n“What commitment cards?” I replied.<\/p>\n

    \n“You have to help people clarify and cement their decision,” he said. “The\nonly way I know to do that is by having them write down their giving commitment\nfor the next year.”<\/p>\n

    \nThe following year I used commitment cards, and giving went up 20 percent.\nA similar result has followed commitment Sunday every year in the churches\nI have pastored.<\/p>\n

    \nI have learned several things about receiving financial commitments:<\/p>\n

    \nPrepare people<\/em>. Tell them weeks in advance about the coming commitment\nday. That helps prevent the feeling of pressure or manipulation.<\/p>\n

    \nAsk people to think in terms of their weekly giving rather than an annual\namount.<\/em> This helps them break it down into manageable amounts.<\/p>\n

    \nAsk them to specify their weekly increase<\/em>. We encourage people to\ngrow every year in every area of discipleship, including stewardship. A figure\nof $200 per week may sound generous, but if someone’s income has increased\nand they write zero on the increase line, he will realize his commitment\nis not a sacrifice of faith. Asking people to calculate the increase in their\ngiving encourages them to consider something more sacrificial.<\/p>\n

    \nAssure people their commitments will be kept confidential<\/em>. Promise\nthat no one will contact or pressure them if they are unable to meet their\ncommitment.<\/p>\n

    \n6. Involve more people<\/strong>. Seventy percent of offerings will come from\nthose who serve in the church. That means one of the best ways to increase\ngiving is to increase the number who serve. They are the ones who see the\nvision, develop a passion for greater ministry, and increase their giving\nto make it happen.<\/p>\n

    \nDuring our stewardship emphasis, we teach the stewardship of time and talents.\nWe conclude by asking everyone to fill out a ministry service commitment\nfor the coming year. We help those who aren’t already serving to find a ministry\nthat fits their gifts and passion.<\/p>\n

    The Pastor’s Central Role<\/h2>\n

    Several of the principles are particularly dependent on the pastor’s efforts.<\/p>\n

    \n7. Build trust<\/strong>. One pastor told me of his vision for quick growth\nin his new church. He had persuaded the hundred, mostly older, members to\nuse the $60,000 saved over a five-year period to jump start their church.\nHe planned for a media blitz, a direct-mail campaign, and a string of guest\nmusicians.<\/p>\n

    \nA year later the money was gone and so was the pastor. The only thing he\njump started was his departure.<\/p>\n

    \nTrust is earned by how we spend the church’s money. I must be frugal and\nspend wisely. People are more generous when they see they can trust me not\nto overspend and to get maximum ministry value out of the budget. They will\nalso be more supportive of my ideas.<\/p>\n

    \nOne church leader put it to me this way: “Pastors come and go, but we have\nto stay here and pay the bills, so if you love us, keep us out of debt.”\nMany church members don’t comprehend ministry philosophy, but they all understand\nnumbers that have dollar signs in front of them.<\/p>\n

    \nTrust also comes from successful fund-raising. To be respected as a leader,\nI must assume primary responsibility for securing financial resources. When\nmy leadership produced increased offerings, in the congregation’s eyes I\nhad proven myself as a leader. After that people quickly rallied behind many\nof my ministry suggestions.<\/p>\n

    \n8. Build relationships.<\/strong> Most do not give to the greatest need but\nto the closest relationship. Many children live on my street, but I give\ngenerously to only two of them—my own. Churches usually choose to support\nmissionaries not on the basis of their potential effectiveness but on their\ncloseness to the congregation. Likewise the people who feel closest to the\nchurch—the leaders—give the most. Those who feel involved and appreciated\ngive significantly. Those on the fringes or who feel estranged give virtually\nnothing. That’s why a church in turmoil will have falling offerings. You\ncan measure the breadth of your church by your attendance and the depth of\nyour church by your offerings.<\/p>\n

    \nBefore we teach on stewardship and ask for giving commitments, we make sure\nour relationships are current. We recruit people to go out in pairs and call\non five families during a two-week period. We instruct our visitation teams\nnot to talk about money. Our visitation workers ask four questions:<\/p>\n

    \nWhat do you like about Sunrise Church?<\/em><\/p>\n

    \nHow can our church help you and your family?<\/em><\/p>\n

    \nHow can we pray for you?<\/em><\/p>\n

    \nIs there an area of ministry where you might be interested in serving?<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n9. Model generosity<\/strong>. Even when financial records are confidential,\npeople somehow discern a pastor’s level of giving. One man told me when his\npastor talked about giving, the money counters smirked in disbelief because\nthey knew what he gave. Others noticed and soon got the picture.<\/p>\n

    \nThe church will not rise above the pastor’s example. More importantly, the\nless-than-generous pastor cannot teach stewardship with passion or share\npersonal examples of financial sacrifice. Because the pastor’s words ring\nhollow, people remain unmoved.<\/p>\n

    Themes to Re-emphasize<\/h2>\n

    Certain elements you’ll want to revisit regularly.<\/p>\n

    \n10. Be positive<\/strong>. We follow our prayer emphasis and home visitation\nwith four weeks of positive biblical teaching on stewardship. Only one sermon\nfocuses primarily on financial giving.<\/p>\n

    \nYears ago I made the mistake of emphasizing God’s judgment on those who were\nnot generous givers. I found negative messages produce far more irritation\nthan maturation. Now I teach the benefits of giving. Giving is an appropriate\nresponse to God’s sacrificial love for us. It is an act of love toward people\nwho come to Jesus through our church’s ministry. And it brings multiplied\nreward to us in heaven.<\/p>\n\n

    Most do not give to the greatest need\nbut to the closest relationship.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

    \nI don’t promise financial wealth or immediate rewards from giving. If God\nrewarded every giver with abundant financial return, generous Christians\nwould be the wealthiest people on earth and stingy people would be the poorest.\nI say God usually rewards our giving with better things than money—like\nlove, joy, peace, good friends, and families. The timing of God’s reward\nis not always immediate. It might come next week, years from now, or maybe\nnot until eternity.<\/p>\n

    \n11. Spell out sacrifice<\/strong>. Instead of calling our stewardship emphasis\n“faith promise giving” as I used to do, I now refer to it as “faith sacrifice\ninvestment.”<\/p>\n

    \nFaith <\/em>communicates that all giving requires us to give up something\nnow based on our faith in God’s love and our future reward from him.<\/p>\n

    \nI use sacrifice<\/em> instead of promise because God desires loving sacrifice\nmore than verbal promises. In addition, the only way most people will be\nable to fulfill their giving promises is by sacrificing a current expense.\nWhen people fail to fulfill the faith promise they made to God, it is usually\nbecause they tried to increase their giving without having increased income.<\/p>\n

    \nMany need practical guidance in how to fulfill their commitments. We ask\npeople to review their current expenses by evaluating their check book, and\nthen decide which expenses they will sacrifice so they can give that amount\nto God.<\/p>\n

    \nWe also ask members to share their spiritual journeys toward sacrificial\ngiving and how God has blessed them. The testimonies are the most powerful\npart of our stewardship emphasis.<\/p>\n

    \nMany tell what sacrifices they intend to make. One couple said, “We decided\nto drive our five-year-old car an extra year to increase our offering by\nthe amount our monthly car payment would be.” A single mother said, “I prayed\nthat if God would bring me one more child to my day care service, I would\nincrease my giving by that amount. The next week another parent enrolled\ntheir daughter.”<\/p>\n

    \nWhen people identify specific sacrifices in this manner, it enables them\nto fulfill their commitment, but more importantly, it adds depth to their\nrelationship with God.<\/p>\n

    \nOne of the worst ways to promote giving is to say, “We have 100 families\nand a $100,000 project, so we want each family to give another $1,000.” The\nwealthy family might think, “I could give $10,000, but since they only\nneed $1,000 from us, that’s what we’ll do.”<\/em> They will not be challenged.\nOn the other hand, the poor family will likely be overwhelmed. It’s far better\nto emphasize equal sacrifice rather than equal amounts.<\/p>\n

    \n12. Point out the reward. <\/strong>Most people would quit their jobs in a minute\nif they did not receive a paycheck. Jesus talked often about rewards. We\nuse the term investment<\/em> rather than giving<\/em> because our offerings\nare an eternal investment in people who will be with God forever, and they\nare an investment that will bring us eternal reward far beyond our sacrifice.<\/p>\n

    \nI emphasize that every dollar we earn will be invested somewhere—food,\nentertainment, the stock market. What better investment is there than the\nreturns that come from giving to God?<\/p>\n

    Untapped energy<\/h2>\n

    Last year schedule problems pushed our stewardship emphasis back to the unlikely\nmonth of May. Although our faith sacrifice commitments turned out to be strong,\nI was apprehensive about the large budget increase we had planned and the\ncoming summer slump. Amazingly, June offerings increased 50 percent, and\nwe finished the fiscal year with offerings exceeding a budget that had seemed\nlike a huge leap of faith. The increased offerings enabled us to enlarge\nstaff, ministries, and outreach. That in turn resulted in attendance growth\nand decisions for Christ.<\/p>\n

    \nChurch finances have as much to do with church success as does preaching.\nIn many churches, finances are the untapped energy source of church health.<\/p>\n

    Jay Pankratz <\/strong>is pastor of Sunrise Church in Rialto,\nCalifornia.<\/p>\n

    Copyright & 1998 by the author or Christianity Today\/Leadership<\/em> Journal. For reprint information call 630-260-6200\nor contact us<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I never preach on giving or ask for money,” I once told a fellow pastor. “I just leave it up to the people.” “Do you teach your people to study the Bible?” he asked. “Of course,” I said. “Do you teach them to pray?” “Certainly.” “If you taught your people to give in a biblical Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[1859],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[156],"tax_ctp_tags":[3533,3608,3793,4057,4488,4652,4792,5046,5049,5077,5164],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-14654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-jay-pankratz","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-business","tax_ctp_tags-church-finances","tax_ctp_tags-discipleship","tax_ctp_tags-giving","tax_ctp_tags-money","tax_ctp_tags-planning","tax_ctp_tags-relationship","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-formation","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-growth","tax_ctp_tags-stewardship","tax_ctp_tags-tithing"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nGrowing Generous Givers - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"12 tools for cultivating an unselfish church.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/le-8l3-8l3090\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Growing Generous Givers - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"12 tools for cultivating an unselfish church.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/le-8l3-8l3090\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-12T11:51:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta 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