With the recent third quarter spurt of growth many are proclaiming that the recession is over. While that might be true from a “technical” point, emotionally the mood across America is little changed. The recession continues to depress growth in nearly every quarter of our economy including churches.

A friend asked me the other day what I thought of the mood of the country was with regards to the recession. My answer was one word, fear. While few might admit it in that strong of a word it none the less is the overall mood from Wall Street to Main Street. That fear is finding its way into the board rooms of countless churches across America. If left unchecked it will set the church back for years. In what is our greatest opportunity in years to share hope we in the church are missing the moment.

Peggy Noonan in a column this past weekend in the Wall Street Journal summed it up well. She said, “The biggest threat to America right now is not government spending, huge deficits, foreign ownership of our debt, world terrorism, two wars, potential epidemics or nuts with nukes. The biggest long term threat is that people are becoming and have become disheartened…” She then went on to explain that this mood exists because first, people do not think they can make it better and secondly because the problems seem too big.

Never one to be shy about my opinions let me weigh in on the failures that have put us in this position.

Our political leaders in both parties have failed us. Politics has always been divisive in American life. However if there is one unifying thing, a result of the current political crisis, it is that Americans are becoming one in their distrust of anything from Washington D.C. None of the above is fast becoming the party of choice. A president that was elected with such high hopes now sees his ratings at an all time low, near fifty percent.

Frankly the Democrats who now control all three branches of government can not even agree amongst themselves on how to govern. They can blame the past administration all they want but the truth is they have controlled Congress for nearly four years and the White House for nearly a year. They have showed nothing new to the American public and that public is growing restless. Republicans have fared none better and are simply seen as the party against whatever the Democrats are suggesting. You have to be for something not just against something.

Most Americans, including myself, feel that our politicians are too removed from real life issues. How many of them have actually run a small business? How many of them have had to worry from pay check to pay check about whether they can make ends meet? They seem to have lost any sense of reality of what Americans truly experience in day to day living. We desperately need leadership and it is not coming from Washington D.C.

Our greed was and continues to be our down fall. Let’s stop pointing fingers at the very few on Wall Street that received large bonuses. The rich are not the reason for our down fall. We need to look no further than our own sense of greed to find the culprit. We have chased a lifestyle that was unsustainable and are now surprised that the house of cards collapsed. Rather than take responsibility for our own stupidity in buying too large of a car, too big of a house and too many luxuries we seek to blame someone else. No bank forced you to sign that loan. Americans did it to themselves.

It’s time to stop blaming everyone else and start finding ways to live responsively. Here is the Churches big opportunity and we better not blow it. Teach those in your sphere of influence how to live responsible biblical lives and hope will return. Of all institutions ours should be the leader in this time of discouragement.

From Wall Street to the board rooms of business on Main Street the mood is caution. The result of this mood is that many projects are put on hold as business waits to see what will happen or when a return to normal will occur. Those same men and women then go into their churches board meetings and spread their fear and caution to the leadership of their church. As a result as never before the church is responding not with faith but with fear. We have let the mood of the country set our agenda rather than leading America with Godly vision. All our teaching on living a life of faith has gone out the door as we too often walk by sight rather than faith.

I am certainly not saying we should not consider the times we live in. Nor am I saying we should not listen to the voices of our lay leaders. I am saying it is more important have the mind of God through this time than the mind of man. My belief is that too many are frozen by fear in a time when we desperately need faith.

That faith can be found in a few places. Two years ago I began working with a church in Michigan that had already been feeling the impact of the recession. As they were preparing to build a new sanctuary many in the church questioned the timing of such a bold project. I had the pleasure of interviewing one businessman in the church about this. Here is what he said, “This has been the worst three years of business for me in the last thirty. Yet I think that as people are hurting they will be looking for some place for an answer. We must build this building to be ready to meet that need!”

Wouldn’t you like that kind of guy in your church? Who wouldn’t? I believe he was that kind of guy because his pastor was that kind of leader. What kind of leader are you? Are you the kind that inspires faith and action? Or are you the kind that causes others to shrink back in fear? A lot is riding on your answer to that question. Some see the glass as half empty and others see it as half full. How do you see the glass of this recession? What is your plan of action?

Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group

Yesterday the Stock Market drop a hundred points. It’s now off its brief climb above 10,000 points. One of the main causes of the decline was the surprising fact that consumer confidence dipped after rising for several months. Just when we thought the end was here many are now expressing doubts about a recovery. As I have written before, when there are doubts on Main Street in consumer confidence you can be guaranteed it will effect your offering plate.

We in the Christian church appear to be little different from the world in that we seem to long for the return of the “good old” days. We are waiting for the return to normal before we move forward. Each day as we hear more depressing and negative economic news we wonder what our next step should be? This recession will recover slowly and continue to impact us for many more months. So the question must be what will you do?

Here are some thoughts…

Have the right perspective. Our hope as believers is not in the economy or in Washington D.C. Our hope is in the risen Lord! This is not the first recession the church has gone through. We made it through those just fine and we will make it through this one. If a recession is the worst hardship we have to bear we are blessed indeed. Around the world other churches are faced with much greater difficulty. Your perspective impacts your attitude and that spreads down line through your leaders and to your people. Now is the greatest time to embrace the hope that we have as believers.

Adapt a plan of action. Too few churches have any plan of action when it comes to stewardship. You can not simply roll with the punches during times like these. It takes smart decisive action. What are you doing to meet this challenge? What plans do you have? How much time are you personally spending on this plan? Too many have no plan at all and are simply hoping things get better. Hope is not a strategy!

Work your plan. Casey Graham in his blog post the other day talked about his time with New Life Church in Little Rock, AR. That church has been listed as one of the fastest growing churches in the country. Casey listed several things they were doing right. The first one was, You never quit talking about money. That might surprise you. My new book on Stewardship Myths has a chapter that deals with the myth that the church talks too much about money. The truth is we do not talk about it enough. What is essential is how you talk about it.

My point here is that you not only have to have a plan you have to work your plan. It can not be a one time thing. It has to be a year round thing. You as the pastor must be in the plan and you have to work the plan. It is just as important to work your plan as it is to have a plan. A hammer in the tool box does you no good if you do not use it.

Frankly no one knows how these next few months will shake out. There is a lot of conjecture about what the donor world will look like after the recession is over. At this point you and I can not wait to find out the answers. Growing churches grow despite the circumstances. Yours can too. Stop putting off acting now to avoid problems tomorrow. Hoping things will get better will not solve your problems that are fast coming your way. Prepare now for the future. The future is now!

Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group

Soon after putting the finishing touches on my new book I began to think about the next one. It did not take long for me to get a germ of an idea. It came as I was on Twitter reading comments by those that I follow. A pastor of a large church at a conference was quoted as saying that if you are not on twitter you had better get another job! His assumption was that everyone was on Twitter and we have to be in the people business. In the past few months I have had a running debate with my fellow Twitterites about whether this new phenomenon is indeed going to dramatically change every thing including how we raise funds.

So, I set out to research and discover the current impact of Social Media upon raising funds. At the outset I have to admit a couple of things. One, I love Twitter and Facebook and am at heart a techie wanna be. No, I don’t have an iPhone as I am a Blackberry fanatic and a loyal Verizon customer. I do have an iTouch and when Apple decides to let Verizon in the iPhone family I will quickly switch over. So, I do think, even though I am past fifty, that I can run with the young turks on this technology stuff.

More importantly however I have to admit that I have a bias that Social Media though having some impact, will not fundamentally change the way funds are raised. My opinion is that particularly in the church the key to sustaining funding is raising up disciples not simply band wagon followers. In that regards Social Media will play only a small part in the over all picture.

With all that in mind here are some preliminary findings…

Social Media is too new to fully analyze. I want to be fair to Social Media and give it the benefit of the doubt. It is simply too new a tool at this point to know what its impact overall will be. When we discard one platform for the next new platform one year to the next it is hard to evaluate where this will all land. At this point there have been too few studies to support that this movement is the future of raising funds not only in the non-profit world but in the church. Repeatedly as you research and read about this movement you see the word potential used. It is simply too new and not fully developed to warrant final conclusions. However, nearly every study while showing growth in terms of numbers is showing that the amount raised overall is a small percentage total of a non-profits overall funding.

Social Media in terms of fund raising is more hype than reality. Apart from the Obama campaign Social Media disciples can point to very few success stories in using this tool to raise funds. When you closely examine even that example you find that its success was over blown. The Campaign Finance Institute found that “only 26% of his money came from donors whose total contributions aggregated to $200 or less. Obama’s 26% compares to 25% for George W. Bush in 2004, 20% for John Kerry in 2004, 21% for John McCain in 2008, 13% for Hillary Clinton in 2008, and 38% for Howard Dean in 2004.” They further stated, “Obama received about 80% more money from large donors (cumulative contributions of at least $1,000) than from small donors.” So Obama raised most of his money the old fashioned way, through larger donations that typically did not come through the Internet.

I have looked at example after example of what some would say is a successful use of Social Media and have found that they lag far far behind traditional methods. One book that I researched gave an example of a non-profit using Social Media to raise over $31K from its 1.5 million member online supporters. Do the math, that is 21 cents per member! Not impressive at all. My contention is that when you do the math the return on investment is so low that you have to wonder if its worth it at all? At this point Social Media as a new impact player in raising funds is a myth that is unsupportable by the facts.

Social Media’s strongest adherents, young adults, give typically far less than other age groups. While old guys like me are embracing these new tools, typically it is the world of the young that inhabit the space. As such the amount given is fractionally small. While some are touting that this generation is just as generous as the WWII generation facts as of yet do not support that claim. You can find a lot of examples of five dollar donations being text in on cell phones at some concert. However when you evaluate that on the whole it is a fraction of what could be raised and a mere smidgen of what this generation spends on other personal preferences items.

While using Social Media should not be discarded it must however be used correctly. Much will be made of the growth of this new tool. There are indications of its growth among non profits. I am not advocating that we not use this tool. I am simply saying that it is limited. The most effective use of the tool is as an entry point to further engagement. So, please understand that I do think you should have an online giving strategy. What I am saying is that you need to see it in context and use it appropriately.

Given the small return that even the best Social Media campaigns are seeing it is wise to keep that in mind in your overall stewardship plan. As effective as the Obama campaign was in using the Internet they would have failed if all their eggs were placed in that basket. You too must see Social Media as one aspect of your total approach. It may grow in the future but for now it is very limited. However some money is better than no money.

The future will look like the past. Some things will never change. It has always been true that a few give the majority of any churches funds. That will never change. It has always been the fear of one generation that the next would not step up. Each time the next generation does indeed step up. As in the past so in the future God will raise up stewards to fund His work. The process that has been the most effective down through the ages has been discipleship. True disciples are what funds your ministry. Major on what works and minor on what has potential and you will have better success.

My old boss John Maxwell teaches that you need to spend your time wisely in the areas of your strength not your weaknesses. He states that if you are a 4 in a certain area you might work hard to improve to a 6 but you would still not approach excellence. In the same way if you are a 7 in an area you might improve to a 9. Since you only have so much time focus your time on that which will bring the greatest return, your strengths.

My position is that the same should be true for your stewardship plan. Focus the majority of your time on that which promises the best results. While it might be cool and hip to use Social Media at this point putting all your eggs in this basket will cause you to miss thousands of dollars and you could face hard times. In the same vein totally dismissing this new tool could mean the loss of five or ten percent increase in your receipts. That might just help you make budget this coming year.

The bottom line whether you agree with this post or not is that you need a comprehensive stewardship plan to successfully navigate through these challenging times.

Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group

“The rules of engagement has changed. The principles of organizational and interpersonal communication will forever be changed.” Those words were written to me by a friend who had asked a question about what was next after Twitter? To me simply asking that question about a Social Networking site that is still relatively new is telling. There is no question that just in the last couple of years Social Networking has become all the rage and could change the rules of engagement.

While I love Twitter and Facebook it is my contention that we are too quickly jumping on this new band wagon and need a healthy dose of reality. I am not convinced that the rules have been changed as much as those that are embracing Social Media claim. As of yet there is little factual data to confirm a major shift in behavior Certainly from a stewardship stand point the confirmed data to this point is showing that a change has NOT occurred.

