(Don't) Start Planning for Stewardship Month: Part 3 – Your Turn

I have a confession: I am a French fraud. Last week, I was so pleased that I knew the word for “two” in French. Then a friend, obviously a true Francophile, kindly mentioned that I had, in fact, spelled the French word for two incorrectly. Not once, not twice, but four freaking times. Je suis désolée (I’m sorry).

‍This week, I’m turning my keyboard over to three people who are wiser than me – and who probably know a heckuva lot more French than I do. In last week’s post I asked readers to respond to the whole notion of a “stewardship month.”

Let’s see what they had to say:

‍Etha Carruthers, the Sage District Administrator from Twin Falls, ID, chimed in on making stewardship about the Spirit and not about the budget –

…When I worked for a church with a large financial need and budget and an annual stewardship/pledge drive, the pledges NEVER came in anywhere near what we needed for the budget. There were too many people who refused to pledge but always gave. 

The finance committee did not need a stewardship drive to determine the general budget. Instead, they budgeted based on the current year’s donations. As a result, we turned the stewardship drive to entirely focus on spiritual reasons for giving. People got to see their giving as a spiritual discipline and were told up front that we weren’t using it for the budget. IT WORKED.
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‍Rev. Dr. David Abbott, the Director of Stewardship and Leadership Development for the UM Foundation of the Northeast, made a pitch for not necessarily being married to a fall stewardship program:

‍I have been suggesting for years to match your annual finance campaign to reflect your context… I also suggest that they can do it in any season of the Christian year and tie sermons and studies to what is happening during that time. I did a sermon series of Generosity as a Spiritual Discipline during Lent one year  as a way of finding joy in Lent as well as deepening one’s commitment to their discipleship. (We also didn’t do pledge/commitment cards at any time but talked stewardship throughout the year.)

People would ask, “If we wait until another part of the year to do our annual finance campaign, how do we transition?” I suggested that they share the plan for moving the campaign and the theological reason in the early fall, invite people to keep up their commitments until the campaign, and “oh by the way our budget is going up 3% for the coming year so if you want to increase your current gift to help us meet this new ministry goal, feel free to do so.”  
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‍The point for me in moving the annual finance campaign is to bring the spiritual connection up front in the whole process. I suggest following a yearlong plan, preaching and teaching and sharing about stewardship as the outward and visible sign of our inner and personal relationship with Christ through a variety of activities, stories, thank you notes. Then, the Annual Financial Campaign simply becomes a time to respond to God’s presence in one’s life and celebrating that by supporting the work that God is doing through your particular church…###

And finally, Rev. Paul Richards-Kuan of Christ UMC in Cedar Mills, Oregon, echoed both Etha and David:

Growing up, I remember my pastor talking about stewardship as financial planning for the congregational leadership…When I became a pastor, I continued to use the language of planning to encourage people to turn in a commitment card. As we were writing a budget, we would also be anticipating our income.
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But I realized in my first year that functionally, this data was not helpful for planning purposes. People would give completely unrelated to pledges and only some major givers were filling out the pledge card. The fact that some of the most invested people were giving but not filling out a card indicated that it wasn't useful for us as a planning tool. It turned out that we could do a good job anticipating income by encouraging automated giving and annual increases to keep up with costs.

But if not a planning tool, why ask for pledges?

‍The role of the pledge drive or annual campaign was far more important as a tool of discipleship. It reinforced a commitment to Christ and Christ's church (and Christ Church ha!).
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‍By moving the annual campaign to January, we found ourselves celebrating the previous year in our brochure, promoting a vision for the year ahead, and encouraging people during a season of fresh starts that the new year brings to write how they will commit to the church.
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…More importantly, we are able to encourage members to continually commit to church and to remind them that their recurring giving is a constant faithful practice to remember and celebrate. 
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‍ Thank you. Etha, David, and Paul.It’s clear that from the perspective of these three (and me too) that the focus of any stewardship month should be on generosity as a spiritual practice. And…it does not have to be in either September or October.

So here’s your challenge:

‍How will you make your stewardship emphasis – no matter what month it’s in – on the Spirit’s leading versus the budget?

Look at how these fine folk did it and see if there’s something that you can replicate.

Even a non-Francophile can attest that they have something worth copying.

‍Part 1: Start Planning for Stewardship Month
‍Part 2: Should You Do a Fall Campaign?

Photo credit: Katarzyna-pypla @ Upsplash.com

###Cesie Delve Scheuermann (pronounced “CC Delv Sherman,” yes, really) is a Stewardship Consultant for the OR-ID Annual Conference. She is also a Senior Ministry Strategist with Horizons Stewardship – helping with capital campaigns and encouraging more generosity. For 25 years, while working as a volunteer and part-time consultant, she has helped raise millions of dollars for numerous churches and non-profit organizations. Need to make some French toast for your congregation? Of course you do…Cesie’s got the perfect recipe right here.

You can reach Cesie at inspiringgenerosity@gmail.com, at CesieScheuermann.com, or at cesieds@horizons.net. Want to schedule a meeting? She’s got you covered!

‍Schedule a meeting now.

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