If you are going to increase giving at your church you need to understand how the times we live in dictates the dollars we raise. Giving to the church has declined from 3.11% of Americans incomes to 2.32%. More alarming is the fact that if the present decline continues by 2050 Americans will only give 1% to the Church. Why is this decline happening?
Four Reasons for the Decline in Giving – Here are the four major reasons we are seeing a decline in giving.
- Church attendance is in decline. Despite many growing churches and the efforts of the Contemporary Church movement attendance on Sunday continues to decline. It stands to reason that when there are fewer people in the pews or chairs there will be less dollars in the coffers.
- America is increasingly more secular. More and more our landscape is looking like Europe. This factor has caused the decline in church attendance which in turn has contributed to the decline in giving.
- America is in the midst of a demographic shift. We are culturally more diverse than ever before. We are also seeing a changing of the guard in terms of generational influence. This has presented the Church with both a challenge and an opportunity. So far the challenge is being unmet.
- Technology is changing the way we live and do commerce. We are in the midst of a technology revolution when it comes to commerce. The Church for the most part is stuck using 100 year old tools for collecting money and thus is seeing a decline in giving.
So what are we doing about this? Very little. In fact few are even talking about it. I find that at most that is all we are doing, talking. It is time we realize that, if we keep doing what we have always been doing we will not get what we always got!
As the times change so must our methods! Notice I said methods not message. We don’t need to change our message. Our message is THE Message. It doesn’t need watered down, culturalized or contextualized. We do need to evaluate how we get that message out and what methods work best.
The same is true when it comes to giving. The message of giving needs to be communicated now more than ever. Yet we must think how best to communicate that message. Simply telling people that “ought to” give will not elicit the gifts you desire. In this new world you have to show they why giving matters and what their gift will do.
One of my favorite passages is a rather obscure verse that none the less speaks volumes. It comes from a passage in I Chronicles where David was rallying men to support him. The passage lists out various groups who were coming to aide David. The verse I love says, “Men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”
Here is my question for you, “Do you understand the times we live in and do you know what your church must do?” When it comes to giving I make it my job to understand how to connect with this generation and what we must do to reverse the decline in giving.
So let me help you reverse the decline in giving so that your missions and ministry efforts can and will be fully funded. Are you a person of Issachar?
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach