Four Steps 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 shoestring 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 that 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.  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 – The Stewardship Coach