The Captivating Connection Between Disciple Making and Capital Campaigns

by: Greg Gibbs

0

Tweet

Among the reasons I am still committed to the “dust up” that campaigns create is that they raise way more than financial support. A discipleship-based campaign raises the faith temperature in the hearts of people in a way that is life-changing.

I have had the honor of collecting a traveler’s suitcase full of experiences from being involved in over 100 capital campaigns. So I have a perspective on the ones that do it with an eye toward life-change and the ones that are gunning primarily for the bucks. In a how-to manual I recently wrote for church leaders called Capital Campaign Playbook, I outline the ways churches can utilize best practices for campaigns with the dual goal of spiritual growth and financial success.

Of course campaigns can be run without the spiritual impact as a co-equal goal with the need for money. But I have met so many people who mark it as an inflection point in their spiritual life. They say things like: “Before the campaign, I didn’t understand how important money was to my relationship with God.”

The time for introspection and heart “check up” often leads to a heart change. Here are a few signs I’ve seen that this is true:

1) People Experience Joy

Even though most of us know that it is better to give than receive, we strangely spend a lot of our energy trying to be on the receiving end of things. When a heartfelt gift is given toward the work of God through my church, an incredible joy can be experienced. To know that we are participating with God and with our church in its ministries is a gratifying sense of true joy.

2) People Remember God

Ultimately, giving is an act of worship. It is putting money in its place by using it as our slave and not our master. We don’t worship money – we worship God. And we prove that by deflating the power and hold that money has on us. We open our hands instead of clutching on to God’s resources with closed and white-knuckled fists. And when we do that, we are true worshippers.

3) People Become Free

How many of us are shackled by pressures and stress related to money? We are trying to make more, keep more, and build our earthly net worth. Sometimes, the American Dream becomes an endless treadmill of striving for an unattainable goal. Is there truly an amount that will satisfy? The most satisfaction comes from contentment. And giving is a step toward saying, “enough really is enough.”

4) People Appreciate Grace

At the heart of the gospel is giving. God loves us…so He gave! He gave us breath, life, friendships, family, dance, art, food, and so many other things. Most important of all, He gave us Christ, whose death on our behalf gives us abundant life now and forever. It is hard to comprehend God’s giving to us. When we try, however, we are often motivated to mimic that grace with generosity of our own. Grace doesn’t make sense. But without it, we have nothing.

5) People Break Strongholds

Some of us were raised in families where experiences created strongholds or generational stuckness that we don’t even realize. Because of experiences of loss, hurt, ambition and hundreds of other things, we have unintentionally made money, success and economic stability a kind of idol. It causes many to make soul-crushing choices about doing a job that “pays well” as opposed to what God designed us to do. It causes us to operate in fear way more than faith – fear that we lose what we’ve gained, fear that we will never have enough, fear about the future. When we truly understand God’s promises to us and release money, we are breaking that mold – we are saying in a very deep way, “I trust God so much I can live a life of generosity. I know I will be ok in the long run.”

6) People Unite Around Mission

One of the beautiful aspects of an all-in moment in the life of a congregation is that we can look at each other with a new sense of common mission. This produces a bond and a sense of community that often lasts for years. It creates a memory that links us: “Remember when we all committed to our church’s campaign?” And, then to see the impact of the collective giving of an entire congregation is something people often remember with great fondness. Think about the unity generated when we remember “that building we got to build together” or “that church we planted together” or “the education wing we added for the kids.” Unity is a big deal in how Jesus described His church and campaigns provide a prime opportunity to experience this collective spiritual moment.

Want to learn more about how Capital Campaigns can provoke this kind of spiritual breakthrough? I’d kindly ask you to check out my book, Capital Campaign Playbook: An Insider Look At A Church Consultant’s Game Plan.

Or download Chapter 1 FOR FREE right here!

> For a deeper dive into the spiritual breakthrough possible in a capital campaign, check out our Capital Campaign Boot Camp, coming February 19-20 to Huntington Beach, CA. Find out complete details and register here.

Tags: Capital Campaign Playbook, Greg Gibbs, capital campaigns

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Resourcing >

How to Crack the Code on the Future of Church Capital Campaigns

by: Greg Gibbs

0

Tweet

Here’s a little context for you: I’ve been helping lead out Capital Campaigns for almost 20 years, which means I’m clocking in at 100+ campaigns, including doing them (successfully!) during the 2008-2010 economic recession. Oh, and by the way…I live near Detroit!

Believe me, we not only felt the sting for those years, but have experienced the economic PTSD that goes along with that moment in history. People lost a lot. They lost jobs, homes, and often proximity to family support.

But I’ve noticed there are some long-lasting effects and Capital Campaigns can be a complex thing to talk about. The tension is palpable – even at the best churches in America.

