by Paul Grier
Ours is a denomination of smaller-membership congregations. Almost a third of our churches count 50 or fewer members; some 1,300 churches have 25 or fewer. Only about 30 percent of all PC(USA) congregations have more than 150 members. Yet we often hear the question: What does stewardship look like in a small church?
The local congregation occupies a central role in most Presbyterians’ lives: the place in which worship is celebrated, where study of the Scriptures is undertaken, where our children are baptized into the faith and where our parents and spouses are memorialized.
For many of us, the church also serves as the sociological “third place.” We have home (the “first place”) and work (the “second place”) and then … a “third place” where community forms, new friendships forge and relationships deepened.
For reasons of faith and reasons of fellowship, the church is a vital component of our makeup. Yet how we fund our congregations is often an unaddressed subject. Our session meetings are usually filled with conversation about the constraints of our budgets with little attention given to how we encourage our members to share freely with the church they love.
Because our nation’s philanthropy is closely studied, we know that religion accounts for the largest component of American giving, receiving 31 percent of all contributions made. Too often church leaders ignore information that is readily available and fully relevant to our congregations’ stewardship issues:
- Overall U.S. giving increased by 4.4 percent in 2013 and giving to educational causes grew by 8.9 percent. Did the church you serve see a similar expansion in giving?
- Online giving grew by 13.5 percent in 2013. In fact, faith-based nonprofit organizations led the way in the growth in online giving last year. Do you offer this option for the congregation?
- Bequests and other forms of planned giving provide an exceptional opportunity for church members to remember the church in the disposition of their accumulated possessions at life’s end, yet only one-fourth of PC(USA) congregations receive a bequest each year.
When was the last time your congregation received a bequest from a member or former member? How recently have you invited your members to consider endowing their annual pledge?
Smaller churches sometimes envy the economies of scale enjoyed by larger congregations. However, those larger churches often yearn for the sense of familiarity and family atmosphere found in their smaller counterparts.
In the small church, how do we inspire others to respond to God’s grace by giving to the church and its ministries? A simple but effective approach is the Ask-Thank-Tell model.
ASK:
Here’s a simple experiment: When were you last on the campus of the college or university you attended? And when did you last receive an invitation from that institution encouraging you to provide financial support? I ask this question a lot in my work, and the average response is 2 — 3 years since the last visit and 3 weeks since the last appeal. Now, when you were last at your own church? Two days ago? Last week? And when were you last invited — specifically invited — to share of your own material blessings? Compared to colleges and universities, the church performs poorly in the inviting of generosity.
In encouraging gifts, be sure to describe the ministry impact the church expects to achieve in the future. Describe lives changed and discipleship deepened instead of giving a dry explanation of how much the church’s utilities cost last winter.
Church leaders should make their own commitments first and then invite the congregation’s members to join them. It’s well known that congregations that enjoy generous leadership giving are much more likely to experience generous member giving. Setting an expectation that every member of the session and diaconate give at a personally meaningful level (dare we consider personally sacrificial?) is altogether appropriate.
Finally, craft a different message for differing giving groups. For those members who are not yet giving, specifically invite them to begin offering financial support. For those who give at a modest level, extend a challenge that their giving be increased over time, working towards a tithe of their income. For the most generous contributors, offer personal thanks for their faithfulness and invite them to continue in their giving practices.
THANK:
Remember your grandmother’s advice: Write thank-you notes! If yours is a pledging church, a letter confirming the terms of the pledge along with an expression of gratitude should be sent shortly after a giving commitment is received.
In addition to public expressions of thanks in church communiques, quarterly or mid-year giving statements are helpful in offering a gentle reminder of donors’ pledge balances. These should include a word of gratitude from church leaders. Personal notes from the pastor or stewardship/finance committee chair to those who pledge and give are deeply appreciated and need not mention specific gift amounts.
TELL:
It’s such a basic concept, but many churches neglect to tell their donors the good that is being accomplished. In smaller congregations, there exists a tendency to assume that everyone knows everything, but this simply isn’t the case. Churches that tell their own stories well inspire generous giving as members see the “yield” on their philanthropic investment.
These communiques should be regular and intentionally redundant. Most Presbyterian churches experience just over half of their membership in worship on a given Sunday, so an occasional comment from the pulpit will prove insufficient. Repeating the message in the worship bulletin and/or newsletter, special mailings, on the church’s website and in the form of “minutes for mission” during worship services will help to ensure that your congregation’s members realize fully the collective impact of their gifts.
There’s no question that the world around us is changing rapidly and so, too, is the religious landscape. Some of our sisters and brothers in smaller congregations wonder whether their congregations will survive. Our stewardship is not asking our members to “give to the budget” — it is, instead, about welcoming the participation of all in providing for worship, for the Christian education of our children and grandchildren, for disciple-making and for supporting ministries that feed the hungry, visit the sick and imprisoned and care for the widow and orphan. Our giving is a part of our individual role in proclaiming the Gospel of a resurrected Christ across the street and throughout the world!
May it be so.
PAUL GRIER is a ruling elder and lives in Greenville, South Carolina. An eighth-generation Presbyterian with a background in the health care industry, he has served as a vice-president of the Presbyterian Foundation since 2003.
