3 Reasons People don’t Give to your Church

Tag Archive - generosity

3 Reasons People don’t Give to your Church

Sunday, March 17, 2013

A few months back I did a series of posts on 6 big ideas about “Engaging the Givers in your Church.” And 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. So below are three guaranteed generosity killers that are running rampant in churches today.

1. Ingratitude

You’d be surprised how infrequently churches take the time to say thank you to people who financially support the ministry. And you’d probably also be as equally surprised how far a simple thank you will go. Here are a few suggestions you can put into action this week to change that: 1) Make sure every time a person gives for the first time to the ministry of your church that they get a letter to acknowledge their gift and say thank you. 2) Each week send a handwritten personal note to each person who gives a generous gift to the ministry. 3) Say thank you from the stage and celebrate the generosity of your church when they’re generous. When you don’t say thank you what you’re saying is you don’t care.

2. Waste, or the Perception of Waste

When people feel that their financial gift and sacrifice is being used in a wasteful manner they will pull their funding in a heartbeat. What I’m not saying is that everything should be value engineered, that isn’t the highest goal. But when funds aren’t used in a strategic manner that clearly advances the mission, that’s wasteful. No doubt having the right tool for the job is important. But don’t confuse the fact that extravagance is not the same thing as excellence.

3. Duplicity

When you say you are going to use a particular offering for one need and then turn around and use it for something else you break trust. And trust is the foundation for leadership. Simply put, people don’t give to ministries that don’t have a high level of trust in.

What else have you seen churches do that discourage giving? What would you add to the list? Leave a comment!

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

Engaging the Givers in your Church Part-2

Monday, January 14, 2013

Yesterday I posted the first three ideas and principles in this list to help you engage the givers at your church more effectively. Below are the next three as well as some recommended resources to help you along the way!

4. Personal Touch

Please hear me clearly; this conversation isn’t about wanting something from people. This is about wanting something for them. This is about investing yourself in people, and that doesn’t happen from a distance, but rather up close and personal. For a giver to trust a church with their money is a sacred thing. And people trust people before they trust an organization or a church. This is why you need to intentionally spend time with givers. Trust is built up close and over time. Simply put people trust someone they can touch more than someone they sit in a big room and listen to.

5. Give them Specific Projects to give to

People who have the ability to give significant financial gifts to advance the ministry of your church are looking for a return on their investment, and rightfully so. In every other area of their professional lives they are making wise and strategic decisions about where to invest their resources. Rarely do they blindly give money hoping for a good return without investigating how it is going to be used or what it is going to be spent on. Give them the opportunity to give to specific and strategic projects that advance the mission of the church where they will see the result and return on their investment. People don’t give to general pleas, but specific projects.

6. Remember Giving is a Gift

In the church we often have plans to develop and help place people in an area where they can use their gifting to advance the ministry of building the Kingdom. An obvious example would be utilizing someone who has a teaching gift in a teaching role. The Scriptures teach us that giving is actually a gift. In Romans 12:6-8 the Apostle Paul writes the following:

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”

This means that there are some people who have this gift in your church, and some who don’t. I’m not saying every believer shouldn’t be generous. For example: just because your gift isn’t evangelism doesn’t mean as a believer you shouldn’t share your faith. The point is how are you identifying, developing, and putting people with this gift in your church in a position to use and be successful advancing the mission of the church with their gift of giving?

Looking for resources to help you engage givers more effectively at your church? Here are two great organizations that partner with churches to help build a culture of generosity and two great books that every church leader should read about generosity.

Generis Generis is a team of experienced guides who walk with churches and ministries of all shapes, sizes and personalities to develop generosity – a generosity that permeates the culture. They have been guides for churches and Kingdom focused non-profits in matters of stewardship, generosity and fundraising since 1989 (which means they have some success and experience behind them).

Giving Rocket Giving Rocket helps churches have more money for ministry by increasing church giving. They help you fund your vision, not with guilt built into the worship service, campaigns that take over the calendar or fundraisers that act like Band-Aids. They are all about increasing regular church offering – the kind of giving that makes ministry happen every week. Check out their site for great resources, consulting, and coaching opportunities.

