Everyone seems to be throwing their two cents into the ring about projections for 2012.  In the past I have made predictions here.  Looking back at them they are amusing.  Most prognosticators are very vague in their projections.  The more vague you are the more you can claim accuracy at the end.  For instance I could predict that Americans will grow tired of politics in 2012.  That would be fairly safe to predict since we are already sick of politics.  Predictions are amusing and interesting but what is the point really?

Since no one knows what the future will be like why worry about the future?  Well, the answer is that thinking about the future can help you avoid pitfalls and mistakes.  While it is accurate to point out that no one can with certainty predict the future there are some trends that you can count on.  Having a sense of what lies ahead gives you time to plan to meet those challenges.  Perhaps nowhere in the church world is this more important than in the area of stewardship.

Here are some predictions for churches with regards to stewardship in 2012.

• The economy will continue its slow climb out of the recession but the vast majority of Americans will believe we are still in a recession.
• Recessionary thinking will continue to challenge your ability to maintain or increase your funds for ministry.
• Uncertainty about our economic future will continue to make Americans including your members cautious about any spending OR giving.
• Despite statistics showing giving to religion and churches as being resilient in challenging economic times most people will believe that churches simply must face the reality that their giving will decline.
• Summer giving will be down in most churches across America.  Ok, that is an easy one but its true!
• Heading into the fall of 2012 many churches will already be behind budget.
• The vast majority of churches will enact no plan of action to increase giving until they are way behind on meeting their budgets.
• Millions of dollars will be lost for Kingdom work due to poor stewardship practices.

What are you waiting for?  Start now thinking about your 2012 stewardship plan.  Of course you could always contact us.  We build stewardship plans for churches that we guarantee will more than cover the miniscule cost.  Contact us today to see how we can help you.

May you have a Happy New Year!

Mark Brooks

Founder and President

The Charis Group

Bear Bryant the famous football coach is credited with saying, “It ain’t braggin if it’s true.”  I tell the churches that we work with that they need to blow their horn often and celebrate their wins.

As the college football season winds down the next season fans look to is recruiting.  There is a reason the best teams always stay on top.  They get the best athletes.  Why?  The best want to play for the best.  Winning programs attract winning players.  The same is true for churches.  So, celebrate your wins so that you can continue to attract winners.  Who wants to go to a dead church?  Find your success stories and brag.

In that spirit let me brag on some of my clients stewardship accomplishments.  Their stories could be your stories.

Phillips Temple of Dayton, OH raised $50K additional dollars for their Thanksgiving offering!  As the year was winding down Senior Pastor Jimmy Washington saw that his giving was lagging somewhat behind.  As we talked about a close out plan we came upon the idea of focusing upon a special Thanksgiving offering.  We wrote the appeal letter and set the stage for this special over and above offering.  The Sunday of the offering an additional $50K came in ABOVE their normal receipts for that Sunday.  We helped Phillips Temple devise a plan of action and their ministry is ending the year on a high note rather than in the hole.  Year end wins set the stage for next years budget.

Christ Church of Fairview Heights, IL closed out their capital campaign receiving 97.5% of their commitments!  What is really incredible is that from 2006 to 2010 their regular giving increased by 68%!  What is truly amazing is that this span included what many are calling The Great Recession.  This fast growing UMC church thirty minutes from Saint Louis has a compelling vision that attracts people from the surrounding area.  We have worked the last five years on not only their capital campaign but also upon their regular giving.  They continually have a plan and work their plan.  They did not sit back and let the recession smack them around.  Their actions are now allowing them to advance and increase ministry for the coming year.

What are the keys to their success?  Here are some things that each church focuses on that makes them winning churches.

• Both pastors have a burning passion for Jesus and are committed to leading others to Christ.
• Both pastors preach passionately the word of God.
• Both pastors have a compelling vision for their church.
• Both pastors are unabashed when it comes to talking about money and giving as it relates to being a disciple of Christ.
• Both pastors practice what they preach!
• Both pastors give God the glory.
• Both pastors recognize that they need help with stewardship.
• Both pastors engaged The Charis Group!

Most churches struggle every year to make budget.  The result of not making your budget means that ministry is threatened.  It can even result in laying off staff.  Your budget fuels your ministry.  It is the gas in your engine.  Failing to make your budget could mean failing to accomplish your ministry.

If making budget is so important why is it that we do not see churches with a staff position of Minister of Stewardship?  For almost every need the church has you see a staff member for that need.  Think about it.  After the Senior Pastor you have worship pastors, youth or student pastors, senior adult pastors, children’s pastors, etc.

Yet I have yet to meet a Minister of Stewardship.  Even in super mega churches that have staff positions for everything under the sun you never see a minister of stewardship.  I find that curious.  The fact that so many don’t find it curious is telling in and of itself.

I think there are a lot of reason why we don’t see a Minister of Stewardship.  Here are some of my guesses…

• No seminary or Bible college stresses the position.  As a result no one is trained in stewardship enhancement.
• Stewardship is simply not on the radar of the vast majority of pastors and churches.
• Churches cannot see the value of hiring another staff member.
• Money is seen as something a church should not focus on.
• Too many churches simply don’t see the need until it is way too late.
• The church has separated stewardship from discipleship.

There are perhaps other reasons but these are I think some of the major reasons churches do not have Ministers of Stewardship.  The end result of this failure to focus on stewardship is that millions of dollars are lost to the church year after year.

So, my  guess is that you don’t have a Minister of Stewardship either.  What would a Minister of Stewardship even do?  Here a few things they could do for you…

Stewardship Evaluation –

• Financial Analysis – Analyzing past giving and projecting future capabilities.
• Budget Review and planning – Looking at spending patterns in an effort to help better manage the funds the church is entrusted with.

Stewardship Education and Enhancement –

• Proposing a plan of action to stimulate current donors and develop new donors
• Help in implementing long term programs that lead to better Christian stewards.
• Continual monitoring of the plan of action.
• Providing help with writing appeal letters on a quarterly basis.
• Be available to preach stewardship sermons.
• Making sure that every offering is a worshipful moment.
• Working with Senior Adults towards leaving a legacy behind for their church.

These are just a few of the things a Minister of Stewardship could do for you.  If you are worried about where the money would come from to pay for this position I can assure you that the work they do will more than make up for the pay you shell out.  Having a Minister of Stewardship could man the difference between making your budget or once again struggling to get by.

Don’t think you could convince your church to bring on a Minister of Stewardship?  Not sure you could find someone trained to do that work?  Well, I have a solution for you.  Let us become your Minister of Stewardship.  For a fraction of the cost of what it would take to hire someone on your staff you can have through us the same equivalent.  If you are interesting in making your budget this year contact us.  Let us be your Minister of Stewardship!

Mark Brooks

Founder and President

The Charis Group

What matters most in raising funds, the pledge or the collection?  Everyone would say the collection.  Yet why is it that all you see publicized is how much is pledged?  Go to any stewardship firm and you will see them bragging about how much they helped a certain church raise.  However if you were to ask what they are really bragging about is how much was pledged.  Few tell you how much was actually collected.

In selling your congregation on picking their company every company talks about their pledge to budget ratio.  The typically thinking is that the higher the ratio the more you will want to engage them.  So what you hear about is all their success stories.  Few tell you the whole truth.  Fewer still talk about after the campaign is over what percentage of the pledge actually came in.

The question you should be asking is what percent of the pledge comes in.  Everyone gets excited the day of the pledge when all those cards come rolling in.  Yet those cards, as exciting as they are, will not help pay for a thing.  All they are is cards.  You have to turn those commitments into cash.  So, you had better count what counts, cash.

The pledge cycle is only the beginning of the campaign cycle.  The real campaign is not the process leading your members to sign pledge cards.  The real campaign is the one, two or three year cycle of giving to fulfill what my pledge was.  The vast majority of churches and nearly every stewardship company puts all their focus on the first part of the process.  Then when the real campaign kicks off little to nothing is done.  It is almost as if churches think the money will come in automatically.  Stewardship firms move on to garner other clients and collect more dollars.  What happens is that the typical church receives far less than the pledge total.

Good consistent follow up will allow you to maximize your campaign results.  Our clients that follow our lead and continue to work the campaign see from 80% to over 100% of what has been pledged turn into cash.  One major reason why is that we stay with them throughout the process.  We know how important it is to keep the dream alive.  A positive focus on the vision that drove people to make a commitment will also drive them to fulfill their commitment.

As a result of the economy follow up is even more important.  The stark reality is that when your members are fearful about whether they will have a job in three weeks they are hesitant to sign a commitment card for three years.  We are seeing pledges be much more conservative as a result of the economy.  We are also seeing many refusing to make a pledge but are giving towards the campaign.  In two recent churches that we worked with the percentage of members pledging was initially lower than we hoped for.  However the first Sunday that giving began, typically called First Fruits, an additional 20% of the donors gave gifts to the campaign.  We are seeing a higher number not pledging but still giving to the campaign.  As a result of this reality created by the angst of the economy we had better have a good follow up plan.  We work hard at follow up.  Do you?

My goal from day one of starting The Charis Group is to revolutionize my industry.  We have focused on the wrong things for too long.  Let’s stop focusing on pledge totals and start focusing on what really counts, seeing cash come in to fulfill the pledge.  It is the new paradigm that everyone needs to adjust to.  Has your stewardship partner adjusted to the times?  If not it might be time to look for a new partner.

Mark Brooks

Founder and President

The Charis Group

One of the mistakes that pastors and churches make when it comes to stewardship is what I call the business as usual approach to raising funds.  The vast majority of churches simply do what they have always done with regards to stewardship.  Then they wonder why giving has not increased or that it has actually  declined.

If you do what you have always done you will not get what you have always gotten.  Times have changed and peoples views of stewardship has changed as well.  Giving to the church continues to decline year after year.  Much of this can be blamed by the fact that churches too often do the same thing year after year without ever considering if it works.

Here are some questions for thought…

Is your stewardship plan the same as it has always been?

Have you ever seriously evaluated whether your approach is actually working?

Do you know what your giving trends are?

Do you know the various giving segments that make up your donor base and how best to communicate to them?

Do you treat all donors the same?

When was the last time you even gave stewardship a thought?

The answer to these questions will tell a lot about whether you are doing business as usual when it comes to stewardship planning.  These are indeed challenging times.  We have seen giving to churches decline yearly since the mid sixties.  Yet not all churches have seen a decline.  Many have seen increases in part because they do not treat stewardship as a business as usual approach.

It may be time for you and your church to consider new approaches.  The reason for your stagnant stewardship growth could well be in the fact that you are doing stewardship the same way you did it in 1980.  Times have changed has your strategy?

Mark Brooks

Founder and President

The Charis Group

Nearly every church that I know increases their budget from one year to the next.  Very few churches do so based upon good financial analysis.  Most simply increase their budgets because they want to increase the amount of ministry they do.  It surprises me the amount of churches that base their budgets not upon solid data and performance but merely upon a hope and a prayer.  Please don’t get me wrong I believe in walking by faith.  However there is a huge difference between faith and presumption.  Too often we hide our poor planning behind spirituality.  The question must be asked, why did you increase your budget for the next year.  More importantly it needs to be asked how do you plan on making that budget?

As I always ask, What is your plan?  A budget without a plan is only a pipe dream, especially if you have increased your budget from this past year to the next.  What will be different this next year from this year?  What practical plans have you put into place that will allow you to achieve this new budget?

There are three options available to increase giving and to make next year’s budget.  Broadly speaking you have only three options available to you to help you make your new budget.  First, you can convince your existing donors to give more.  Secondly, you can motivate those that attend and give little or nothing to increase or start giving.  Finally new growth can help you stimulate additional funds.

