You won’t make budget this year if… Some of you reading this right now will not make budget in 2017. Right now at the start of the New Year you are full of optimism and enthusiasm. You might be consoling yourself that even though Sunday’s offering was off it was a holiday. Next week will catch you up. Right? What if it snows and attendance is drastically impacted? A host of things can go wrong and frankly it will. Then what will you do?
Giving to the Church continues to decline. Churches are struggling to be fully funded and 2017 is not going to be any different than last year. How to Make Budget
You won’t make budget this year if you don’t pay attention to giving. The tyranny of the urgent presses in upon you and one thing that suffers is giving awareness. Before you know it you are behind. You have to keep on top of giving from week one or you may find yourself in trouble. Few churches do this. The ones that do have a better chance of making budget than those that don’t. I keep you focused week by week on how giving is going. Stay Focused
You won’t make budget this year if you don’t have a plan of action. Hope is not a plan and yet most churches hope next week’s offering will be better. How long has that been NOT working for you? My mantra is, get a plan and work your plan. I have plans for every week and every quarter that WILL increase giving. Here is what one of my members said about my Easter plan for giving…
“We used the Stewardship Coach’s plan for our Easter offering. Using this plan we were able to identify our target audience and make our need known. The weekly tasks helped us organize what needed to be done to have a successful campaign. This Easter thanks to our use of the Stewardship Coach’s plan our offering was $17K above our normal Easter offering. This was a great blessing to our church. We had struggled through a very cold, snowy winter that had left us behind on our budget. This increased offering helped us overcome our budget shortfall and head into summer on target. Thank you Stewardship Coach for making this resource available!” Stephanie Dalton, Ex. Pastor Bethel Harvest Church Ge the plan Stephanie gets
You won’t make budget this year if you don’t have help from others. Who owns the budget at your church? By that I mean, who is tasked with keeping abreast of giving and implementing plans to see giving increase? If no one owns the process then nothing will get done. You need help. That is where I step in. Consider this recent testimony from one of my members…
As of the end of November, 2016 contributions were up 17% over the same period in 2015. We attribute much of this to your leadership! I extol your praises, and the value of your services, at every Finance Committee meeting. They regularly remark that one of my strengths is that I’ve taken “talking about money from something you do once or twice a year to something that we can expect nearly every week.” THANK YOU for your leadership, inspiration, and support! Steve Heyduck Senior Pastor Euless First United Methodist Church Get the help Steve gets!
You won’t make budget this year if you don’t have a compelling vision. This is the bottom line. I can help just about any church except a church that lacks a compelling vision. People give to that which makes a difference. Few churches lack a vision and few do nothing. Our problem is in telling our story in a way that members WANT to give more money. I can help you do that! Plan your vision!
Will you make budget this year? You won’t unless you do something! For only $1 you can try my plan for 14 days. However you can simply hit the start button and for only $365 a year get personalized coaching from me, The Stewardship Coach! Join Giving365
The sooner we start the more likely you will make budget in 2017!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach