I had to write a paper on Stewardship. This paper is probably more of a rant than a productive paper, but here it is anyway.
The past two years at Grace, we have had two different Stewardship campaigns. With these two campaigns we had two totally different results. In 2008, we followed the Stewardship campaign titled “Treasure of a Transformed Life” by John Ed Mathison. In his campaign, he focused on the vows of membership and the responsibilities of total stewardship. Over the 6 week campaign, we talked about how as members of Grace UMC we are to support the church in prayers, presence, gifts, service and we also added the recent addition by General Conference of witness. We set up small groups to discuss Mathison’s book as well as preached on scripture from the campaign. When the campaign was over, we gathered up pledge cards that included not only how the members will support the church financially, but with their attendance, and prayers. We also passed out time and talent forms for the members to volunteer for different aspects of ministry at Grace. We had a tremendous response. Our pledged giving went up to 97 giving units from 68, we had more volunteers for mission and ministry and we ended the campaign with a positive push for 2009.
This year, we got the ball rolling on our stewardship campaign late. Our stewardship chair said he didn’t want to mess with all the hubbub and stuff we did last year, just get in… tell the congregation we need money… and get out. Our campaign consisted of passing out pledge cards, time and talent sheets and two sermons on stewardship. When the stewardship campaign was over, we were down from 97 giving units pledging to 79 and our time and talent sheets were also much lower.
Why the disparity? I believe we have three issues. The first is of course the financial crisis the country is going through. The second is we also have just completed a short Capital Campaign in which we were asking for over $150,000 to fix the foundation of the Celebration Center, pay off the mortgage of the Parsonage, and pay for the media upgrades in the Celebration Center. I believe that the main issue has to deal with the campaign being rushed and not focusing on full stewardship of the church.
As the church, we can no longer just ask for money and expect people to give, especially when the church has asked for help with capital improvements and with the economic downturn we are experiencing. I believe we received a huge increase in 2009 because we focused on the vows of membership during our campaign. We shared with the members the importance of our vows of prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness and through testimonies of members from the church, small group studies and sermons that reinforced the message of the week the membership of the church saw the importance of full stewardship to the church.
When we talk about stewardship, we do a disservice to our congregation if we just make it about the money. I had a chance to hear J. Clif Christopher from Horizons Stewardship at the recent NCLI seminar and he shared that the church must no longer expect people to give to the church, but they need to compete with an ever growing base of non-profit organizations. Three of the main reasons he gave for why people give were Belief in the mission, regard for staff, and fiscal responsibility. When you do a quick “blow-and-go” campaign you fail to effectively share the mission of the church and show the relationships that are built through the church. A church that just relies on a campaign to get the job done because that is what we do, will soon see that people won’t give, because the church doesn’t care about them, all they care about is getting money from the congregant. The, at the end of the year when funds are low, the church is low on credibility because they didn’t do the work to connect with the people.
By taking time to focus on the vows of membership through small groups, you have a chance to effectively share the mission of the church and build relationships between the members of the church through the small groups established. It is then up to the leadership of the church to show they are being fiscally responsible with the tithe’s and offerings given to the church.
Of course, as in any other place I am asking the congregation to go, I must be there as well. If I am expecting my congregation to tithe, I must tithe. If I am asking the congregation to be faithful in prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness, I must also lead by example and be faithful in all I do as a servant to Christ.