Here are some points that I think we should consider before we too quickly embrace new technology as our savior or the future of raising funds.

Social Media is not the first new medium to trumpet new rules of engagement. While it might show my age I can remember the rise of cable television and religious broadcasting. There was a time when those who embraced television saw that medium as a fundamental new way of engaging people. While some ministries did indeed raise significant funds through television few churches ever did. More significantly religious broadcasting has made a minimal impact in terms of evangelism. In the end the return on investment will be judged in my opinion as a poor Kingdom investment.

I base this observation from experience. The last church that I pastored spent thousands of dollars on establishing a cable channel in our town through our denominations network. While our presence in the community was heightened in the end there were few people that I can point to as having been brought into the Kingdom through all the programs and advertising that we did. I bought into the belief that having a media presence would transform our ministry but now must admit that the impact was minimal.

Change in the church comes slowly not quickly. While we are debating what is next after Twitter the church will still stand. Some times I wonder if we truly believe in the sovereignty of God. We are either poor students of history or ignorant of theology. Christ’s church marches on no matter what the current media platform is. While the church does change it changes slowly not swiftly. Some might see that as a negative however the flip side of that is that the Church throws out what is unproductive and adapts to what works. It is still way too early to tell what the impact of Social Media will be.

The few will always give the majority. This has always been the case and will always be the case. In part this is a result of discipleship. While we must continue to encourage the next generation the end result will be that only a few will truly embrace the responsibilities of discipleship. To believe that Social Media will some how be the tool to engage the next generation of donors is to totally miss history and minimalize God.

The key for future fund raising depends not on new tools but the tried and true method of making disciples. I am all for using new tools. However at the end of the day what has sustained the church through time has been solid discipleship not a dependence upon new approaches. If you truly want to make sure your ministry is funded for the future focus on what works, discipleship making.

My fear is that in chasing the newest online tools we will miss what really matters. True discipleship can not occur behind a computer screen or a smart phone any more than it could from your couch watching television. In our rush to embrace what is hip and new we are trading our birth right for a pot of stew.

Tell me, what has been the impact of our chase to be contemporary? Have we truly been reaching the lost better than before? Statistics do not bear out that we are. While some might claim some success the truth is that nationally we are no closer to winning our nation than before we began this contemporary journey. I fear the same will be true as we chase the Twitters of the world.

That’s my view. What is yours?

Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group

People remember beginnings and endings. Stephen Covey wrote his famous line about beginning with the end in mind. We are nearing the end of another calendar year. How is your ministry ending up financially? Did you know that the fourth quarter is traditionally one of the strongest for churches and non profits? My friend Ben Stroup posted an article yesterday from Blackbaud, a group that produces fund raising software, that showed how fourth quarter online giving surges far ahead of every other quarter. While that is true for online giving it is also true for giving in general.

The question is what are you going to do to boost your fourth quarter giving so that you can end well. Hopefully you began the year planning to end well and are working your stewardship plan. If however you are like 90% of the churches out there without a plan now is the time to implement a plan of action to capitalize on this crucial quarter.

If you have been a regular reader of this blog you will know that I often write about end of year appeals and how important they are. I believe they are one of the best and easiest ways a ministry can finish the year well IF done right. However as I read letters that come my way I find that most rather than helping a ministry actually do more damage. Two letters in particular come to mind that I want to share as lessons in how NOT to appeal to your donors. They demonstrate violating what I believe are two cardinal rules of an appeal letter, keep in positive and keep it on point.

First consider the letter I received from my church asking me to make a pledge to their annual budget. For your information my wife and I have been away from church for two weeks due to travel on my part and health concerns about her mom. In fact we have had little time to discuss much of anything but the urgent. So yesterday I received a letter from our church that in part said the following…

“This is the second of five letters sent to members and friends from whom we have yet to hear. Each mailing comes at a considerable cost to the Church, so your prompt consideration of the part you will play in meeting our financial goals in the coming year is very much appreciated.”

I can frankly tell you that that sentence was a real turn off. It is so uncharacteristic of the church we attend. Everything is done with excellence. Everything but the annual campaign. My first thought on reading the letter was who wrote this? The negative tone of the letter does nothing to motivate me to make a pledge. We will pledge after the two of us can pray and talk over what we believe God wants us to do. However at this point letters like this do not inspire excitement.

The lesson? Always be positive in your appeal!

The second example of how NOT to write an appeal letter came from a client who thankfully asked me to preview his letter. His letter, which was on the whole positive and good had the following paragraph…

“I want to encourage every single member of our church to consider what he or she might give to enable ministry to continue and even increase. A “community reaching” and “world impacting” church requires a God-sized budget. Perhaps you would consider giving for the very first time, if you have never given (always remember our money back guarantee–if tithing doesn’t work, you can have your money back)! Or, maybe, if you are already a faithful giver, you might consider increasing that amount. We always encourage our membership to “bring into the storehouse” (Malachi 3:10) a true tithe, which literally means “a tenth” or 10% of your income.”

So, what is wrong with encouraging people to tithe? Nothing except the letters intention is to generate a strong fourth quarter and was meant to be an end of year appeal letter. As such it violated the rule of being on point. It also carries a bit of negativity bringing up what is frankly hot button topic. I am for people tithing but you should never get off point and his point was to increase end of year giving.

The lesson? Always stay on point!

A simple outline for an end of year appeal letter.

I believe it is easy to write an affective end of year letter. If you are unsure how to do it just go to your mail box and look at how others ministries that write you weekly craft their letters! In case you don’t get any of that kind of mail here is my outline for a good appeal letter.

Paragraph One - Tell exciting things about what God is doing at your ministry. Thank them for helping make it happen.

Paragraph Two - State your need and why you are writing as positively as possible.

Paragraph Three - Tell them how they can give and make giving easy and simple.

Paragraph Four - Thank them for their support and tell them how honored you are to serve them.

While the above might be an over simplification it none the less should serve as a guideline for you to start. As I always do every year I will for free write you an end of year appeal letter if you will contact me. So, get out your pen and paper and start writing!

Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group

PS. The Charis Group will donate $100 to the best end of year letter sent to us. To qualify you simply have to print this post off and include it in the appeal letter so we can differentiate you from all the others we get. The letter must be at our address no later than Dec. 1st to qualify. This is the second year we have done this. Last year’s winner was Noonday Baptist Church.

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

I am in the process of doing research for my next book which will be about the use of social media and raising funds in the church. To that end I have been reading books and articles about this new explosive innovation and what it might and might not mean for stewardship. What has amazed me is not only the growth of the Social Media movement but how fast it is changing. One book that I am reading was published in 2007 and has no mention of Facebook. They continually talk about MySpace, a site that is now far distant to Facebook in terms of subscribers. Twitter barely gets mentioned at all and yet it has exploded across the world.

What this has shown me is how fast things change. What was once hot can be cold in almost the blink of an eye. The fast paced world in which we live in is a challenge for all of us. From a church perspective how does this impact us? From a stewardship stand point what does this mean?

Here are my thoughts about the speed of change.

While change is inevitable the Truth stands! The way we do ministry might change but our ministry will not. We are doing what our fore fathers did, communicating the Gospel message. The medium changes but not the message! The old saying applies, keep the main thing the main thing.

Churches need to stay up to date on current communication trends. We regularly visit church websites to gain information about potential clients. I can not tell you how many churches have web sites that have last year’s newsletter posted as the last entry. The calendar is out dated. Sometimes the pastor is not the current one at the church! More and more people will evaluate you on how well you handle current communication trends. It is imperative that you have a good communication strategy.

Not everything that can be done needs to be done. Many years ago when TV was new and churches were trying to utilize this new tool I worked closely with Mike Huckabee. I knew Mike before Fox News! I remember telling him one time that just because something could be done does not mean that it must be done. We would be wise to remember that as we consider trendy approaches. I know I can order my pizza online but I still pick up the telephone to do so. Our world increasingly is technical but at the same time people still crave for the individual touch. Nothing will ever replace that no matter what new Social Media tools come on the scene.

People are not as impressed with how much you know as they are with how much you care. John Naisbitt wrote a book many years ago about the coming technology explosion. Still he maintained that people want high tech AND high touch. In the church we should be wedding the two with the mind that high touch is always more important than high tech.

The best uses of Social Media for the church will be to get people into real community. If we forget the basics of discipleship in our quest to be hip and trendy we will miss our calling. Ultimately what people need is a true sense of community. Have you ever been to the funeral of someone not connected to a church? Then have you been to a funeral of someone that was? There is a vast difference. The churches that will thrive in this new environment will be the ones that use technology as a means to an end not the end itself!

Using Social Media to garner contributions will result in smaller gains than traditional methods. If I have found one thing from my studies thus far it is that Social Media produces small donations that are not consistently maintained. I am not saying you should not have a presence here because I think you should. However you should see it as a starting point or a point of entry into more traditional approaches to stewardship. Churches putting all their eggs in the Social Media basket will fail miserably. While some money can be gained through Social Media the tried and the true ways are still how the majority of your funds will come in.

My advice is to not throw the baby out with the bath water! In fact that is the working title of my new book, “Throwing the Baby Out.”

Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group

What is the best way to develop stewards?

In the early 1980’s my home state of Oklahoma held an election on pari-mutuel betting on horse racing. The proponents of the measure used a campaign slogan that said, “Let’s Race!” The truth was the measure had nothing to do with legalizing horse racing. You could legally race any time you wanted in Oklahoma. You could not wager money and that was the issue. As you might expect local churches rose up to fight this measure. Baptists and Methodist denominations led the fight pouring thousands of dollars into their own campaign. Preachers stood in pulpits and admonished their members to vote the measure down. What happened? The measure passed by a wide margin leaving Christian leaders stunned at their inability to impact the election. Clearly the church failed to rally its people to oppose the measure.

The columnist David Brooks wrote an article awhile back entitled, “Illusions of Power Over the GOP.” The premise of the article was that Conservative talk radio and television talk jocks influence are highly over rated. As evidence he points out that in the early stages of the last primary election for president the most popular talk jocks favored anyone but McCain. Yet McCain ultimately won the Republican nomination. Brooks states, “Over the years, I have asked dozens of politicians what happens when Limbaugh and his colleagues attack. The story is always the same. Hundreds of calls come in. The receptionists are miserable. But the numbers back home do not move. In the media world, he is a giant. In the real world, he is not.” This again illustrates the sad truth that those with a pulpit, either in the media or in the church are many times failing to impact the audience they most think they have an inroad with.

Could it be that your words are falling upon deaf ears? Could this be one reason why we preach and teach stewardship only to see little to no results? Your offerings might improve the week after your stewardship message but they ultimately go back to where they were to begin with. There are a multitude of reasons why most Christians give very little to their church. Many of those reasons are out of your control. There are some things however that you can do to help. In this Stewardship Coach I want to address things that are in your control.

Stick or Carrot approaches

Sadly some Christian leaders never even address the issue of stewardship. Those that fail to do so do a disservice not only to their ministry but to the people they shepherd. They are guilty of preaching half the Gospel. In the end you can not ignore the topic of stewardship simply hoping your adherents catch the message for themselves. Those that use that type of non-strategy have suffered the worst during this current recession.

On the other end of the spectrum are the other two approaches that I term the Stick Approach and the Carrot Approach. The Stick Approach focuses on the obligation of a believer to give. Adherents to this approach tend to stress tithing. They focus on passages like Malachi 3:10 which in part states that we “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.” The Carrot Approach focuses more on the opportunities a believer has in giving. They would be more apt to quote Jesus when he said in Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Both approaches at their core are true. What works best when it comes to motivating people to give, a stick or a carrot? In my experience while both are true and need to be stressed the carrot approach is a better starting point than the stick.

A friend recently told me his pastor told the congregation that if they were not financially supporting the church they should consider attending somewhere else. That would qualify as a stick approach to me. My friend, a regular donor to his church, did not think it was a good approach. In my experience statements like the above will ultimately not be as effective as using a carrot to motivate donors.

Carrot Approaches

Give a compelling reason why donors should support your ministry. Hands down this is the number one reason why people support your ministry. Obligation might make me a regular donor but if I don’t believe in what you are doing I will attend somewhere else or give far less than I could. I contend that the best way to get people to give or commit to give is to focus on what you do. Instead of telling people that they ought to give tell they what their giving accomplishes. When they go into the hospital will the state representative come visit them? No, it will be you or one of your staff. Help your members see how your ministry makes the world a better place including their world! Do that and you will find them much more willing to give than by eliciting commands from the pulpit.

Consistently teach stewardship year round. A huge mistake many churches is that they focus on stewardship only one time a year. Too often it becomes routine. No one likes the process even the ministers tasked with the duty. Try teaching it in a positive way year round. It should be the focus not only of your sermons but in every area of your ministry. Every offering is a positive moment to stress stewardship. Every small group or Sunday School class should study some aspect of stewardship from the cradle to the grave. Start early and keep at it. Stay positive and you will find it will make a difference. After all the Scriptures do teach that God will pour out a blessing upon those that obediently give. If that is not a carrot I don’t know what one is.

Provide practical help. Whether it is Dave Ramsey’s stuff or someone else’s or something you write it is imperative that we help people manage their finances. If we have learned one thing from this recession it is that our spending habits can get out of control. The sad reality is that many of your congregation can not give as they are over extended. You can preach tithing all you want but they are so deeply in bondage that they will never get out without help. If you truly want to develop stewards then start by helping them get a handle on their financial lives. When they get out of that hole I can promise you that they will remember who help get them out.

Hopefully by now you get the idea and can think of other carrots that you could use. While we might claim that doing so is disingenuous in reality all of us respond better to the carrot than we do the stick. If we have learned this in every day life why should it be so difficult to translate this into our stewardship approach in our churches? I can promise you that the results will be far better using the carrot than the stick.

Mark Brooks
Founder and President of The Charis Group

P.S. My new book is about to come out. It is entitled, “Stewardship Myths: How to Avoid Losing Momentum, Time and Money.” You can email me to reserve your copy today at Mark@TheCharisGroup.org.

By now you probably have realized that there is an explosion taking place in the way we connect with one another. Words that just a decade ago would have meant nothing, like Twitter, have a whole new meaning for all of us including those in Christian leadership. Social media outlets are grabbing the headlines and making all of us rethink how we can use those tools to accomplish Kingdom purposes.

A new book is out by two leaders in the field of using the internet and social media called, “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.” The authors, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith have a long list of accomplishments at using the internet and social media effectively. Together they have collaborated to write what is certainly a must read for those new to social media and even the few old hands of these tools.

Brogan and Smith contend that the Web has changed to be more humanized. In short the authors define Trust Agents as, “the people who will succeed in understanding this and using the Web to build business are called trust agents.” Their book is about how you can become a trust agent. They spend the next two hundred plus pages telling you how to go about being that kind of presence on the Web. Sharing from their own personal experience and the stories of others they give practical advice on how to build web presence and ultimately trust for a business.

As Christians our “business” is extending the Kingdom of God. For us it is more than a business it is a calling. Jesus has commanded us to make disciples. In the parable of the Wedding Banquet the king when finding the wedding hall empty told the servants, “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” Since Jesus time we have been seeking the lost on the corners of our world inviting them to the banquet. The Web is a huge corner of the world and Social Media is the tool for engaging those that gather there.

So how can the book “Trust Agents” help us in this endeavor? Here are some thoughts…

It shows us the impact of the Web and Social Media upon all aspects of modern day life. If you need convincing about the impact of this new medium this book will help your disbelief. The Web has changed the way we interact and its time the Church realized this. While we might still debate where this is all ultimately going to land it is without question changed how we think and process information. Gone should be the days where your church doesn’t have an up to date web site or use the new tools of engagement. Sadly many Christian leaders are way behind the curve on this one.

It gives practical tools on how to build your Web presence. I felt like this was the best part of the book for me. While I had heard of many of the tools they describe there were still many that were new to me. For someone totally starting out fresh in Web awareness this is the book for you. For old hands you might find the book interesting but not ground breaking.

If I have a reservation about the book at all it is the reservation I have about nearly all Social Media devotees. I fear that the authors might be too close to the chess board to properly evaluate the impact of these new tools. We who use these tools need to be aware that just because all our friends are on Twitter does not mean the whole world is. My fear is that in embracing these new tools we might end up throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Call me old fashioned but I still like the feel of a book in my hands even though I can down load most of them on my Kindle or iTouch. In fact I bought the hard copy of “Trust Agents” for over double what I could have bought it on my Kindle! We in the Church need to embrace what is new but not totally abandon what is still working. In the end it takes all kinds of approaches to reach those on the street corners of our world. Brogan and Smith I think would agree. After all they did use traditional publishing for their book “Trust Agents.” The old adage applies still, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

The real question for you as a Christian leader is are you on the street corners of your world inviting people to the banquet? What do those street corners look like in today’s world? How can you best utilize the tools of today to reach your corner of the world where God has put you? Have you also considered that with tools like the Web, your street corner has just gone world wide?

Let’s go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone we find!

Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group

This recession has given us all a lot of surprises. It has lasted longer than any other since WWII. It has been much deeper than most thought. It seems to have run a course of its own confusing both the experts and the politicians. It has defined political careers while dooming others political aspirations. It has become topic number one around the water cooler and in the parking lots of America.

Americans have reacted in a variety of ways to cope with this recession and all its impact. For instance it was reported yesterday that families cut spending during 2008. The Wall Street Journal in an article quoted figures released by the Labor Department that said, “Overall spending per consumer unit - which includes families, single people or people living together who share expenses - rose just 1.7%, or $848, in 2008.” This was the smallest increase since 2003.

Here are some other interesting tidbits about how Americans spent less and saved more.

Transportation spending, ranging from car purchases to plane tickets, fell 1.8%

Apparel outlays slid 4.3% about $9.7 billion.

Families spent 8.1% more on dining at home. Going out to eat thus suffered with spending in that category rising just $30 a family.

On top of all these figures in another section of the Wall Street Journal they reported consumer credit is contracting at record rates. August is expected to show the seventh month in a row of decline something that has not happened since 1991. Americans are also putting more money into savings than in recent years. Charging less and saving more.

So it appears that Americans are saving money and being more frugal, living within their means. Well as a famous ESPN analyst loves to say, “Not so fast, my friend!” The same article that talked about families cutting spending had this interesting note in the last paragraph. “One mystery in the data was the 5.1% increase in entertainment spending, a category that seemed like it would have drawn fewer dollars as consumers tightened their budgets to compensate for stagnant wages and the threat of job losses. It equates to about $16.5 billion more spent on entertainment in 2008 than in 2007.”

Another crazy statistic is the amount of money we spend on our pets. We spend over $44 BILLION a year on Fido and FeFe. Another sector of that is recession proof is candy sales. It seems that when times are tough we reach for a Snickers. Americans will spend over $30 BILLION on various candy this year.

What does this tell those of us in the church that are trying to keep the offering plate full and our ministries funded? People find ways to purchase what they want. I know that many who are without jobs would not fit into that broad brush stroke assessment. However we need to admit that while we may have cut back in some areas Americans are still spending money.

The real question is how you can get your fair share away from McDonalds and Hollywood. Here are some thoughts:

Good vision trumps bad economy! So craft your message compellingly.

Tell your story continually! How many commercials a day do you think your members hear about McDonalds? I am not advocating wearing them out or wearing them down. I am saying talk about the great things happening at your church. Why? People want to support winners!

Have a plan! I will say it again, churches that do not have a stewardship plan are planning to fail. Churches that do have a stewardship plan will weather this recession better than those without a plan.

Christ UMC in Fairview Heights, IL a suburb of Saint Louis is a client of mine. Their pastor, Shane Bishop, is passionate about reaching people for Jesus and building a great church to disciple them in the faith. Under his leadership they have developed a comprehensive plan of stewardship. The result is that while families cut spending nationally based upon the report given by the Labor Department, Christ UMC saw its giving INCREASE by nearly 50%! One major reason why is that they are attempting great things for the Kingdom. This church is a recession anomaly! Develop your own stewardship plan and your church can be too.

Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group