What Happens When You Can’t Pass the Plate?

by: Greg Gibbs

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Coronavirus Concerns in the Church

The last stat I heard about digital giving in the Church was that about 75% of churches have the option, but only 25% of giving actually happens via electronic means.

Even if this statistic is slightly askew, the reality is that many churches are facing some hair-raising days. If we don’t gather for a few weeks, it could present some serious challenges to many of the nation’s churches. It is highly probable that churches will collect significantly less money than they are used to collecting over the next 3-8 weeks.

This is a time that calls for proactivity and faith. 

Proactivity will drive us to consider what we must in light of a quickly altered reality. Everything just changed – and for many churches, it may drive decisions about rethinking what we can afford to do in the short run. If I were in your congregation, I would be much more at ease if my pastors and leaders were trying to get ahead of the game and not just wait for the sky to fall.

At the same time, we have to bank on the faith we profess and the idea that God will continue to provide for the Church. Our churches may actually change as a result of the days ahead. But maybe this is an opportunity to wake up to a new day God has for all of us. Sometimes a crisis causes us to see more clearly… 

Here are a few thoughts for church leaders to consider:

1. Your first calling is to care for the people in your congregation. Find out where people are suffering, alone, or scared and deploy help when you can. 
2. Continue to follow best practice as outlined by healthcare professionals. Defying that advice is not a sign of suffering for Christ, it is a sign of bravado that may lead people to become very ill and shows disrespect to the broader community. Our reputation as good citizens is on the line.
3. Find ways to link people to each other in homes and via virtual or digital means if possible. Reaching out to each other via an old-fashioned phone call may be the most caring thing you can do.
4. Begin creating contingency plans A, B, and C if the church revenue decreases by 10%, 20% or 30%. What would you suspend, stop or change? And how can you communicate this proactively as opposed to creating doomsday negativity?
5. Send a letter or email to the congregation that does not communicate desperation but the reality of your financial situation in light of the suspension of services. Get ahead of this – people need to know the reality of the situation, your plans to address the challenge, and your care about the people more than church budgets.
6. Pray for physical healing and the eradication of this virus for all of the people of your city. And also pray that this pandemic will cause all of us to think about the truly important priorities in life once again. Spiritual awakening may be right around the corner.

May the Heavenly Father, God of Creation keep and sustain us in all ways and at all times, including the next few weeks of uncertainty. May the Savior Jesus Christ, in whom all things hold together, grant us healing by His miraculous power to bring life and health out of what is intended for death and suffering. May the Holy Spirit soak us with the peace that passes understanding. And may the Church recommit to dependence on God’s provision in all things and at all times. Amen.

Tags: Church Giving, Churches closed, Coronavirus, Reduced offerings

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Why “Decreasing Giving” News Shouldn’t Paralyze You

by: Greg Gibbs

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It should come as no surprise to pastors and ministry leaders that the traditional ways we track and predict things are going the way of the fax machine. And the articles and polls are coming out virtually every week right now: Giving is down in the church! Ugh. As if pastors don’t have enough to worry about.

Here’s my take on this: Most of us were taught (or learned by experience) that attendance and giving records were a pretty decent indicator of how we could plan for financial fuel in the coming year. We used to be able to predict with near clairvoyant accuracy how much may come into the offering in the next 12 months.

Well, we aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto. Attendance is as inconsistent as the weather and giving is tilting downward. Most of the blogs and social media chatter is a grand speculation about the national drift toward disengagement with the church. Some blame it on our cell phones, some on the next generation, and still others will attribute it to a more macro trend: Post Christian America.

It is cliché at this point to write about how money has always been a tricky subject for churches. And the church has a bit of a black eye in the view of many of our neighbors – and we deserve it to some extent. Humans run churches. And humans don’t tend to naturally do well with money (whether they have a lot of it or a little). No one seems to have the right amount. Even Jesus knew it would trip people up and slow their progress toward full dedication.

But, for the most part in a mostly Christian context (America), people had a basic sense of obligation to support their local church. Until now. And it is less about the changing tax code than people think.

Those of us as pastors who were afraid to talk about the topic or had no proactive approach to spiritually coaching people toward generous living could get away with this – money would show up in the plates. Until now.

Passivity no longer works. Proactivity still does.

Here is what I’ve learned working with hundreds of churches over the last few decades on a proactive approach to developing generosity in the church. Without a long explanation of how to press into this topic at your church, let me get you started on a few categories I tend to put under the microscope when diagnosing the upside potential at each church.

There are five of them.

• Theology – Review Your Conviction
• Discipleship – Teach a Pathway
• Communication – Create a Culture
• Strategy – Follow a Plan
• Relationships – Walk With People

The churches that seem to do a great job of raising financial support and discipleship intensity at the same time have been thoughtful about these categories.

THEOLOGY

Many churches could use a tune up or review on what they believe about money’s role in the church and in the Christian life. With so much unhealthy regard for money in our hearts and culture, we need wisdom on this as much as any time in history.

• What is our theology of giving, generosity and prosperity?
• In what ways do we care about the poor?
• Is giving 10% of income an end, beginning, or neither?
• Do we think pastors should look at the giving records?
• Can we hire staff or promote someone into a volunteer leadership position who does not give to the church?
• Is volunteering time the same (spiritually speaking) as volunteering money?

DISCIPLESHIP

The goal of the church is to create an environment for discipleship. As we lead people to follow the teachings of Jesus, our methodology should include teaching on living with open hands and not having financial resources be our master.

• Do we believe that helping a Jesus follower with his or her money management is part of a healthy spiritual life?
• Does this discipline get talked about as much as the other “ways to grow in devotion” like prayer, visiting the sick, silence and service?
• Do we have clear steps, pathways, classes, and guideposts for people who are growing in the grace of giving?
• What if someone is not ready to give 10%? What do we teach or mentor them to do?

COMMUNICATION

Ultimately, we shift a culture through the ways we communicate. What church leadership chooses to report and highlight in our use of money will speak to what we truly value and want from our church body. Many churches struggle with knowing what to say or how often to say it.

• Can we create a culture where it is normal to talk about giving and investing in the work of God?
• Can we celebrate the use of money?
• Do we talk about our own individual struggles with money?
• What is the best way to communicate about the church’s use of money? How can we build trust around the topic of money and church leadership?

STRATEGY

There are critical processes that “best practice” churches have in place when it comes to how to organize their time and resources. Churches that are proactive can build disciplines that enhance the congregation’s trust in leadership as well as create the best possible environment for good management of funds.

• Is there a plan for spending, saving, and investing God’s money through the bank accounts of the church in keeping with our convictions?
• How do we set or adjust budgets? Who gets to do this?
• What do we believe about investing in buildings, facilities, global mission and local needs?
• Should the church have an annual audit? What about debt?
• How often should we send out statements of giving to contributors?

RELATIONSHIPS

Ultimately, the most effective leaders understand that beyond process and protocol, the work of the church is about building relationships that lead to spiritual growth. Each church, in keeping with their own style and belief, will need to figure out ways to nurture people in ways that build their faith and therefore their generosity.

• How can pastors and ministry leaders bring up the topic of money in conversations with members of the congregation without seeming “grabby”?
• Can we really show that we care more about what we want for people than what we want from them?
• Should pastors interact with high net worth members to encourage their stewardship in a different way than others?
• Is there a way to train small group and ministry leaders to “step in” to hard conversations about this area of discipleship?

When I mentioned diagnosing the “upside potential” of each church, I come at this analysis as a pastor. I am, without apology, trying to help churches receive more funding for mission. But I also believe that, done with an eye for spiritual formation, this helps with the discipleship of people in the church. I have seen both increase many times.

So, that is why I encourage you to not give in to the trends. It is not time to cry “Uncle,” particularly if you haven’t gone through a discernment process using the five categories above (or something like it).

If this topic interests you, why don’t you check out Auxano’s Capital Campaign Boot Camp, coming February 19-20 to Huntington Beach, CA? Details and registration information here.

Tags: Capital Campaign, Capital Campaign Boot Camp, Church Giving, Church Giving Trends, Giving Trends, Greg Gibbs

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The Critical Metric You’re Not Measuring – But Should Be!

by: Tobin Perry

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(NOTE: This post was excerpted from the ebook “5 Crucial Church Metrics You’re Not Measuring (But Should Be!)”)

Few church metrics come with so much baggage as those centered around giving. We simply don’t know how far to delve into the generosity (or lack thereof) of our congregation. Often, it comes from an honest and well-intentioned desire not to prejudice ourselves for or against people based upon how much they give.

But it’s a mistake not to measure giving. In 21st-century North America, generosity gives us a bird’s-eye view into the human heart like no other church metric. Johnny Hunt, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia, puts it this way: “You’re never more like Jesus than when you give.” If Jesus is the spiritual-maturity barometer of a discipled Christian, then generosity has to be a critical part of the equation.

That’s why you want a giving metric that measures the breadth of your giving across your church membership. If your congregation as a whole isn’t giving— or giving is relegated to a relative few—you can assume you have people who need additional discipleship in the area of generosity.

“It’s incredibly valuable to know that we have 40 committed families, and we have 30 committed givers. That tells us we probably have 25 percent of our church [that] has not been discipled in that area or doesn’t have the means [to give],” said Brandon Cox, who serves as the managing editor for Pastors.com and the founding pastor of Grace Hills Church in northwest Arkansas.

Depending upon how your church tracks giving, this shouldn’t be tough to figure either. Whoever manages your accounting can simply isolate all your members’ giving records and count up the number of people who have given in the past month. Divide that number by your church’s total number of givers.

But here’s where technology can come into play and really help you see the facts and figures. We are living in a time where technology has evolved at an amazing rate, and the latest version of a computer or smartphone is outdated in a matter of months, not years. But in the church, we are often behind when it comes to technology. Whether it’s fear of change or an overwhelming number of options to choose from, decisions about technology seem to paralyze church leaders into indecision. Technology can be an extremely beneficial element to your ministry, particularly when it comes to generosity.                          

Did you know that the percentage of people using their smartphones to shop on Amazon cracked the 70 percent mark in December of 2015? Facebook sees similar mobile use. In fact, in April of 2016, Facebook reported that 79 percent of its advertising revenue came through mobile ads.

There are even articles being published on the importance of mobile giving for churches that cite some very important metrics, such as, 3 Reasons Why Your Church Needs to Consider Mobile Giving for Offering & Tithes.

At the end of the day, when it comes to trends like this, the numbers don’t lie.

My point of sharing these metrics is that the world today regularly interacts via smartphone, and that number is only growing as smartphones become more and more integrated into our daily lives. If your church is not taking advantage of this shift, you are not only missing out on connecting more with your community, but you are also missing out on the valuable metrics that come with it. These metrics can help measure the percentage of members who give, determine how effective and useful your current technology is, and make educated decisions about how well your technology serves your ministry.

What does this metric tell you? You’ll learn how well you’ve discipled your congregation in the area of generosity.

Things to Consider:

• Obviously, if you have a high percentage of members who give in cash, this metric becomes very difficult to figure. Platforms like Pushpay can help with this by consistently driving your congregation to mobile giving. Churches that have adopted Pushpay technology have received 76 percent of their giving through mobile technology on average—that alone can give you a lot of data.
• Everyone who gives between $1 and $10,000 in a given month will count toward this figure. You can’t determine how well your members understand the concept of tithing through this metric. Couple it with per capita giving to understand the breadth and depth of giving in your congregation.
• Remember the cautions described earlier about numbers related to church membership. Make sure you have accurate church membership figures. (That goes for any of the metrics in related to church membership).

How to Improve This Metric:

Get plugged into a mobile giving solution. We live in a mobile world where your congregants expect to be able to give on the run. By encouraging mobile giving, this platform can increase the number of people in your church who give—and how quickly they give after joining your church.

• Develop a comprehensive plan to teach stewardship to your congregation. Preach about stewardship on an annual basis at a minimum. Offer classes that help your members get on top of their debt.

To learn more about this and other oft-overlooked church metrics, click to read the rest of the ebook!

