Let’s say you have two members: Aria and Penny. Aria is has a beautiful voice and Penny has a lot of money. If you’re like most congregations, you will work hard to get Aria in the choir — and do almost nothing to help Penny fulfill her spiritual gifts.
The forgotten spiritual gift
In the middle of Romans 12, where we read the value of each member’s gift and how they contribute to the body of Christ, we also find a list of those spiritual gifts. In the middle of this list — between exhortation and leadership — we find “giving in generosity.” These are the gifts the church is obligated to call out of its members; these are gifts some of our members want to use and feel good about. How can we help Penny?
The irony is that congregations want their wealthier members to “step up to the plate” and support their ministry. They just don’t want to tell them how to do it! Yet trying to guess what a church needs is like writing a choral anthem as you’re singing it. It takes preparation and practice to be accomplished.
Stewardship versus spiritual gifts
There is a big difference between stewardship and the spiritual gift of “giving in generosity.” Stewardship is giving back a portion of what God has given us. Stewardship is every believer’s responsibility and joy.
Spiritual gifts, on the other hand, are not given evenly. Why should this surprise anyone? Can every member teach a class or preach a sermon? Can every member sing like Aria? Of course not! So why do we think that acknowledging that one member can give more than another is giving special treatment? Rich people do deserve special treatment — the same special treatment we give everyone else!
Money is vital to our ministry
We serve in a time when money is the primary limiting factor to our ministry — we have a lot of ideas for ministries and more than enough volunteers to do them. What we lack is the money to support them. So helping members develop their “giving in generosity” not only helps the members, but also helps the whole church fulfill its ministry. Everybody wins!
Remember the 80-20 Principle
We all know the 80-20 principle — 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people. Would you believe that this principle applies to church giving, too?
What the church needs most today is a few people with the gift of “leadership,” who can lead our members to identify, claim, and celebrate their spiritual gifts, even the scary gift of giving!
Begin with Relationship
Helping a member develop a spiritual gift, whether musical or financial, begins with a relationship. In order to encourage such persons, we must first know them and they know us. Trust builds as knowledge grows. As the relationship — and its trust — grows, we can share options for possible ministry and strategize together to make dreams come true.
Helping People Does Work
One pastor experienced the joy of helping his members give. In his 10 years as their pastor, he had never invited any member to contribute toward any special cause. Then a need arose. The church needed to renovate the lower level of their building and needed about $50,000 for construction.
The pastor asked me how to raise the money. After much discussion, he agreed to personally invite people to make special gifts — but he said, “I can’t ask anyone for more then $5,000!” So he talked about how to ask people without “begging.” We made a simple brochure with all the information and he began visiting his members. To his surprise, almost every member he visited responded — and was happy to give! When other members heard that he was asking people for support, they started calling him asking, “When are you going to ask me for my $5,000?” Then a member offered to give more than the asked-for $5,000, and the pastor explained that he couldn’t ask for any more than that.
Members thought that was funny! So they started making up funny rules like, “You have to wait at least seven days between gifts for it to count as a separate $5,000 gift.” One elder came up to the pastor after worship and whispered in his ear, “Hey Pastor, I found another $5,000 — you want it?” They had a ball — giving money! The members had so much fun giving their $5,000 gifts that they over-gave the original need of $50,000 and began looking around for other things to update, which they also gladly supported. Once the construction began, other gifts — tables, chairs, a baby-grand piano — were committed. And, of course, the money continued to joyfully flow in. A year later, the members had given more than $280,000 — and loved every minute of it! In fact, the church found a new sense of vision and possibility for the future, and the members continued to give joyfully to fulfill their ministry.
The special gifts did not hurt their annual giving — on the contrary, the excitement from the special campaign energized them into dramatic increases in their pledges. They have averaged nearly 10% increases for the last three years! And the church has grown enough to seek an associate pastor, which the pastor helped some members underwrite with special gifts over-and-above their regular pledges! And now he regularly gets calls from members, asking, “I was thinking about doing something special for the church — what do you need?”
What a difference a couple years can make! The real difference was a pastor who was willing to reach out to his members and let them support some things they value. It turns out that our members want to give — we just make it hard for them to figure how to do it.
What we can do to help our “giving members”:
• Acknowledge their spiritual gifts and help nurture them
• Share information about the church’s ministry and how they can support it
• Invite their financial support — don’t beg — just ask!
• Say “Thank You” and continue to care for them — whether they give or not
Get over it and get on with ministry
Are you nervous about talking to “Penny” about her spiritual gift? Get over it! Try to imagine yourself talking to “Aria” — and respond the same way. You don’t have to be rich to help a rich person anymore than you have to sing solos to help a singer. Each of us has gifts to share. Let’s remember and celebrate all of God’s gifts!
Bob Sheldon is director of funds development for the Synod of the Rocky Mountains, Centennial, Colo.
