S H A N N A N V A N C E - O C A M P O

C L A S S I N A P R I L 2 0 1 3 W I T H M O N M O U T HP R E S B Y T E R Y

Stewardship Learnings“Not Your Parent’s Offering Plate”

with J. Clif Christopher

Data and Information

People are still giving at the same rate of disposable income

The question is: Why give to the church, why give to us, why not something else?

2% of charitable dollars go to religious institutions.

#1 place of giving: higher education

We need to understand that we are in competition for every single dollar we receive with every other charity that reaches out. Does our outreach match?

90% of congregations are unable to compete in today’s charitable world

Rich Church Poor Church

Mission Describes mission to donors

Lives Always talking about and showing how

lives are being changed. Money is a tool for mission

Service Constant opportunities for service

Discipleship The “customer” is not inside the walls

of the church. It is the person outside needing to know Jesus

Jesus Every conversation is rooted in Jesus.

I am doing X or Y or Z because of who Jesus is for me/us

Survival Primary goal is a balanced budget

Money Always talking about how more money

is needed.

Facility Emphasis on caring for

facility/building

Appeasement Decision-making is guided by keeping

current members happy to the “ways things used to be”

Church Discussions/conversations are about

what the “church” needs

Rich Church/Poor Church

Presbyterians

84% give to charities

Total on average/year is $1,300

Total on average to their congregation: $727

Church giving = 53.9% of their charitable giving

Church giving = 1% of their yearly income

Presentation of Budget

We lead from a place of weakness, most congregations do this. We talk about our deficit. We do not tell a positive story.

We present a line-item budget. This does not sell.

Instead do a missional budget with narrative (with copies of line-item in church office is anyone wants them). Worship, Mission, Education

Stop showing the line item in the annual report

Do not put negative financial reports in newsletters, instead put positive ones

Leadership issues

All board members must pledge and give

Membership = a high level of commitment. Many denominations outpace mainline ones on giving. That is because they talk about membership differently.

Suggests that the Pastor share what he/she gives to the church and all their other charitable giving to the congregation as a challenge

Giving is a spiritual issue. If people are not giving that means they either have something going on in their life that is a challenge or they are struggling to give God all that they can.

Messaging

Missional not line-item budgets Someone should share at least 2x/month about how their

experience of this particular congregation has changed their faith-journey. A changed human life is our “product.”

There should be a “stewardship” story in every newsletter. Newsletters shouldn’t be announcements, they should be mission stories.

Stewardship sermons at least 4x/year, spread out Personal notes of thanks weekly. Done by board and Pastor. Planned giving information should be in the newsletter every-

other month and in the bulletin once/month which explicit info on how to make planned gifts

Targeted letters in a stewardship drive

2014 Stewardship

What do we want our goals to be?

When do we want to roll out our stewardship drive?

Do we want to begin earlier than last year?

What role does each member of the Session want to take on in the stewardship drive for 2014?