Here is a simple step towards being fully funded as a church, pray the money in! This past week as my church, Gwinnett Church, continues its study of, “Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge,” I have thought about how prayer can and should impact our giving strategy.
Do you regularly pray for a full offering plate each Sunday? Isn’t it amazing how little we pray about some of the most crucial things? We know that we need a fully funded budget but do we really earnestly pray for the offering plates to be full? I fear that most don’t.
Here are some simple steps on how to pray for the giving of your church. Try these for the next few weeks and see if your giving does not increase.
First, give up and worry and anxiety you are having about making budget by placing the results of every offering into God’s hands. God will provide a way for His Church. Our mantra should be to, work hard and pray harder! Begin by thanking Him for that which comes in knowing that He will not fail you!
Pray that all your God given dreams will be fully funded through the generosity of your members. I always say that we don’t fund God’s work by playing the lottery. God’s work gets funded by His people responding to the vision of what we are doing. Pray that your members “get” the importance of your ministry and thus willingly and cheerfully give to support it.
Pray that every gift will be blessed by God. Years ago when I worked for John Maxwell he had a round table of key pastors throughout the country. Tommy Barnett told of how every Monday he would lay hands on the offering envelopes and pray God’s blessings for those that gave. What amazed many pastors was the fact that from the platform before the offering Tommy told people he would do that! Not every church culture will allow that and some things one pastor can do is not what we all should do. However it should be our consistent pray that God will bless those that give.
Pray for all your business people that their businesses will thrive. I believe in trickle-down economics. When your business owners see an increase in revenue they are better enabled to be generous. What would happen if your business people knew you were praying for an increase in their revenues? It could just change the way their view their business.
Pray for all those that give a gift for the first time. I believe in first time giver strategies. What if one part of that strategy was praying for each first time gift that God would bless them as a result of their gift and thus show them the wonders of generosity? My goal for first time givers is to get them to give again. What better way than to pray with that in mind?
Pray for those on fixed incomes or low budgets that their gift would be multiplied. Every gift matters! Some cannot give as others but all can and should give. Pray that those with the least to give will experience the blessings of God and thus be encouraged to continue to give.
A Prayer Challenge – Start today praying for this week’s offering. Then encourage your staff and lay leadership to take up the challenge. Finally, encourage the whole congregation to make meeting budget a prayer challenge. Along the way record the blessings and miracles that God provides.
Let’s start where we need to start and pray the money in!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach
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