Tags: Church Giving, Metrics for Church Giving, PushPay, church giving metrics

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5 Lessons about Church Giving that Amazon Can Teach Us

by: Rich Birch

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Way back in the mid-1990s there were a lot of companies gunning to be the leader in “online retailing.” (Who remembers Pets.com?) Amazon was an early leader. Since then, it has cemented its place as the “everything store” by offering a massive selection of items that are delivered at a shockingly quick rate.

Google is the search engine for knowledge. Amazon is the search engine for purchasing. 

In fact, 44% of all online shoppers go directly to Amazon to make purchases. [ref] When people give, our churches’ digital giving interfaces are being compared to Amazon’s. We need to learn about how this e-commerce retailer handles their customers and apply those lessons to our donors.

• Reduce Friction // Have you ever noticed how easy it is to purchase something on Amazon? Over the years, they have focused on reducing the friction in the online shopping experience to encourage more people to spend with them. It’s beautiful to watch all the various pieces working together. Amazon Prime removes the “added shipping cost” from the “shopping cart” so we don’t slow down at check-out. They store multiple credit cards so you can decide where you want to charge individual purchases. The Amazon Dash buttons allow you to push a button and have common items ordered and shipped to you. The latest tool, Amazon Echo, literally allows you to call out orders from your home and they’ll ship them to you! Is your online giving system complex and hard to follow? Are you asking people to go through extra hoops that add to your convenience but to their annoyance? Is it easy to find how to give to your church on your website?
• Send More Emails // If you are a regular Amazon shopper, you get a tremendous amount of email from them. Every time you order, you receive a confirmation email, a “your order is shipped email” and an “order arrived” email. You also receive regular marketing emails about categories of products they believe you might be interested in. If you browse certain items but don’t purchase them, Amazon will send you “recall” emails to bring you back to the site to purchase the item you were thinking about. You might not like all this email … but it works. It drives the behavior they are looking for. Most churches don’t send enough email. They are afraid to junk up inboxes. I’m not advocating sending the same amount as Amazon — just yesterday I received 8 emails and I didn’t purchase anything! — but I am saying churches need to send more. Obviously an acknowledgment email … but what about monthly statements rather than waiting for quarterly ones? Emails that show the impact of giving, or ones that show how people can set up a new aspect of online giving? These may move people from regular “one-time gifts” to “recurring donations.” Send more emails … it’s okay.
• Invest in Long-Term Solutions // One of the things I admire about Amazon is their commitment to investing in long-term customer satisfaction rather than just chasing short-term trends. They have steadily sped up the delivery of their products over the years, reducing the time they call “click to ship” from days when they started to minutes in some instances today. This is an impressive feat for a company with 244 million customers. [ref] Investing in your digital giving solution is wise over the long haul. People are moving closer toward this approach than traditional donor channels from the past. It might take you a while to get it right, but people will be using this system for years. Gather your team and start working on this for your church. It’s not a short-term fad but a long-term shift that you need a solution for.
• Don’t Miss Mobile // The Amazon app is a beautiful experience. It has a UPC scanner where you can walk into traditional “bricks and mortar” stores, scan items and compare the cost to purchase it on Amazon. I’ve purchased many items over the years after looking at them in the store and then buying them online. Mobile is the way people increasingly interact with the web. Your site needs to be “mobile optimized” so it works cleanly on a wide variety of phones, tablets and other interfaces that people carry around. In fact, your digital giving solution really should be seen from a “mobile first” perspective because all the trendlines are pointing toward that being where most people will interact with you.
• Be Customer “Obsessed” // Amazon is crazy-obsessed with making people happy. They work hard to ensure customers love their service more than any other online store. It’s the first of their fourteen values and it permeates how they talk about and live out their mission. We know that when people give to your church, they are giving to what the Lord is doing — but sometimes it can feel like we ignore our donors out of a false sense of not wanting to show favoritism. Everyone who chooses to give anything to your church is vital to your mission. They are as important in making your services happen as that core volunteer who is “first in, last out” every Sunday. We go out of our way to treat volunteers with love and care … we need to do the same with our donors. On top of that, some of them have the spiritual gift of giving and, like other gifts, we want to see it exercised well within our churches. If we ignore people who give, we’ll miss the opportunity to develop those gifts!

> Read more from Rich.

