Stewardship Enrichment in an Unreliable Financial Environment

We are asked almost on a daily basis these days about how to grow the stewardship of the congregation.  Church leadership is beginning to realize that we are morphing into a new normal and want to know how stewardship enrichment can best be approached in today's unreliable financial environment.

Aside from some new magical stewardship formula being created, the key to stewardship enrichment in these times is to focus intently on the mission and ministry of your church.

Congregations that I see growing in faith and generosity are not spending energy on looking for a new approach to stewardship as much as they are focusing on being the church.  Churches who are taking the steps to define their mission and committing themselves to radically living out that mission are the churches growing in generosity . . . simply as a result of being the church.  If you want your congregation to grow in faith and generosity devote yourselves to the faithful and fruitful practices of ministry and people will respond with generous support of time, service, and financial stewardship.

Where might you begin?  I suggest taking a close look at four areas of ministry in your congregation and do everything possible and purposeful to focus intently on the following ministries:

·  Practice passionate worship.  Churches growing in faith and generosity offer passionate worship that connects people to God and to one another.  People gather intentionally with expectancy; encounter Christ and respond by allowing God's spirit to shape them. 

·  Practice purposeful hospitality.  Out of a genuine love for Christ and others, churches growing in faith and generosity take the initiative to invite, welcome, include, and support newcomers and help them grow in the faith.  Purposeful hospitality is about applying as much creativity, energy and effectiveness outside the congregation as inside the congregation with those who are already a part of the family of faith.

·  Practice intentional faith development.  Churches growing in faith and generosity are maturing in the faith by learning together in community.  Churches that take faith development seriously provide high quality learning experiences that help people understand scripture, faith, stewardship, and life in the Christian community.  Disciples are taught not caught.  Intentional faith development mirrors the way Jesus deliberately taught his disciples.  His followers grew in their understanding of God and matured in their awareness of God's will for their lives as they listened to Jesus' stories, instructions, and lessons while gathering around dinner tables, on hillsides, and at church.  Jesus taught us to learn our faith this way.

·  Practice risk-taking mission and service.  Churches growing in faith and generosity take on the projects, the efforts, and work people do to make a positive difference in the lives of others for the purposes of Christ, whether or not they will ever be a part of the community of faith.  Mission and service is one of the most fundamental activities of church life that is so crucial that failure to practice it results in a deterioration of the church's vitality and ability to make disciples.

When these ministries are strong, a congregation will grow in the grace of giving.  People will give generously to the church not because the church budget needs funding, but because they genuinely desire to make a positive difference for the purposes of Christ and want to align their lives with higher purposes.  People will be generous because they are giving in response to the urging of the Spirit and they will experience a soul-sustaining satisfaction in the sense of meaning and connection that comes with generosity.

 Written by John V. Clark, President, The James Company