Do you want to know how to improve your offerings immediately? I can do that quickly. Before I do read the quote below from one of my monthly members…
“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.”
Brian Hughes Senior Pastor Powhatan Community Church outside of Richmond, VA.
There are two things you can do immediately that will increase your offerings. Brian Hughes led his staff to implement these two simply instructions. You can do the same.
First, stop apologizing for taking up the offering! So many churches think they have to tell guest that they don’t have to give before the offering. Do you think the Red Cross apologizes before they ask for money to provide support for some crisis? No! They make the case for asking and then ask. They know that people will decide on their own whether or not to give. Why when our mission of changing lives for the Kingdom of God is more compelling than theirs would we tell people they don’t have to give?
So, instead of apologizing and inviting people to discount from a crucial part of worship, the offering, make the case for WHY they should give. That is what Brian means when he says above, “We connect the dots every week.” Show people what gifts to your church DO and they will WANT to give!
As simple as it seems this one step that I have led numerous churches to adapt has helped them increase their giving. The same can happen to you. So, put out an edict to everyone in leadership at your church, NO MORE APOLOGIZING BEFORE THE OFFERING!
Second, set up the offering for success with an effective offering talk. Way before there was any plan out there to provide offering talks for churches I wrote about the importance of setting up your offerings with what I called the Elevator Pitch. An Elevator Pitch is where you get thirty seconds to tell someone about your plan or business. If you think about it you have about that time to set up the offering each week. Tragically most spend their thirty seconds explaining why guest should not feel compelled to give.
An effective offering talk connects the dots of what money does to impact missions and ministry for Christ. Every offering should be planned and thought out. How do you do that and what would it look like?
My monthly members get an offering talked emailed directly to them every Monday! They don’t have to remember to go to some website, hunt through a vault of various talks and download it. They get it sent to them. EVERY Monday morning. Below is the offering talk that Brian alluded to in the quote above…
World Cup Mania!
Anyone out there a World Cup fan? That response is about typical for an American congregation! Since the US did make it into the round of 16 there was more interest but that has died down since they lost. Typically Americans don’t get too excited about the World Cup. For the rest of the world just imagine combining the passion of a World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup into one bowl and you have a small glimpse of the passion the world has about this event.
While we here in America show mild interest in the World Cup the rest of the world goes crazy. Millions and millions of dollars will be spent from gambling on who will win to parties for watching the big event. Yet ten years from now most will not remember who won. Most of you don’t know who won the last World Cup. It was Spain by the way, I looked it up on Google!
Lest we be too critical of the world’s soccer mania we here are no better when it comes to our passion for sports. How much do you think is spent on sports in America? Billions. Again, even the most rabid of us can’t remember who won a few years after the event. All that work, emotion and passion over a silver cup or trophy. What difference does it really make if your team wins or not?
The Apostle Paul used sports metaphors often in Scripture. In one passage in I Corinthians he talks about how athletes train hard to win in competition for a crown that will not last. He then talks about how we strive for a crown that will last forever. I don’t know about you but I want to make and impact beyond just the present.
Every week we take up an offering which helps us fund all the various mission and ministry initiatives we do here. Your gift matters! Giving faithfully and generously through this local church allows you to make a long term investment. It helps us all strive for a crown that will not perish and does last forever, the crown of changed lives for Jesus!
So as our ushers come forward to take up the offering let’s give a gift that will last past this week’s World Cup making an investment into Eternity!
Every week my members get talks just like the one above. They can either read it verbatim or take the idea and edit it to suit their needs. This tool is one major reason why Brian Hughes church PCC has increased giving by 30%!
Let’s see that your offering plate is full this Sunday!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach