My neighbor called me last night to ask me out to dinner. My wife is away caring for her mother and I must say I was not looking forward to another night of my cooking. My neighbor’s wife was out so the two of us went and got some manly food, pizza!

During dinner I asked about how things went this past Sunday at the church we both attend. I was out of town working with a church and had missed the services for the second week in a row. My neighbor said, “Well I enjoyed Sunday School but I have to admit that I just zoned out during the sermon which was on getting people to pledge to the annual budget.” He further stated that he hated this time of year at our church and that this Sunday he was thinking of getting his motorcycle and taking a trip anywhere just to get away. This comes from a committed long time member who has in fact already made his pledge once again.

Could that same thing be happening to you? Could your focus on stewardship however you do it be back firing on you? This is one reason why many pastors and church leaders shy away from talking about money or stewardship in church. They fear the back lash from members. The truth of the matter is that we are not talking about money too much in church we are talking about it too little. The problem is that when we do talk about it we often do so in a way that does more harm than good.

Preaching on stewardship is a necessity. Raising funds is not optional. How you do it is. In the process of researching for my new book on Social Media and fundraising in the church I am reading a book that I think has some thoughts for us in this regard. The book is called “People to People Fundraising.” One chapter talks about how the five laws of marketing can help us in raising funds. Those laws are:

1. Make it easy. Whatever you do in terms of raising funds you have to make it easy. Churches typically have an easier time of this as the weekly offering is an easy place to give. However in these days when more and more people travel, like me, giving your members a way to give when they are not there, i.e. online or direct mail, is essential. At the same time it should be easy to go to your church web site and donate. If you do not receive funds outside of the offering plate it might not only be a result of not having the right platform for that but also it is not easy. Make it easy and they will more likely give and keep on giving.

2. Make it fun. If we err in the church it is here. We too often stress the obligation side of giving and leave out the fun side of giving. I wrote a blog post recently about this called Stick or Carrot. The annual pledge drive does not have to be a drudgery. Work hard to make it fun and you will see a vast difference in the results.

3. Make it popular. In marketing this means creating “social proof.” Social proof is the powerful idea that if we think everyone else is acting a certain way, we are likely to act that way too. In stewardship the easiest way to do this is by allowing your lay people to tell their story about why they give and the blessings they have seen in return. Show your congregations that many others are committing to support the work of ministry and you will find others joining the team as well.

4. Reward your supporters. While we should never preach that if people give, God will give back incredible wealth to them, we should talk about the rewards to giving. It’s the carrot principle. Not only do we need to stress the blessings that flow from giving personally but show them the rewards corporately. I continually stress that what we need to do is trumpet our successes. Every win should be celebrated. Winning teams fill the seats and winning ministries get the funds. So, to the glory of God, blow the horn sounding your ministries wins as a result of the faithfulness of your donors.

5. Cultivate your growing circle. The authors of the chapter I am basing this blog on at this point had a great sentence when they talked about how doing the steps above would grow a circle of supporters. They said, “Do not forget to tend it!” They then said, “We believe that most donors stop giving to charity because of dissatisfaction with how they were treated by the charity rather than personal constraints such as financial problems. The poor service? Too much mail, no thank-you acknowledgments, and little information on how their money was spent.” Make sure you do not make those mistakes or you might find your circle diminishing.

My hope and prayer is that you will work to make stewardship a joy not a drudgery for your members. It is not something you have to endure. It can be something that blesses not only the church but your members. It all starts with the right attitude and a lot of creativity and care. The time you spend on this vital area will pay long term dividends for your ministry and in the end for you.

Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group