Is Your Church Paused and Paralyzed?
A Travel Free Learning Article
By Norman Jameson and Ruben Swint, Ministry Colleagues with The Columbia Partnership
Download Jameson and Swint, Grasshopper Church, 3.1.11 Edition
Listen to the recording of their dialogue on this article:
Ruben Swint, Voice: 404.314.7273, E-mail: RSwint@TheColumbiaPartnership.org, Web Site: www.TheColumbiaPartnership.org
In a fable credited to Aesop a grasshopper spends the warm months singing, living easy and ridiculing the industrious ant which labors through the pleasant months to store food for winter. When the snows come, the grasshopper begs the ant for food and is rebuked by the ant for his idleness.
Is your church waiting for spring, trying to survive until the snows of economic distress melt away, before you put your hand again to your mission?
If Aesop’s fable—and scripture—tell us anything, it is to prepare for the future and not to be paralyzed by circumstances.
Too many churches take their cues from the newspaper and are paralyzed by gloomy reports. They mark time, waiting for better circumstances instead of living in scripture and marching forward with their God-given mission. A constant diet of uncertainty feeds their anxiety until even many among the 90 percent employed are anxious about losing their job. So they curtail spending—and giving.
Congregational leaders are reluctant to ask members to keep their giving strong and growing. With all the uncertainty in the air, they wouldn’t think of pushing for a capital project or increased budget giving.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said over 100 years ago, “Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?”
If these times are not so unusual, what are the consequences of a paralyzed approach to ministry? Is the fear of possibilities just as debilitating as if the fear were realized?
What is a faithful response in times like these for those who want to move forward, when grasshopper opinions say we should wait; that we’re not strong enough; that the challenge is too big; that God’s arms are to short? Remember Numbers 13:33?
1. Consider your assets.
a. Look at unused space that you could turn into a job search center
b. Recruit volunteers who can be trained to refer people to social services agencies for help
c. Start a support group for long-term unemployed
d. Recruit retired professionals in your congregation to mentor people through job searches, correcting spending behaviors, helping with debt management and with improving credit scores
2. Consider unique opportunities you could address with a new ministry initiative.
a. Do what you can in areas for which you are uniquely gifted. If there is a need larger than your assets and abilities, look for a partner to help you in creating new ministries to underserved.
3. Take an offering.
a. Select a worthy project that can be financed with a one-time offering and publicize it well for 2-3 weeks and then receive the offering over two-Sundays.
b. Use offering receipts to accomplish the special project and report back to the congregation. Show results. Stories of met needs inspire generosity. This will paint a new picture of the possible, even in difficult times.
4. Schedule a proven program of stewardship development.
a. A do-it-yourself approach would utilize materials something like New Consecration Sunday by Herb Miller.
b. A good consultant-led approach is The Columbia Partnership stewardship program called Taking the Next Step.
c. A consultant-led approach typically gains best results because it ensures principles and effective strategies will be followed completely, even with appropriate modification for your congregation’s culture. A consultant will have gone through this process several times and will be flexible at the places where it is necessary and firm for those principals that produce the greatest results. The cost of a consultant is repaid many times over by increased giving.
5. Adopt a litmus test for any item in your annual ministry budget.
a. Ask “How will cutting back or deleting this item affect our mission as a congregation?”
b. Often it is easier to raise the level of giving than it is to cut back on ministry and missions because of the high commitment of many members to their ministry efforts. One Georgia church recently held a “Go Forward Offering” rather than a “catch up” offering. With the help of a TCP consultant, the church received 38 percent above its goal.
Congregations looking for ways to curtail spending often target large fixed costs. It is not unusual for members to believe they must cut back on staff or staff salaries. Such an approach asks a very, very small part of the faith community to bear the full cost of making expenses match contributions. Why should not the entire community together with staff give up a tiny percentage of their income and address this as a community responsibility?
Church members have a unique opportunity in 2011 with the temporary payroll tax reduction to redirect two percent of their income toward funding ministry. Often new levels of generosity for a specific period will become ongoing habit.
Capital Campaign
Churches considering a capital campaign should have a holistic viewpoint of that opportunity. First, it is likely they will not raise as much money as they would have raised before the recession.
Second, it is certain that if they raise money now the contractor estimates they secure will be lower than they would have been before the recession.
Third, churches that would need interim and building financing for their project will find rates as low as they will be for the rest of the decade. Considering the lower cost of building and lower cost of money it is a good time to go ahead with a campaign even if it is likely that pledges will not be as high as they might have been two years earlier.
Planned Giving
Every church continues to lose older members who have been fiercely loyal to the church during their lifetimes. The church to them was not only a valued institution, it was the center of their favored relationships. Now is a great time to talk with this segment of members about enduring gifts.
You are addressing the future and securing support for their favorite ministry even after they are physically present. Ask a representative of your denominational foundation to hold a planned giving, or estate planning seminar. A TCP funding ministry consultant is equally adept at leading such an event and because TCP is not an investment firm, there is no question of motivation in the minds of participants.
After conducting such an event, the formerly discouraged pastor of a north Georgia church said, “We now have wind in our sails.”
The Church of Jesus Christ and individual congregations that make it up, advance to the degree they are meeting needs. The times in which we live are times of great need—thus, times of great opportunity for the church to bear witness to a loving God and a compassionate people.
To talk further about these ideas with a no obligation conversation contact Ruben Swint, funding ministry team leader with The Columbia Partnership. Call 404.314.7273 or write RSwint@TheColumbiaPartnership.org.
Important Things to Know
Norman Jameson and Ruben Swint are Ministry Colleagues with The Columbia Partnership and members of the Funding Ministry team. They are available for to speak with leaders, congregations, denominations, and parachurch organizations about funding needs, whether it is capital, budget, stewardship, or simply how to foster generosity.
The Columbia Partnership is a non-profit Christian ministry organization focused on transforming the capacity of the North American Church to pursue and sustain Christ-centered ministry. Travel Free Learning is a leadership development emphasis of The Columbia Partnership. For more information about products and services check out the web site at www.TheColumbiaPartnership.org, send an e-mail to Client.Care@TheColumbiaPartnership.org, or call 803.622.0923.