And now the Amazon links (what would we do without Amazon?) for the two books I mentioned: Funded and Free and Contagious Generosity

Posted in Leadership

Engaging the Givers in your Church Part-1

Sunday, January 13, 2013

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.

Here are first 3 of 6 ideas and principles to keep in mind when engaging the givers in your church.

1. Keep Track of Givers

I’ve heard it said in churches that the pastor shouldn’t know who is giving what. After all, didn’t Jesus say in Matthew 6:3, “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Well yes He did…but it had more to do with the motive of the giver than anything else. What we have a tendency to forget is Jesus also clearly observed (along with everyone else), and went so far as to point out the actual dollar amount that a widow gave in Mark chapter 12. Now I’m not saying we should parade givers in front of the church to let everyone know what everyone else is giving but someone should know. After all if you don’t know who is giving, then it’s going to be pretty difficult to engage them at any level.

2. Say Thank You

You’d be surprised how far a simple thank you will get you, and sadly how few churches ever say it. A simple way for pastors to engage the givers in their church is to have a list of givers generated each week and write a hand written thank you note. The list can be of the top 10 or 20 givers that week, the top 20% each week, or simply set a dollar amount and each person who gives over that amount gets a note.

3. Give them Inside Information

Another simple way to engage givers at your church is to occasionally do small, intimate, invite only gatherings. Moments like this give you the opportunity to share wins and success stories (stories like this build culture by the way), have personal face-to-face conversations, share vision, and share inside information about steps that are being taken in the near future to accomplish the vision.

I’ll post the other 3 ideas tomorrow. In the meantime I’d love to hear your thoughts and experience with engaging the givers at your church. Leave a comment!

Posted in Leadership

2012 in the Rearview Mirror

Sunday, January 6, 2013

When you’re in the middle of the fray it’s often difficult to see what kind of progress you’re making. That’s why it’s helpful from time to time to take a step back and review the ground you’ve taken and celebrate the wins! After all what gets celebrated, gets repeated! So here are some of the ministry highlights that I experienced in 2012!

1. Multisite & Merger

Being a part of leading through the transition from one campus to three campuses and a church merger has been one of the most exciting opportunities I’ve ever had to lead through. To read more about it follow this link.

2. Fast Growth

It was an honor to have Sun Valley Community Church recognized by Outreach Magazine as one of the top 10 fastest growing churches in America this year!

3. Baptisms

We baptized 382 people this year on the Gilbert Campus and two of those were my oldest daughters. Big moment in the Alexander house!

4. Student Ministry

More Students went to camp this year than ever before in the history of the church!

5. Children’s Ministry

The Elementary Ministry has grown by 12% this year! We’re continuing to reach young families!

6. Outreach & Volunteers

We mobilized more than 2,000 people to serve in local outreach through quarterly Community Impact Weekends! The word “Community” in our name actually means something!

7. Small Groups

Small Group Bible Studies increased by more than 50% this year! Life change happens best in the context of relationship and I love the fact that more people are getting connect with each other centered around God’s Word!

8. Generosity

We discovered that 82,000 people in Maricopa County don’t know where their next meal is coming from and we decided to do something about this Christmas. To read more about it follow this link. The goal was to fill 5,000 boxes of food between all three of our campuses. I was thrilled when I learned that the Gilbert Campus filled more than 4,500 boxes of food this December to combat hunger in our own neighborhood (and we blew past our goal by the way)!

Within a 10-mile radius of the Gilbert Campus there are 880,000 people who don’t go to church anywhere. So while we’re nowhere near done, I’m excited about the ground we’re taking!

I’d love to hear about the ministry wins you experienced in 2012! Leave a comment!

Posted in Leadership

Home for Christmas

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The mission of the Church is to get people home, and each year as we celebrate Christmas we’re reminded that Jesus came to bring us home and that He is in fact the Way home. This year we had an opportunity to literally join God in bringing people home. Through the generosity of a couple of people we were able to get Brandon Royce who serves in the U.S. Military and is currently deployed to South Korea home to be with his family. This video is their story. Enjoy!

Posted in Family, Spiritual Formation

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