Most churches can develop and implement a plan to attack new attendees.  The real challenge when it comes to giving is how to motivate them to start giving not just attending.  It becomes an even greater challenge when you want to get existing attendees and members to start giving or to increase their giving.  We develop strategic yearly plans for our clients that enable them to meet and exceed their budgets.  Without giving all the intellectual property away here are some keys to helping you achieve that increased budget.

• Have a compelling vision and continually share that vision to everyone.  People give to that which matters.  Make giving matter!
• Don’t be shy about making the “ask.”  Churches that ask for money get money.  Churches that hide the offering plate struggle to meet their budgets.
• Teach discipleship.  A disciple gives generously.  Don’t go weak on the full Gospel.
• Have a plan and work your plan.  Without a stewardship plan you are planning on failure.
• Show appreciation to every gift and donor.  Non-profits do an excellent job of thanking their donors.  Do you?
• Keep your eye on the stewardship ball.  Most churches don’t do a thing about stewardship until a crisis comes.  Don’t be like the rest.

How will you approach the Christmas offering?  Most churches give little to no thought about how they set up the offering.  Then they complain the next week about the poor results.  If the offering is a time of worship why is it that it gets so little thought and planning?  I believe we need to revolutionize the way we approach the offering.  This year I wrote an e-book called, “Elevator Pitch Your Offerings.”  I wrote 52 short stewardship messages designed to put some meaning into your offering.

Since it is the holiday season I decided to give away one of the Christmas messages I wrote.  Try it this weekend and see if it could make a difference in your offering.

The Magi’s Gifts

One of the classic Christmas Carol’s is “We Three Kings.” We love to sing that song about the three wise men that traveled to worship the newborn King, Jesus. You may even have a nativity scene in your house with three kings on knees worshiping the baby Jesus. A lot of what we sing about these men and even our nativity displays are simply legend not quite based upon fact. The Bible calls these men Magi, a word for learned men from east of Jerusalem. So down through time they have been called Magi, Wise Men and Kings.

We really have no evidence that they were kings and it’s not certain there were only three of them. While it might ruin your nativity it seems that these wise men were not present at the manger where Jesus was born but came to visit him much later as the Scripture says they came to visit him in a house. While there is a lot of conjecture about who these men were and even where they came from we can be certain that they existed.

The story of the Magi is grounded in Scripture. Matthew 2 tells us the story of the Magi, wise men from the east who had seen the star of Bethlehem and wanted to worship the newborn king. One thing that we know for sure is that they brought expensive gifts with them. Matthew 2:11 reads, “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.” All three of these gifts were costly and highly valued. In essence the wise men, in worshipping Jesus, gave gifts to befit a true king.

Every week during our services we take up an offering to support the work of Jesus through this church. Some might not view it as worship but as we have seen from Matthew chapter two, giving truly is worship. What gift will you give today to worship Jesus? You need not worry that your gift is not expensive like the Magi’s. In fact, if you will remember Jesus once praised a widow who gave the smallest of gifts. She won praise because that gift for her was one of great sacrifice. Gifts given in sacrifice and from a heart of praise and worship are always acceptable to our Lord.

So this morning as our ushers come forward consider what gift you can give today that will be one of worship for the joy that is ours in the birth of a Savior.

So, now you can make your offering this weekend have some zip and zing.  If you are interested in the e-book you can go to this page and download a copy http://thecharisgroup.org/ebooks/elevator-pitch-your-offerings/

As always we are here to help make your stewardship process more effective and meaningful.  We would love to be your stewardship partner.

Mark Brooks

Founder and President

The Charis Group

Stephen Covey is famous for his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”  One of those habits is, “Begin with the end in mind.”  We are at the end of the calendar year.  How is your giving going to end up for the year?  If you are like many pastors and church leaders you are starting to look at your year end giving compared to your budgeted needs.  Will there be the cash on hand to meet all budget expectations?  The next few offerings could make all the difference in how you end the year.  Many of you are so far behind that it is not a question of making your budget.  You are simply trying to receive enough to keep the boat afloat.