Connect with an Auxano Navigator to learn more about Generosity in your church.

Tags: Amazon, Church Giving, Generosity, Rich Birch, giving in your church

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Is Up and to the Right, Always Right? Understanding Church Giving Increases

by: Dan Reiland

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I had a conversation with a pastor last week who told me that the giving in his church was on the rise and he asked how he should interpret that.

That’s a sharp pastor.

Normally, we only do an analysis to understand what’s going on when the giving decreases. That’s necessary and can be helpful, but it’s mostly playing defense.

It’s better to know how to interpret giving when it’s increasing, so you can understand it in the moment and lead accordingly.

You might consider this semantics, asking, don’t we use the same factors to understand giving regardless if it’s increasing or decreasing? Yes, to some degree that’s true. But deliberate cultivation of generosity when it’s increasing is the wiser stewardship because it’s proactive rather than reactive.

In other words, it’s like attendance. When a leader says to me, “My overall church attendance is increasing rapidly, but I have no idea why,” he or she can’t learn from or leverage the momentum. They are so excited and grateful, they receive the attendance as a gift and think, “I don’t know why I’ve received this gift, but I’m sure happy about it.” That’s a great attitude, but not the best leadership.

More importantly, if you don’t know why it’s increasing, you are less likely to understand why it’s declining, (if or when it does), and therefore, it takes you longer to change the course of giving.

If you only know why your attendance is decreasing, you are always reacting and playing catch up to a problem, rather than seizing the power of momentum. It’s the same with the giving in your church.

So, here are the factors the pastor and I discussed to help interpret an increase in giving.

1) A positive response to the vision.

If your giving is up, take a look at what you have been doing to communicate the vision and how the congregation is responding. Ask yourself why it’s working. Learn from it, ask questions of key leaders to discover how they are responding as well. Continue to refine and bring clarity to the vision and how you communicate it. A real test of vision is whether or not the congregation takes action.

2) Maturing of faith.

We know that giving follows in tandem with the increasing spiritual maturity.

As believers learn to trust God and obey His word, giving is part of a natural expression of faith. It’s rare that a nominal believer consistently practices percentage giving. When giving is increasing, be keenly aware of the spiritual dynamics in play from the prayer life of the congregation to their hunger for the Word.

What practices seem to be increasing and why? When can you learn and leverage to help people continue to mature in their faith?

3) Confidence and trust in the senior pastor.

In general, people will not give to the church where they don’t have confidence in the leadership of the pastor. And they certainly don’t give if the pastor is not trusted.

The more extreme examples need no explanation, but this is often difficult to discern in the more moderate illustrations. For example, if the pastor is liked, but doesn’t seem to have a clear direction of where the church is headed, the confidence of the people is likely low.

Strong giving is not only an indicator of mature and obedient believers but also that they have confidence in the leadership of the pastor. If you are not sure, one of the best ways to know is to ask several trusted leaders and confidants in the church, such as board members, prayer partners, and one or two key staff.

4) Relationally connected with others in the church.

People always feel more connected when they share meaningful relationships with each other as part of the congregation.

There are two primary long-term points of connection. They are small groups and serving.

Small groups carry a strong sense of community and belonging as people open up, get to know each other, pray and support each other in their everyday lives.

Serving teams often carry an even stronger sense of community because of the bonding that takes place when people serve together on a team focused on a particular goal or mission.

There are obviously other factors at play when it comes to increased giving such as the possibility that a single large gift caused the offering to increase substantially that month.

We learn different things if there are a few additional significant contributions or if there many smaller ones. It’s important to understand why a large contribution is given, but it’s more important to understand trends.

I’m more like the pastors who are just grateful when God blesses. I have caught myself saying, ‘You know, I’m not sure why the giving is so strong, but I’m very grateful.” That’s obviously not a bad thing, but the leader in me needs to be grateful and have a good understanding of God’s blessing. That enables me to lead farther and extend God’s Kingdom to the greatest potential. That will help you too.

Learn more about generosity and giving patterns – talk with an Auxano Navigator.

> Read more from Dan.

Tags: Church Giving, Dan Reiland, Generosity, Giving, budget giving

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