Pastor Brian Hughes
“You Have Breathed Life Into Our Church.” That was the comment from Pastor Brian Hughes of Powhatan Community Church outside of Richmond, VA. He wrote me that in reply to my email that asked him how things were going. You see I do personally contact my members to see how they are doing and what they need. Brian took time and wrote me this…
‘The short answer on our giving can be summed up with one word: phenomenal! Giving is up 30%+ this year. We connect the dots every week, often using your ‘Elevator pitch’ from the Stewardship Coach (like this week, when we are adapting your World Cup analogy, which is awesome by the way!). This has been life changing for our church as we no longer scrape around for money every week. I keep waiting for the bottom to drop out and to have giving return to the old levels, but it just stays strong week after week.
Connecting the dots every week makes all the difference. Every single week, we say, “When you give, this is what you make happen here…” and we point to some kind of tangible difference being made at PCC. You did that for us. Plus we quit apologizing.
Then, you coached us to emphasize and beef up our online giving. So, that has gone from 3% to 8% (you told me, “make your goal to double your online giving this year, then double it again next year”)
THEN, you coached us to send a letter in the very first few days of the summer season highlighting the FUTURE of what is about to happen instead of saying, “this is what just happened’ and encourage them to give, even while they are away, because they can still be a part of making all that future stuff happen if they do, and you said, ‘put an envelope in the envelope’. So we did and I got letters from folks, with checks for their entire summer giving enclosed so that ‘we can be a part of PCC even while we’re away’. So, you asked for an update. How’s that? I’m so thankful for you and your investment in the Kingdom. You have breathed new life into our church.”
Then he said, “79.95 is not enough, my friend. If pastors and church leaders knew how valuable your ministry could be to them, they’d pay ten times that much (but thanks for giving us the discount!).”
Let the PCC story be your story! Join now and reap immediate benefits that will increase your giving. If you follow our plan you will see an increase in giving and giving units. Let me help you be fully funded this year!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach