When it comes to raising dollars planning is everything! This is one of the major reasons why churches struggle to make budget, they fail to plan to make budget. It is as if we believe money will fall from Heaven. While I fully believe in God’s ability to do that historically it simply doesn’t happen that way. Yet that is how most churches act. Then they act surprised if they struggle financially. If you are not planning to make budget in all likelihood you will not make budget.
One of my mantra’s for churches is…
If you don’t have a plan you are planning to fail! Close to that mantra is another…
Get a plan and work your plan! Do you have a giving plan? Very few pastors do. Think about it, we have plans for growth, plans for increasing mission awareness, discipleship plans, small group plans and on and on. Few have a stewardship plan. Why is that?
Why Churches Fail to Have a Giving Plan - Let me give you in my experience why the majority of churches fail to have a giving or stewardship plan.
1. No one owns the responsibility of increasing giving, including the pastor. What is not owned by someone does not get done. If the Senior Pastor does not own it it is unlikely that anyone else will on staff or in the laity. The most successful giving churches have pastors that own the process.
2. No one likes to deal with money and finances. It is not something most pastors or staff members are comfortable with. What we don’t like we tend to ignore or give little time to.
3. No one thinks they have the time to deal with stewardship. The tyranny of the urgent always pushes stewardship issues to the back burner.
4. Few know what to do to increase giving. Our seminaries and Bible colleges don’t teach how to increase giving and thus we have an uneducated and untrained pastors and staffs.
5. No one wants to be “that” preacher. ”That” preacher is the one everyone says only talks about money. What is surprising is that statistics show that churches rarely talk about money. Yet this fear drives many to avoid at all costs any discussion of giving or money less we drive off the crowd we are trying to attract!
The results of the above is that giving to the church since 1968 has declined by 3.11 of Americans incomes to 2.32% in 2011. At the current rate of decline that percentage will be at 1% by 2050!
Plans are my specialty! As The Stewardship Coach I write plans every week for churches. The Charis Group family provides you with everything you need to increase your giving. For instance…
The Charis Group - We provide help with capital campaigns AND annual giving. You can find out more about our services at http://thecharisgroup.org/
The Stewardship Coach - I provide weekly help for pastors and staff. My plans are easy to use, effective in raising funds and affordable. To find out more go to http://thestewardshipcoach.org/
Charis Giving Solutions – We provide online giving platforms that will help you increase your giving in this digital commercial era we now live in. To find out more go to http://charisgivingsolutions.com/
Manuals for increasing giving – I regularly write manuals that will help you increase your giving. I take the work out of it for you! To find out more go to http://thestewardshipcoach.org/store/
Don’t let the lack of planning cause you not to be fully funded this year! We can help but only if you contact us. Start planning now so that your church will be fully funded this year!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach
Founder and President
The Charis Group and Charis Giving Solutions