Here are five barriers I’m seeing right now, along with five ways we can crack the code.

1) The Generation That Likes to Build Stuff is Passing Away

One of the great things about the Builders is that they got our country through some hard times and were instrumental in building churches, companies, and organizations that are now part of the fabric of our culture. As time passes, these builders (who also populate the top-giver ranks of many churches in America) are passing away. And some of the values they espoused are passing away with them.

CRACK THE CODE:
Continue to understand the ways to communicate with the generations behind the Builders. The Boomers still have a lot of wealth to give away – and the younger generations just need to be heard. They are ready to give, and are, in fact, one of the most generous generations, but they will want to see how dollars are connected to actual human impact. They grew up asking questions about ROI (and this is a good thing!).

2) The Institutional Church is Looked at with Skepticism

The church in America has always taken some level of criticism, but the real difference is the loudest cynics used to be primarily outside the church. Times have changed. Now, even inside the church the idea of committing to or investing in “the institution” of the church comes with some hefty questions.

CRACK THE CODE: 
Do not be afraid to do a kind of gracious defense of the church (at large) and your church. Meaning: Do not be defensive and do not excuse bad behavior by the church. But instead, kindly review the impact the church has had throughout the history of America, throughout all of history, and what impact your church has had for the good of the community in which you live. If you’re being faithful to your vision and that calling, people’s perspectives change.

3) Church Members are Busy, Distracted, and Not Present

Probably the hottest topic on church leadership blogs and forums for the last five years or so has been the decline of worship attendance. Will people choose sports events, kids activities or just stream online church service? Are they simply not motivated to spend their Sunday morning in the traditional place for Christians to go – church services? This impacts the ways in which we can get the word out about anything – including large scale funds initiatives.

CRACK THE CODE:
Be ruthless in your evaluation of your current communication strategies. What is working? How are people receiving information the best? Do we have the most effective platforms and channels? Ask communication specialists in the congregation to audit your approach and create a task team to help the church with going to a new level of excellence. But even more so, dig into what’s really happening at your church. Often, we use anecdotal evidence rather than really uncovering what might be happening. But at the end of the day, people show up and give to vision, and a worship service isn’t the vision. It’s simply a vehicle. Make sure people (or your messaging) don’t confuse the vision for the vehicle.

4) Younger Christians are More Likely to Give To NPOs

The next generation (let’s call it the under 40 crowd) have an amazing level of passion for meeting the needs of the world, both spiritually and in other ways. Though most churches are doing great work in a very fiscally responsible way, the point is there are still Non-Profit Organizations outside (or alongside) the church that have the ability to specialize and streamline their ministry focus, which creates opportunities for the under-40 crowd to really tailor their giving.

CRACK THE CODE:
Find out if this is true about the younger generations in your church. Ask them! Host a dinner with the express intent of having a discussion with a few dozen families about what motivates them to give, what turns them off, and whether or not the church is hitting the mark. Without being defensive, talk about the current ways in which the church is addressing justice, poverty, or education. And find out what it would take to garner more support for the church. Again, this is about vision! Maybe they have a vision for what your church can do, they desperately want to be part of it, and you now have some fresh bench strength!

5) There has Been Unrest about Long-Term Commitment Since 2010

There is no doubt that the majority of responses to funding needs were very consistent (with few exceptions) for decades in the Church Capital Campaign space. But something cracked in 2008-2010. All of a sudden asking someone for long-term commitments (the standard practice) felt like a shaky proposition.

CRACK THE CODE:
Consider going shorter term for your capital campaign collection – many churches are gravitating toward two-year collection periods (24 months) instead of the long standing tradition of three-year campaigns. Or consider cultivating increased generosity to the general fund combined with top-level budgeting practices to get the capital needed through the regular offerings. In other words, if you need a certain amount of capital and it actually amounts to (or equals) a 20% increase to your general fund each year, consider campaigning for this. It is somewhat semantic (because you are campaigning either way) but could be a great option for the church.

Doom and gloom? Not at all!

There are hundreds and hundreds of churches every year in America that do a bang up job of running a faith-soaked and discipleship-based capital campaign that have win-win benefits.

Want to hear more? You’re in luck! These are covered in my book called the Capital Campaign Playbook: An Insider Look At A Church Consultant’s Game Plan.

You can even download the first chapter here!

Better yet – This information, plus a lot more, is a part of our next Capital Campaign Boot Camp, February 19-20, in Huntington Beach, CA.

> Find out more information and register here.

