By Tobin Perry
As we head into a new year, healthy churches will have big visions for the year ahead. You likely have ministries you want to start, new people you want to reach, and new initiatives to get off the ground.
You need a healthy vision.
But you need more than a strong vision to make all of those dreams a reality.
For most churches, lack of finances (along with lack of volunteer support) will limit their ministry vision.
They don’t have enough money to get projects off the ground and not enough people to help get the job done once they get started. So, what do churches do instead? They scale back their plans. And that’s a shame.
Bill Hybels once wrote, “Be as theological as you want to be, but the church will never reach her full redemptive potential until a river of financial resources starts flowing in her direction.”
Make 2018 the year your church reaches its “full redemptive potential.”
Here’s the often overlooked key to making that happen …
You must start strong
What you do in the first few months of the year will determine your church’s financial year. Few athletic teams can afford to have a bad first quarter and come back to win the game. It happens, but it’s rare.
The same is true for a church’s finances. The choices you make in the first few months of the year will define your year.
If you don’t want be in the same position you are today in a year, you need to get started now. You need a plan. Take these three actions soon to set your church up for a strong year financially.
#1: Set a big goal
Your goals will set the agenda of your year. You intuitively get this about most areas of your church. You set goals for attendance, participation, and community involvement. Most growing churches have a set of goals that help guide their ministry focus for the year.
But we often shrink from setting generosity goals. Presumably, we don’t want to mix ministry and money. And that’s a shame. Few goals have the opportunity to shine a light on the spiritual condition of our church like generosity.
Healthy churches give, and they give proportionally. That means you need to measure generosity, and you need to be striving to continually grow as a church in that area.
Just because you set goals — even big goals — doesn’t mean you must set cash goals, either. You don’t have to aim for raising a certain amount of money (although your budget really does that anyway).
God isn’t nearly as interested in how much people give as He is to how faithful they are to being generous with what they have.
Instead, focus on getting maximum participation out of givers.
And set that goal high. Look for ways to get everyone involved in giving throughout the year. You get one really good time a year, the new year, to set goals for your giving. Don’t miss it.
#2: Find the right tools
The start of a new year is also a good time to evaluate how you’re equipping people to give. People make financial transactions in vastly different ways than they did just a decade ago. Checks are outdated.
People rarely carry cash. More than half of all bills are paid online today. Many of those bills were paid on mobile devices.
To have your best giving year yet, your church needs to provide the best giving tools possible. To do that, get started now. Look particularly at online and mobile giving solutions. If you already have a mobile giving solution, make sure it’s a solution that serves your church well.
Is the number of people using your tool increasing at a steady rate? It’s not enough to have a mobile giving solution. You need an effective one.
#3: Find out what others are doing to engage givers
You don’t have all the answers to grow generosity in your church on your own. No one does. Make a plan this year to learn from other churches about how they engage givers.
Start in your own community. Invite the leaders of other churches in your area to lunch and pick their brains. Don’t limit these conversations to those in your denominational tradition. Go out of your way to meet new people who can bring fresh insights.
Conferences can be a great way to do this, too. Look for conferences like Summit that draw top-notch leaders from growing churches. At Summit, you’ll have the opportunity to network with leaders who are
specifically looking to drive engagement, participation and generosity at their churches like never before. Find out more about the conference at echurch.com/summit.
You can make 2018 the most generous year in your church’s history. It’s not about padding your church’s bank account, either. More resources will mean more opportunities for ministry.
Are you ready for your church to reach its full redemptive potential?
Tobin Perry has written about ministry and church topics for Saddleback Church, Baptist Press, the North American Mission Board and more for almost 20 years. He and his family live in Evansville, Ind.
For more information about how to develop a mobile strategy this holiday season, visit echurch.com to schedule a demo.