At this point there is frankly little you can do to close the gap.  It is time to think about how to avoid a similar short fall for next year.  Good planning now can help you avoid the budget crisis you are now experiencing.  Here are a couple of ideas to help you make next years budget.

Consider establishing a flex budget plan.  Why is it that we establish a yearly budget and never revise or revisit what we set in the fall of the previous year?  I believe many church budgets are set too high to begin with setting up a church for failure almost from month one.  Churches typically set a budget based upon what they perceive as their needs not based upon past giving patterns.  If your giving has been flat or in decline what makes you think that next year will be any different?  Unless you have seen a huge increase in attendance you can probably count on about the same amount coming in next year.

Setting your budget too high will only cause the church to fall further and further behind as the year progresses.  If you are more than 10% to 20% behind on your budget your budget was frankly set too high.  Unless you have had consistent large end of year gifts it is unrealistic to expect to make up that ground.  You must admit that you set the budget too high.

For the new year set the budget lower than last year.  Then ministries can adapt from the start rather than having to change set plans later in the year.  AS giving increases then you can increase your budget.  A flexible budget will allow you to have a better chance of actually making budget this coming year.  A flex budget plan will allow you to keep on target.  I would advise a quarterly budget that would be revised regularly.  Set the first quarter for a realistic amount.  Then extrapolate that amount out to the other three quarters to arrive at your yearly preliminary target.  All fluff items and things that you frankly can do without gets pushed outside of the budget awaiting an increase in giving before they get a line item in the budget.  As you continually review your giving you can add or delete line items thus making your budget much more realistic and obtainable.  What results is a more realistic chance of making your budget.  This builds confidence in your donors.

Don’t wait until it is too late to work on increasing gifts.  Perhaps the number one mistake churches make is that they do not continually work on increasing giving.  As I have written so often few churches have a stewardship plan that they work.  It is not until the summer months when a church falls behind that any actions are taken.  Then members get a desperate letter asking for funds.  The church comes off looking desperate and the church leaderships planning comes into question.

So start now putting a stewardship plan together for the new year.  If you need help I have a standardized one year giving plan that I will include if you purchase my e-book, “Elevator Pitch Your Offerings.”  This book will give you 52 short one to two minute stewardship messages that will help keep your offerings from being ho-hum!  The book sells for $29.95.  I typically sell our standardize one year giving plan for $75.  I guarantee that if you use this plan as written you will more than make up the amount you pay for it.  To find out more go to the following http://thecharisgroup.org/ebooks/

You can make next years budget.  It will not happen without some planning and work on your part.  Start with the end in mind and work towards making it happen.  As always if we can help please contact us.

Mark Brooks

Founder and President

The Charis Group

Today, December 13th, I turned fifty five.  This past spring I was in a fast food place and the kid behind the counter said to me, “That will be $5.70 with your Senior Adult discount.”  For the first time in my life someone thought I was old!  When I told the story to my wife her remark was that I was only six months away from legally qualifying for senior discounts.  Today that day has arrived.  Now I can get cheap coffee at McDonald’s cheaper.

Since I am a senior now I thought I would write a bit on my reflections having just returned from a 5.5 mile run to celebrate my 55 years.  So here are my thoughts…

• More than ever I want my life to count for something.  With whatever is left of my life I want it to honor God and make my family proud of the man I am.
• I want to continually day after day be the man my wife needs me to be, the father my kids expect and the Pops my grandchildren adore.
• I want to keep the pace of life I now live.  Retirement?  Nope, I might want to retool but I never want to retire.  I love what I do too much to stop.
• I want to revolutionize the stewardship industry with honesty, creativity and out of the box thinking.
• I want to write more books.
• I want to be THE expert on stewardship matters.
• I want to take my bride back to Italy.
• I want to walk on the beach several times a year.
• I want to run one more marathon.  Running my 23rd this fall only made me want to run one more.
• I want to help you who read this to be better at who you are and what you do.

