Let’s talk about how to make your Easter offering a success.
Easter is right around the corner and you and your staff are spending hours of your time discussing how to make the offering successful. Oh, wait, that is not right. I am dreaming again. Actually my guess is you have not even given the offering any thought at all. Never fear I have been giving it thought for you. The following post contains my ideas on how you can make the offering at Easter not just larger than typically but how it can hold long term success for you.
I once heard Andy Stanley say that the goal of his preaching was, “I want my listeners to come back next week and bring a friend.” Taking a page from my former pastor, here is my goal for you and the Easter offering, “I want your attendees to put something in the offering AND to keep on giving to your church.”
Remember the old song “Deep and Wide?” Your goal should always be to increase the number of donors to your church, wider, and to increase the amounts they give, deeper.
Ok, that sounds good but how do you accomplish that? Here is a quick plan of action that I believe will increase what you take in this Easter but also increase your donor base.
First, don’t ignore planning for the offering! My belief is that few churches ever really plan out the offering each week. Could that be one reason giving to the church is in decline?
Next, please don’t apologize for taking up the offering! It drives me nuts that most of what IS said at the offering time involves explaining to our guests that they DON”T have to give. Like they can’t figure that out for themselves? Then think about it, the offering everyone will agree is worship. Is it appropriate to tell a guest NOT to worship? What are we teaching when we make apologies for one of the key aspects of discipleship? So don’t apologize. Not EVER!
Most importantly make the offering meaningful. People will willingly give their hard earned money to causes they believe in. We the Church do so many wonderful things and we all too often never talk about it. If you will make the link between the offering and the fulfillment of missions and ministry people will give.
So, don’t just say, “As our ushers come forward we invite you to give to God in support of His Church. Let’s pray.” That is what most churches say. Be different. Take sixty seconds to talk about what the money people give will do. Tell some stories, cast a vision THEN ask people to give to it.
Need help? I got you covered. You can join The Stewardship Coach and get FREE weekly offering talks delivered right to your inbox every Monday. No one has written more offering talks than I have and I will have a special offering talk for this Easter written for my members. Membership is free at, Free Membership with NO fee to your card!
Start NOW planning out your Easter offering and you will have a great chance for success!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach