Band Aides and Aspirin

Are you treating a terminal illness with band aides and aspirin? If so, you could be killing your future! Just because the economy sucks does not mean your offerings have to! However, if you are not doing something then you are only applying band aides and handing out aspirins. Find out how to do more belowÖ

A year ago one or our Charis associates was battling with back pain. He went to a number of chiropractors and physical therapist seeking relief. While gaining some temporary relief the problem got worse. Finally after months of treatment someone did an MRI on his back. It wasnít a problem with his disc it was a cancerous mass on his kidney pressing into his spine. Month after month he had been treated with what essentially was a band aide treatment for a potentially terminal illness. Taking an aspirin might have alleviated some of the pain but it left the root problem still in place growing larger day by day. Thankfully the problem was detected and he is on his way to full recovery.

I meet and talk to pastors and Christian leaders every day that are unknowingly guilty of the same thing. They are treating a potentially terminal illness with a band aide here and an aspirin there. The real cancer eats away at their ministry sometimes without them even knowing it until its too late. The cancer we deal with is stewardship or the lack thereof. The honest truth of the matter is that your membership is comprised of scores of people that are not good stewards. They attend your services, use your facilities, count as an attendee but rarely pull their own weight in terms of dollars contributed. What do we are Christian leaders do about this? I find there are a variety of responses to stewardship from Christian leaders. I find the following attitudes and approaches:

Ignorantly bliss - Some leaders are not even aware of what is going on in terms of stewardship in their ministries. Ignorance is never bliss!
Hopefully naÔve ñ Some leaders just hope and pray their people will be good stewards. Hope is never a good strategy!
Mystically optimistic ñ Some leaders think that if they simply teach on the deeper life of Christ their constituents will put two and two together and give. I am all for the deeper life but your members too often can not add two plus two in terms of stewardship. Positive thinking produces little!
Legalistic bullying - Some leaders preach the responsibility of tithing while never teaching the positive benefits that this brings to members. A heavy dose of law does not make for long term stewards. Bullying your members only leaves them bruised!
Biblically balanced While few and far between these leaders see the need for addressing stewardship and do so in a consistent and thorough manner thus producing long term stewards. They know to teach the truth about giving from a balance whole life view point. Balance is the key!

Which one are you? Which one would your members say is you? Which one should you be? If you are like most leaders that I deal with you are probably trying to fix this cancer with a band aide and an aspirin. In this issue of The Stewardship Coach we want to share with you a strategy that will work for you. Here is what we recommendÖ

First diagnose the problem.

Do you know what your ministries strengths, weaknesses and opportunities are? What areas are you growing in? What areas are you weak in? What needs improvement? Too many leaders start hacking away without knowing where the real issues lie. You might be doing more damage than good. You have to know what is going on in your ministry before you can prescribe the right treatment. Do you know how to do that? We do! The Charis Groupís Stewardship Enhancement Program is designed to answer just those questions for you. We are so confident are we in our diagnosis and prescribe plan that if your giving does not go up in one year we will refund you our fee! Find out more about our Stewardship Enhancement Program at the end of this article.

Next prescribe a treatment.

What is your plan for improving your stewardship base? No NFL or college team would ever think about playing their next opponent without a game plan. Yet I find that many Christian leaders have no set plan to address what can potentially be a problem that will stop your dreams from becoming a reality. I find that most leaders plan for addressing this is to preach upon stewardship from time to time. I would agree that we need to preach on stewardship. Look at the following reasons.

Why should you preach on stewardship?

It's biblical! Jesus talked more about money than any other subject. Donít let a few people talk you out of preaching the whole counsel of God. Jesus talked about it so much because he understood its power upon the lives of people. It truly is the god and idol of our age. Your message of truth will bring life to your members!
It brings results. George Barna in his studies has found that churches in which pastors preachÖ

Single messages about giving raise more money.
Two or more nonconsecutive messages do not have any advantage over churches that only preach on stewardship once a year.
Two or more consecutive messages about stewardship raise more money than do those churches that only hear one message a year.
A series on giving is nearly two and a half times more likely to experience an increase in giving than preachers who only talk about stewardship once a year or on two non consecutive times in a year.

The bottom line is that the more you preach on stewardship the more dollars you will raise. However you must not stop with simply preaching on stewardship. Doing so is like putting a band aide on the problem. You have to attack the root issue.

Show your members the positive aspects of stewardship.

Right priorities It all starts with our priorities. Help your members set the right priorities and it will benefit your ministry in the long run. Are you teaching them how to rearrange their priorities in order to be good stewards? We can help you with that!
Right plan. Help your members establish a plan of action that will lead them to financial stability. If you donít have a plan to help your members all you are probably doing for them is putting a band aide upon a gapping wound. Our Building Wealth Seminar gives people the basics towards building a plan that will make them good stewards. Most want to give to your ministry they just donít know how to do so given their present economic dilemma. What plan do you have to help them?

Remember the old saying, ìFish or cut bait?î Now is the time where you must decide what you are going to do. Just because the economy sucks does not mean your offerings have to! If you are interested in turning this around then look below for two new initiatives that we are offering called, Stewardship Enhancement and the Building Wealth Seminar. We are so sure that each of these will increase your offerings that we are offering a money back guarantee if they donít.

Mark Brooks

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