It’s time rethink our approach to subject of money in church. If Jesus talked more about it than heaven and hell combined, perhaps we ought to make it a more central part of our teaching as well.

Warning: Churches who refuse to consistently deal with giving in a healthy way help fund outside organizations with money God intended to fund his church.

You could read a library full of books on how to cultivate high-capcity givers. Let me save you the trouble. The key is: listening. Are you creating an environment where you are listening to those individuals and uncovering what is most important to them? If you don’t, a very intentional development officer already is and will absolutely secure the gift that might have dramatically changed the financial trajectory of your church, no matter how big or small.

Are you an 18-second listener, or are you giving people the chance to express themselves without your preconceived notions getting in the way?

Let’s see what Tom Peters has to say about where we fall short in our listening habits:

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Here are 7 things churches should measure regularly:

1. First-time givers. Every week someone should receive a report with the names and amounts of first-time givers. It’s very important to acknowledge all first-time gifts as they are an external reality of an internal commitment to your church. It would be rude, quite frankly, not to.

2. Giving habits that vary more than 10%. You should always be looking at a rolling twelve month average. If in any given month the difference is greater than or less than 10%, someone on staff should follow up. Changes in giving habits always reflect other realities — often very personal and perhaps spiritual — that might be “hidden” ministry opportunities.

3. 90 days of expenses and revenue and attendance and participation. Budgeting is a good tool and discipline to build into a church’s management process. However, we should be willing to adjust expenses within the year and well before it creates a significant variance later in the year based on current revenue patterns. Don’t wait until Q4 to adjust, or you may just create an unnecessary crisis. This information should be used alongside the attendance and participating habits of the membership. Almost always they tell the same story, only through two different perspectives.

4. Staff giving. If your leadership isn’t practicing generosity, you can’t expect the person in the pew to either. Monitor this closely as it could also reveal who is thinking/about to leave and who is truly “all in.”

5. Giving habits of those who complete membership classes. When a group completes a membership class or process, their habits should be measuring within 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 month intervals. This will give you a good indication as to what to change or adjust to ensure your membership class is effectively assimilating new members or just fulfilling an organizational objective.

There are many, many more reports to consider. However, these are a core group that I recommend you start using today. The better you are at leveraging your ChMS as a ministry partner, the more strategic your decision making will become. Stop managing your church with your gut; it’s not as “dead on” as you may “feel” like it is.

For more ideas, check out Getting Disciple Making Right: 7 Ways Technology Helps Churches Win at Making Disciples.

How valuable is your ChMS to you?

How will you leverage the giving testimonies from the people in your church to encourage others to be generous?

Here are three reasons you should present a “State of the Church report (and place greater emphasis on it if you don’t already):

• People love stories and look to identify with great ones. We must not undervalue the storytelling function we are afforded every week in corporate gatherings. People are in a posture of great expectations in January, and our story must affirm their core values, interests, and dreams.
• People are in the mood to set goals and make commitments. They are hitting the gym again for the first time in 10 months, they are trying new things, and still feeling positive about fulfilling their new year’s resolutions.
• People forget. The only person who lives at “ground zero” of your ministry is you. Everyone else lives at 30k feet. Never forget that. The only one who thinks you might be repeating yourself is you. Everyone else is pleased to your vision for the “first” time.

What will your “State of the Church” report look and sound like this year?

1. Provide offering envelopes in the pew, chairs, wherever. Make them easily accessible. (They’re not sexy, but they still work. And their cheap, too, when you buy them in bulk.)
2. Implement online giving. (Seriously. What are you waiting on?)
3. Tell people a story of life change every week BEFORE you take the offering. (People give to life change not your operational needs.)
4. Preach a multi-week series on generosity. (Get comfortable talking about money. The people in your pew think about it every day.)
5. Monitor your staff’s giving habits. (This is huge. Your people will not rise above the habits of your leadership…including the pastor.)

What practical suggestions would you include?

Will you…

…change the way you talk about money right before the offering?

…mix up the place in the Worship service when you take up the offering?

…add new giving options like kiosks or mobile giving?

…commit to reading one book every month about money?

…find people in your church who are business developers and form a financial development support team?

…connect every dollar given with life change?

…challenge people to be more generous with their time, talent, and treasure?

It’s our job as leaders to help people move to deeper levels of engagement and practice when it comes to stewardship and generosity? Let’s start 2011 with an intentional effort to raise the bar of expectation and see what God does.

I carry an iPad, iPhone, and am religiously committed to my MacBook Pro. I am almost paperless in everything I do. (In a desperate attempt to be faithful to being paperless when others attempt to make it impossible, I will scan documents instead of keeping them in a desk drawer file.) That means I need to disqualify myself because this research doesn’t tout the way I give which is, of course, electronically, as the primary means of giving. In fact, I have not given to organizations and causes because I wasn’t able to give online.

BUT…my clients don’t pay me to tell them about my preferences. They pay me to understand how to increase funds so that they can get on with their mission instead of being constantly distracted with trying to keep the doors open. That’s where this research is important.

For those of you with short attention spans, let me break it down for you in easy-to-read terms: Giving is not about you or your preferences. It is about the giver and his or her preferences.

This is what we know:

1. Donors, on a whole, still prefer direct mail and “good old” collection boxes.
2. Donors are not as committed to one platform as we might think they are. More than half who give online, also give through direct mail appeals.
3. 2 out of 3 donors give using traditional methods while only 1 out of 3 give online. (I anticipate that will change over time, but your operational expenses can’t be put on pause until it does.) Cut out traditional giving options, and you might just starve your organization.
4. Churches, specifically, should be careful to consider the cost (no pun intended) before canceling your offering envelope subscription program and eliminating passing the plate as part of your worship experience.

As pastor, you are the leader of the organization. But that doesn’t mean you get to tell the people in the pew how they will support the church. There are some things that will always be in the hands of the donor. That is, the funds you need to accomplish the vision God has placed on your heart.

It’s not about your preferences or predispositions. It is very much about your ability to fund the work you feel called to do.

1. Normal people. (Money doesn’t magically make problems disappear.)

2. Present in your church. (Every church has at least one.)

3. Looking for ways to make a measurable impact. (They demand results.)

If you’re church doesn’t recognize the ministry potential of this group, you can rest assured someone else will.

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