How To Make Giving Cool and Hip

Consider that the median gift to a church yearly is only $200.  It is little wonder that giving as a percent of income has gone down from 3.11% in 1968 to 2.38% in 2009.  Clearly giving to the church is in decline and it is not the fault of the economy.

We can all sit around and talk about how horrible that is or we can get up and decide to do something about it.  I have dedicated my life to doing something about it by helping churches increase their giving and thus fulfill the visions God has given them.  It is more than a tag line to me it is my passion.  While a pastor spends hours a week on sermon preparation I spend hours a week thinking about stewardship.  As one of my fellow stewardship coaches likes to say, “We get up thinking about what keeps a pastors up at night, giving.”

This morning on my run through the Georgia woods I began to think about how we can make giving cool and hip.  If we can make giving the in thing then we can see this downward trend of decline reverse itself.  If we could reverse the trend and simply get back to the 1968 levels of giving it would mean $7 BILLION more given to the church!  So, let’s work to make giving cool.  Here are four steps to take to make giving cool in your church…

Make It Essential - It has to first start with you the leader.  You have to make stewardship an essential part of what you do.  Too many pastors and leaders simply don’t give ample time to thinking and planning a stewardship strategy.  While you can do ministry on a shoe string it is much easier to do with adequate funds.  When you see giving as essential you will see your giving increase.

Make It Enjoyable - I once wrote that we needed to make giving fun.  A pastor wrote me back and said how do I do that?  It might seem an oxymoron but you can make giving fun and enjoyable for your members.  There are two ways to do this.  First, when you cast a compelling vision then I am more apt to want to give to support that vision.  Make giving meaningful and you will find people will give more.  Then you need to thank those that give.  Never take any gift for granted.  Donors who feel appreciated are much more likely to donate again.  Giving can be fun and enjoyable if we work at it.  Remember, God loves a cheerful giver!

Make It Easy - We utilize a tool for collecting funds which few are equipped to respond to, the offering plate.  We are fast moving away from cash and checks towards all commerce being electronic.  If you don’t have an electronic platform for giving don’t be surprised if your percentage of giving declines.  We must make giving easy to do.  The technology is there and there are companies out there producing the tools for the church to use.  Sadly too many churches are not responding.  As a result it is becoming harder to give to churches and thus churches are seeing a decline in giving.  Make giving to your church easy and you will see giving increase!

Make It Expected - Part of being a disciple is giving.  By failing to talk about giving or by not taking up an offering we have only watered down the Gospel and made giving decline.  Jesus talked more about possessions and giving than any other topic.  He rightly understood that it was the god of his age.  It still is today.  Raise the level of expectation at your church and your members will rise to meet that expectation.  I am not advocating legalism.  Yet we have swung the pendulum so far in the opposite direction that our message has little in common with our Messenger.  Make giving expected and your giving will increase!

It is time to realize that the ship is sinking.  You can continue to re-arrange the chairs on the Titanic or you can work to fix the hole.  It can be fixed.  I work with churches across this land who are seeing their giving increase rather than decline.  You can see the same thing happen to your church as well.  By making giving cool and hip again and we can bring in millions and billions of dollars for Kingdom purposes.  Start today working on making giving cool in your church.

Mark Brooks

Founder and President

The Charis Group

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