Tags: Capital Campaign Playbook, Crack the code, Greg Gibbs, Successful Capital Campaigns, capital campaigns

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Resourcing >

The Secret to Overcoming Reluctance to Capital Campaigns

by: Will Mancini

0

Tweet

Beginning today is a new series routinely posting content from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders.  SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; and each solution is taken from a different book. As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS provides 26 editions per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

>>> You can purchase a subscription to SUMS Remix here >>>

So what is Andy Stanley’s Killer Secret to Church Fundraising? It is using a powerful biblical principle and metaphor to reframe the believer’s opportunity to live a generous life. Here is the way we unpacked it last year in SUMS Remix:

PROBLEM STATEMENT  of Edition 1.7:  We have leaders who are reluctant to do another campaign. 

You have probably done capital campaigns before and many church goers are tired of the same old-school campaigns year after year. (By the way, that’s why we started Auxano campaigns as a vision-based resourcing service.)

Rallying people to a better future is not new.  Building leaders and directing energy is baseline to the human enterprise. But the church is still the HARDEST PLACE ON PLANET EARTH to focus. Whether it’s a breakout of congregational opinions, the rampant “sin of niceness” or a plague of risk aversion, getting the vision done is more fantasy than testimony.

Solution 1: Focus on the dynamics of fear vs. faith by using the biblical image of sowing seeds.

THE QUICK SUMMARY

Fields of Gold is a practical and inspirational book based on the principle of sowing and reaping. If we sow fear, what will be our harvest? And conversely, if we sow faith, what will we grow?

In the book Andy Stanley unpacks our irrational fears about money, helping us to discover that generous giving is actually an invitation for our heavenly Father to get involved in our finances and resupply us with enough seed to sow generously throughout our lifetime.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

Many people would like to be generous givers. But the realities of steadily rising prices of everyday goods, shrinking retirement funds, and an uncertain world economy give us pause. The questions come like a rushing whirlwind, burying good intentions:

• How much can I afford to give?
• What if I give away too much?
• What if there s not enough left for me?

As Christians, we know that we should give but sometimes it’s so hard to take that step of faith and let go when it comes to our finances. Under the growing pressures to make ends meet each month, it’s easy to become irrational in our thinking about God, his faithfulness, and our role as stewards of his resources.

That line of irrational thinking quickly leads to a fear that obscures both our thinking and the facts of how we know God wants us to handle our finances.

If we truly believe that God is who he says he is we have no reason to fear. Doesn’t it make sense to trust the God of the Universe with your finances? Isn’t it time to put aside the worry and start living in confidence?

When you begin to view your wealth from God’s perspective, you’ll see that the thing to fear isn’t giving away too much, but sowing too little.

It’s important to realize that fear and faith often go hand in hand. By nature, when you pursue a growing faith you increase your exposure to potential fears.

It’s no accident that the Bible addresses this condition head-on. There’s no drought when it comes to verses designed to help us let go of our fears and embrace our God-given calling to be generous stewards rather than fearful owners. In Matthew 6:33, Jesus assures us that when we seek His kingdom first with our seed, we need not fear being wiped out: … “he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.” (NLT)

When you begin to view your wealth from God’s perspective, you’ll see that the thing to fear isn’t giving away too much, but sowing too little.

You see, when we respond in fear to an invitation from God, we forfeit the reward of being faithful stewards. Sowing in faith results in an eternal crop. Cowering in fear yields empty fields.

Stepping outside your comfort zone is not careless irresponsibility, but a necessary act of obedience.

– Andy Stanley, Fields of Gold

A NEXT STEP

Fear and faith are parallel concepts that must live constantly in tension. Doubt and indecision are actually ingredients for both our fears and our faith. If everything was a certainty, where does faith come in? Our faith is engaged when we stand on the edge of the unknown. By relying less on the visible and more on the invisible, we begin to exercise our faith. And in that moment of faith, we often are vulnerable to fear. When it comes to giving, many Christians know they should give, but our fear of “what could be” overtakes our faith.

The answer to this challenge comes in the biblical metaphor of sowing. God provides for us (seeds). But seeds weren’t made for holding; they were made for sowing. Unless we sow our seeds, we will never know the harvest they will bring.

Overcoming the tension of our fear and faith requires a simple, but profound change in our concept of ownership. Answer these two questions:

• Who really owns your possessions?
• Who’s calling the shots for you financially?

If we truly understand and believe that God owns it all, we have no basis for fear. And, if God also is the source of all our wealth, and is in charge its increase and decrease, then we have no reason not to give.

The path to a secure financial future is to get God involved as soon as possible. The sooner you become a sower of seeds and not a hoarder, the sooner you will reap the harvest.

Once we realize that it really is better to give than to receive, there’s no limit to what God will do with our gifts.

Taken from SUMS Remix 7, published February 2015.

>>> You can purchase a subscription to SUMS Remix here >>>

Tags: Andy Stanley, Fields of Gold, SUMS Remix, capital campaigns, fundraising solutions

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Resourcing >