If you are going to be fully funded this year you need to know how to make up a weather impacted offering. Why? Because it is not IF you will have weather impacting your services but WHEN. From Florida to Maine and Alaska to California weather does impact churches on weekends. One often overlooked results of bad weather is a bad offering!
What does poor weather have to do with your offering? When the weather is poor people tend to stay indoors. Attendance at your services will be lower. When attendance is low your offering will be lower as a result. You need some plan to recover from those kinds of weekends.
As I write this America is recovering from one of the coldest weekends in its history. Up and down the eastern seaboard churches were either closed on Sunday or their attendance was greatly impacted. While most think of the loss of attendance I think of the lost offering and how that will impact churches being able to do the missions and ministry they have planned. Without some plan of action to make up for that lost offering they are heading into the New Year already behind budget.
Do you have a plan to make up for a lost offering? I am amazed at how many churches have cancellation plans for bad weather but have little to no plan when it comes to seeing giving stay steady.
Why is it that we have evangelism plans, discipleship plans, growth plans and mission plans and we don’t think about a plan to fund the other plans? Whatever the reason, the failure of good stewardship planning has caused many churches to miss fulfilling the other plans. We always say that the failure to plan is in reality planning to fail.
The number one way in which churches fail to plan is last minute actions. I get phone calls almost weekly from desperate church leaders wanting me to help them with their giving. Since my mother taught me to be nice I avoid saying, “Why have you waited so late!” Instead, let me say it here, “Why are you waiting for a crisis in giving to start thinking about stewardship?”
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach