The annual stewardship campaign most often refers to the annual appeal for funds to underwrite the operating fund of the coming fiscal year. For the leadership in many congregations it is a burden for several reasons: it happens every year, many persons believe mentioning money will do more harm than good, and/or they are convinced everyone is giving all they can.
The annual stewardship campaign is probably more appropriately called an annual fundraising campaign because stewardship covers much more than our financial lives. It has been said, “Stewardship is everything you do after you say, ‘I believe.’” The Greek, oikonomia, suggests stewardship is the management of the household of God. Therefore stewardship includes our personal life, our community life, our public life as well as our financial life.
The annual campaign can be a blessing for the church and its members. I suggest we take our cue from Henri Nouwen who helps us connect our faith and our financial resources as we seek to raise funds in the church. In The Spirituality of Fund Raising, Nouwen helps us frame this familiar activity in ways that encourage and nourish financial discipleship. Nouwen points out each time we request money from our members we are inviting them into a new way of relating to their resources — their gift is good for the ministry, for their spiritual journey, and for their spiritual health. You will be enriched in every good way for your great generosity … (2 Cor. 9:11) He says fund raising is a concrete way to help the Kingdom of God come about. Maybe most importantly he reminds us fund raising in the church assumes abundance, is always grounded in prayer, and is undertaken in gratitude.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the goal of the annual campaign is not to make sure the church’s budget is fully subscribed. The annual campaign is actually one of many opportunities for us to share our gratitude. Gratitude flows from the recognition that who we are and what we have are gifts to be received and shared. The annual campaign reminds us that we are God’s people and the earth and all that is in it is God’s. Annually we pause to decide how God’s resources, specifically the financial resources God entrusted to us, will to be distributed in our part of the body of Christ.
The annual campaign is a wonderful opportunity for churches to give direction and resources to their members for their financial discipleship journey. Every Christian is on a financial discipleship journey. This journey begins with our first feelings of gratitude to Christ, is fueled by our increasing experience of God’s abundance and follows the ebb and flow of our understanding of God’s ownership of everything. Paul told the Corinthians … God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work (2 Cor. 9:8). The annual campaigns we plan and/or give to also help us along the journey toward a complete understanding of this Scripture.
Our choice of burden or blessing when it comes to annual campaigns depends a good deal on our understanding and experience of God’s abundance. A great description of God’s abundance is the Hebrew people’s experience of manna and quail in the wilderness. There was always enough for everyone but nothing left over. The Hebrews were dependent on God’s daily gift for sustenance. If we even have the beginnings of a belief in God’s abundance we will see the annual campaign as a blessing. If we allow scarcity to guide our thinking the fear of not having enough money for our programs, staff, and maintenance will conspire with our belief our members are already giving as much as they have to give to make the annual campaign an almost unbearable burden. We are diminished if not crippled by believing we do not have enough to respond to Christ’s call to make disciples, to bring water to those who are thirsty, to feed the hungry, and to heal the sick.
Most, if not all, congregations are looking for “successful” annual campaigns. Persons assigned the responsibility of the annual campaign look feverishly for an approach that “works” by asking what program other congregations use. The reality is it makes very little difference what program a congregation uses if the attitude is right. Very few campaigns led by persons who count their task as burden are “successful.” The place to begin is to work toward campaigns that are blessings rather than burdens. This begins with the congregational leadership. If the pastor or pastors and the majority of the Session members feel God’s amazing, all encompassing grace and are driven to respond in gratitude then they can search for persons who share their viewpoint to work on the annual campaign.
An annual campaign will be a blessing if the group of persons who serve on the committee, task force, or group with “stewardship” responsibilities each feel called to this work and can witness to their experience of God’s abundance. This group can then help the congregation to see the annual campaign as inviting them into a new way of relating to their resources. Members can celebrate their gifts as good for the ministry of the whole church, for their spiritual journey, and for their spiritual health. As the joy that comes with expressing gratitude bubbles over, the whole congregation experiences yet another instance of God’s abundance.
Dave Crittenden is co-executive of the Synod of Lincoln Trails, Indianapolis, Ind.
