Does Your Church Need a Capital Budget?
Lewis Center Director Lovett H. Weems, Jr., describes how formulating and funding a capital budget can help a church stay on top of building maintenance…
Browsing: Funding
Articles
Reimaging Stewardship Season
Pastor Laura Heikes shares strategies for making stewardship season something people don’t dread, but to which they look forward. “It’s not impossible,” she writes. “Dream…
Five Questions for Discerning Your Annual Giving Theme
John Zehring and Kate Jagger describe five questions that can help you define a theme that can serve as an effective framework for your annual…
A Better Way to Report on Giving
Stewardship experts Kristine Miller and Scott McKenzie explain why publishing weekly and year-to-date giving amounts in the Sunday bulletin with a “woe is us” message…
Embracing Electronic Giving
Adam Copeland of Luther Seminary says electronic giving is the preferred method of giving for most churchgoers, including your most faithful givers. Reducing the barriers…
Clergy Personal Finance Resources
Our basic responsibility as Christian stewards is to manage our personal financial resources so that we can care for ourselves and our families and marshal…
Christian Wallet Principles
Every Christian knows that we are called to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. But what about our wallet? We get…
Stewardship – old
Nearly every church leader today is concerned with the need to fund their congregation’s ministry given the challenging financial environment of recent years. We offer resources on…
50 Ways to Improve Your Annual Stewardship Campaign
Church members who make pledges give substantially more than those who do not, and congregations that seek annual financial commitments have significantly higher levels of…
When Higher Giving May Not Be Good News
As a new year begins, there will and should be a careful review of the past year. Perhaps there will be reports made to the…
Setting Stewardship Goals for the New Year
Setting annual goals for your stewardship and generosity ministry is very important to help create focus and energy. These goals can come out of brainstorming…
Ten Ways Congregations Can Promote the Financial Wellbeing of Clergy
Financial wellbeing is essential to the overall health and well being of those in pastoral ministry. Accordingly, the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health…
Why Clergy Personal Finances Matter
“For where your treasure is, there your heart shall be also.” (Matthew 6:21) Jesus talked a great deal about money. And in our monetized society,…
Games People Play During Budget Season
Is budget season in your church plagued with political maneuvering and game playing? Watch out for some of these common ploys that Richard J. Vargo…
Overcoming the Fear of Talking About Money
I confess to a complicated relationship with wealth. When I was in college, I thought of money as the “root of all evil.” I even…
Crafting Better Commitment Campaign Messages
Many churches have a one-size-fits-all approach to their annual stewardship appeal. Everyone in the congregation receives the same “Dear Friend” letter inviting them to prayerfully…
Inspiring Generosity with a Thank You Letter
How often have you opened up what looks like a form letter and read, “On behalf of blah blah blah, I want to thank you…
9 Ways Generosity Leads to Healthier and More Purposeful Living
Do you sometimes wish for empirical evidence to back up your faith claims? In The Paradox of Generosity (Oxford University Press, 2014), sociologists Christian Smith…
A Stewardship Intervention Counters Fundraiser Dependence
I pastor a church that believes in the power of fundraisers. Over the decades, Beulah African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, a historic congregation in rural…
Should a Pastor Know What Church Members Give?
Every time I teach a stewardship workshop or class, this question invariably comes up: “Should a pastor have access to contribution records?” In some congregations,…
Removing Obstacles to Giving
Sometimes churches have financial systems designed for the convenience of those receiving the contributions rather than for those who are giving. When you design and…
Tell Your Stewardship Story
Early in my own ministry, I always found stewardship season anxiety-producing. While I got better at it, I still found the fall campaign difficult. One…
The Importance of a Narrative Budget
Narrative budgeting has a critical role to play in any comprehensive parish stewardship program. Basic philanthropic theory indicates that people want their money to have…
Models for Budget Building
Churches use a variety of budget building models. No one model or combination of models is right for every church. What approach might best fit…
Spending More on Others Fosters Increased Generosity
Three years ago, our church set an ambitious goal — to become a “tithing congregation” that gives ten percent of our church’s budget to outreach,…
Give a Word of Witness
One of the most powerful tools for growing generosity in the church is telling the story of how the church is transforming people’s lives through…
Doing a Christmas Eve Offering Well
In our culture, Christmas is a season of giving when church-goers and non-church-goers alike are inclined toward generosity. I witnessed a Christmas Eve service in which…
Developing a Thank You System for Your Church
Saying thank you promptly and regularly is one of the simplest and most effective things a congregation can do to reinforce good stewardship and enhance…
Always Say Thank You
Paul, my dear church friend whom I have known since third grade, sent me an email. And he was mad. At the end of July,…
Why Giving Matters and Clues for Improving It
To encourage the spiritual gift of giving, this eight-minute video by Lewis Center Director Lovett H. Weems, Jr., provides an overview of the importance of…
