Underfunded: 4 Reasons Why Church Vision Stalls

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

We believe in the power of a clear vision and a solid action plan to help churches move forward.

But too often, we see churches seek God for a vision, diligently plan for action and then hit a wall they don’t have to hit. We have seen passionate teams and inspiring visions stall out because one key aspect commonly receives too little focus…funding.

We often see church leaders sidestep this component of vision. No matter the effort and inspiration, an underfunded vision will result in a stagnant plan.

This is a conversation we’ve been having lately. We want to invite you into it. Join Tony Morgan, Joe Sangl and Marty Schmidt for a free webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 1pm EST.

Underfunded: 4 Reasons Church Vision Stalls

The conversation will center on the most common reasons we see church vision stall when it comes to funding.

You will learn to recognize and diagnose issues like:

The Un-Fundable Vision

Fundraising vs. Building a Generous Culture

The Campaign Trap

Not Knowing What You Don’t Know (and Proceeding Anyway)

Space is limited, so register asap. We hope to see you there!

Posted in Leadership

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How to Fund the Strategic Plan at your Church

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Talking with the leadership team at your church about money can be tough. Changing the way you spend it is even harder.

If you have a strategic plan you’re working with your leadership team to implement, it’s important to start a healthy conversation about finances to effectively navigate this touchy subject together.

Every day, you and your team make decisions about how to allocate your funds. You decide which aspects of your ministry are critical to your growth, and which can be cut. Your church’s future–and the fate of your strategic plan–will be greatly influenced by how you direct your resources.

It isn’t unusual for a church to create a strategic plan, then fall short of actually funding it. The leadership team might work together beautifully to create a strong plan and commit to working it, but too often, they find themselves locked into ineffective or foolish budgeting patterns. Eventually, they might find that their vision is only partially funded…or they might set it aside altogether.

That’s why at the Unstuck Group we’ve created Funding Your Strategic Plan, a practical guide full of insights and conversations that will help you and your team assess your church’s budget with a critical eye, develop an effective, vision-minded budget around your growth engines, and change the way you and your staff direct your available resources.

Funding Your Strategic Plan will help you dissect the types of expenses in your plan, identify missing links and hidden dollars, and learn the difference between wise and foolish budgeting. We’ll teach you the ropes of Zero-Based Budgeting and show you how to utilize your existing assets to generate extra income for your church. You’ll also learn how to talk about money to your congregation, increase their generosity, and get started with a capital campaign.

Ready to dig in? You can get a copy of Funding Your Strategic Plan in the TonyMorganLive.com store,

Posted in Leadership

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7 Things All Growing Churches Have in Common

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Once a month at Sun Valley Community Church (the church I have the privilege of serving at) we gather all of our staff from all of our campuses to have some fun, celebrate wins, keep everybody on the same page and often times do some leadership development training. Last week Chad Moore, who serves as the Lead Pastor at Sun Valley shared 7 Things that All Growing Churches have in Common…I thought these may be helpful to you in your local church context…

Church is not a building that you come to it’s a movement that you choose to be a part of to help people meet know and follow Jesus.
You can’t come to church because you are the church.
To get the right answers about church you have to ask the right questions.
The book of acts is all about how the early church acted

1. Passionate and Proficient leaders

The starting point for any movement is highly competent leaders who are deeply committed leaders to the cause. Without highly competent leaders the church will prematurely hit a leadership capacity lid. Without deeply committed leaders the church will be stunted due to leadership turnover when things get too difficult.

2. Clearly Defined Vision and Goals

Jesus gave the early Church a clear vision to get this movement going in Acts 1:8, we don’t have to make up the mission (why we exist) of the church. But we do get to lean into the vision (where we are going next) of the church. Most churches just say things like, “We are just going to follow the Spirit.” Which sounds really spiritual but is usually code for, “We don’t know where we’re going or what we’re doing.” Most churches forget that planning is spiritual, Proverbs is in the Bible too and God has a plan…He’s not just winging it. Hope is not a strategy; if you don’t have a target you’ll hit it every time.

3. Culture that Supports the Vision and Strategy

Culture is the soft squishy stuff that most organizations have a difficult time clearly defining. Culture is how the people in the organization think, feel, what they value, and how they actually behave. Regardless of what’s written on the wall, it’s what’s happening down the hall. Of all the things that a leader does the most important is what the leader does to protect and fuel the culture.

4. A Strong Communicating Leader (cultural architect)

The early church had Peter and Paul (among others). Contrary to popular belief in church-world; teaching on the weekends is not the most important thing we’re doing. The most important thing we’re doing is building culture and we’re using the Bible to reinforce and build this movement called the church. The primary purpose of the pulpit is not teaching, it’s leading.

5. Generous, Consistent Giving

When I first started giving I was nervous to do it, now I’m nervous not to do it. 2 common barriers that hold back the movement of the church are leaders and money. It is the leaders responsibility to not just develop leaders but also develop generosity in the heart of the church to fuel the vision.

6. Passionate and Proficient Next Step Leaders

Growing churches must have people on the team who are great at helping people take their next step with Jesus. The ministry of Jesus can be broken down into 4 categories:

Come & See: The woman at the well (John 4)…”come and see a man who knew all about me, could He be the Messiah”
Follow Me: This is a line in the sand (John 6)…you’re either going to follow Jesus or you’re not
Be with Me: Up close and over time…this is Jesus and the disciples
Remain in Me: This person knows the Bible, can read it and apply it on his or her own and lead others (John 15)

Preaching can only do the first two. Next Steps are the next two. The first two are message and mission. The last two are relationship and responsibility.

7. Unapologetic Focus on Evangelism

At the end of the day the church is all about helping people meet Jesus. Growing churches make decisions based on whom they are trying to reach, not whom they are trying to keep.

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

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7 Articles that will Help Your Church become More Generous

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Building a generous culture in your church isn’t easy. In fact generosity goes against every natural bone in our bodies, because what comes natural to us is us. That’s why both Jesus and the Apostle Paul connect spiritual maturity with generosity and living an others oriented life. Money in particular is a tough topic for most pastors to talk about with their church. Over the years I’ve written a bit about building a generous culture in your church and below are some of the more popular posts. Enjoy and I hope they’re helpful!

20 Ways Church Leaders can Help their Churches become More Generous

I’ve been around very few church leaders that didn’t wish their people would become more generous. But very few church leaders have defined a strategy to help their people take steps to become more generous.

3 Reasons People don’t Give to your Church

Just like there are real actionable steps that churches can take to engage givers, there are also things that churches do to repel givers. More often than not they’re doing these things and they don’t even know it.

5 Characteristics of Generous Churches

Generosity stands in direct opposition to our sin nature. After all most of us don’t wake up thinking about someone else’s day…

Engaging the Givers in your Church

When it comes to engaging major givers in the church a majority pastors feel uncomfortable at best. Many pastors don’t know how to approach the subject and are afraid of saying the wrong thing. While churches have often built elaborate strategies to help people take steps in their spiritual journey and grow in their relationship with Jesus; they usually resort to a “just preach the Word and hope things work out” approach to giving. The problem is hope isn’t a strategy. It doesn’t have to be this way.

5 Indicators that your Church is Financially Overextended

Earlier this fall in a post entitled “Breaking Through your Capacity Lid,” I wrote that financial shortfalls at churches can limit opportunities. I suggested that there are two sides to finances in a church setting. One is building a culture of generosity in your church and then the other is managing that generosity so you position yourself organizationally to say yes to Jesus when He provides clear vision and opportunity. Immature organizations over extend themselves financially and self impose artificial lids as a result.

Why People don’t Financially Invest in your Church

I recently read Not Your Parents’ Offering Plate by Clif Christopher. It’s a quick read that you can get through in one sitting, but it’s full of principles that you’ll come back to over and over again. There are a lot of reasons why people don’t give to churches as much as they used to.

6 Simple Steps to Help your Church become More Generous

Generosity is not something that Jesus wants from you. It’s something He wants for you. Generous churches and church leaders who understand the generous nature of the God that we serve help the people in their churches become more generous.

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

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5 Indicators that your Church is Financially Overextended

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Earlier this fall in a post entitled “Breaking Through your Capacity Lid,” I wrote that financial shortfalls at churches can limit opportunities. I suggested that there are two sides to finances in a church setting. One is building a culture of generosity in your church and then the other is managing that generosity so you position yourself organizationally to say yes to Jesus when He provides clear vision and opportunity

Immature organizations over extend themselves financially and self impose artificial lids as a result.

In a time of year where most churches are finalizing budgets I thought it might be helpful to share some indicators that I’ve observed in churches that are financially overextended.

#1 Your Staff Salaries are not Competitive

If you’re not able to be competitive with your salaries you’re not going to able to attract and keep the talent you’re hoping to have on your team. This is an indicator that you’re financially overreaching somewhere. Not sure how much you should be paying your staff? This post will help.

#2 You’re spending more that 50% of your income of Staff Salaries

As strange as it may seem, if more than 50% of your income is being spent on Staff salaries then you’re staffing costs are beginning to constrict other ministry areas of the church.

#3 Low Cash Reserves

In my work with churches across the country I’ve discovered that if you have less than 8 weeks of undesignated cash reserves available at any given time you probably have too little financial margin to deal with unforeseen obstacles and set backs.

#4 High Debt Levels

Again, in my work with churches through the Unstuck Group I’ve discovered that if your church is carrying more than 2x your annual budget in debt than your debt load is beginning to constrict ministry opportunities.

#5 You Can’t Say Yes to the Opportunity Jesus is Giving You

If you can’t say yes to the vision Jesus has given you then your church is financially overextended. The bottom line is fairly simple. If Jesus has given you a clear vision to lead the church towards then part of your responsibility as a steward of that vision is to build (or enlist others to help you build) a financial strategy that will get you to that vision.

Posted in Leadership