Over promising results and thus creating unrealistic expectations is one of the biggest mistakes pastors make.  In my thirteen and a half years of working in the stewardship field I have seen this mistake played out from large to small churches.  Pastors and church leaders attempting to convince the congregation to approve moving forward with some initiative almost always over promise the results.  It is not that they are being disingenuous it is simply that they always tend to project the best possible outcome.  As such they over reach and over promise.

Here is a typical example.  Let’s say that you have an annual operating budget of $400K a year.  The project that you want to build is going to cost from $2.5 million to $3.0 million.  How can you explain to the congregation that you have a plan that will help you achieve raising that amount?  Typically church leaders employ capital stewardship campaigns as a means to generate revenue.  In doing so they tend to promise an amount to be raised that is at least twice to three times their annual operating budget.  They also if they are relocating talk of the sale of the existing property to help pay for the amount needed to raise.

That sounds like a good plan of action and it is.  However the danger lies in what those leaders promise in terms of what can be raised.  They typically over estimate how much their capital campaign will bring in and they over estimate how much their current property will sell for.  Let’s analyze the two areas.

Capital Campaign Results

I blame my industry in part for the mistakes that pastors and leaders are making in over promising campaign results.  For years my industry told churches that you could raise one and a half to three times your annual operating expense in a capital campaign.  It was a sales pitch that no one ever studied to find out if the averages were true.  Most churches never heard the low average and always projected the high three times average.  Some churches do indeed raise that percentage and more.  However they are always accomplished with major gifts.  If your church is comprised of mainly blue collar workers your pledge to budget average will be much lower.

As a result of the recession pledging is lower than in past years.  We have seen this in the campaigns we have done and in talking to others in the industry they are seeing the same thing.  Yet to the shame of my industry most companies still talk about helping you raise between one and a half and three times your budget.  Those inflated numbers which I doubt ever were the norm are now even further from reality.  Frankly the range is about one to two times your annual operating expense.  So, be careful what you promise will come in.  It will in all probability be less than you think.

Selling Your Church Property

Once a pastor said to me, “Our realtor says that our building is worth $5 million.”   He was counting on that amount to help him pay for a large part of the relocation.  My reply was, “Your building is worth what someone is going to write you a check for it.”  Churches seldom ever bring in the amount they think they will.  On top of that the church you are moving out of will have a limited number of perspective buyers interested in purchasing it.  In nearly every relocation that I have been involved with selling the old property took much longer than expected and brought in far less than anticipated.  Again, be careful what you promise.

Why Is This Important?

Your integrity is what is at stake.  While members might forgive your over exuberance they will remember what you said.  The next time you get up to cast a vision or give plans it will be in their minds.  If you continually over promise at the least the will tune you out and at most your integrity will come into question.

Project a Realistic Plan

I agree that you need to advance a plan of action of how you will pay for whatever it is your are doing.  However, I always counsel that it is better to be upfront with your congregation fully explaining to them all the costs and actually projecting the high side of estimates.  Get all the sticker shock out of the way.  Then provide them with a realistic plan for financing the project.  This requires a lot of careful thought and planning.  It is not something that we recommend you launch into on your own.

Most of our work now is done on the front end of campaigns helping churches accurately assess what they capabilities are.  We then help them craft together a realistic and believable plan of action to present to the congregation.  The project gets accomplished, the leaders are held in higher esteem and God’s work gets done.

If you are in the midst of a project the advice I give you is two fold.  First, be careful what you promise.  Church members will remember for a long time what you say.  Secondly, don’t go it alone.  Get help from a stewardship firm that knows how to guide you through the process and thus protect you from needless mistakes.  I happen to know of a good one, us!

Mark Brooks

Founder and President

The Charis Group