1%. That is the percentage Americans will give to the church of their disposable incomes by the year 2050. That was the finding of empty tomb, inc. a few years back as they tracked the decline in giving since the 1960’s. Currently Americans give around 2% of their disposable incomes to the Church. I believe my calling is to be about changing the 1% train wreck that is heading the Church’s way due to this decline in giving.
Train Wreck, what train wreck? Hello, the train wreck of declining giving putting scores of churches and Christian ministries out of business! Think about it. Even a one percent decline in giving amounts to billions and billions of dollars less than we have today to do the same ministry. Without funds ministries and churches will begin a slow death. Some will survive, but most will not. Will your church? Because it is coming, whether you are ready or not. Most churches, haven’t even given it a thought. The bad news is, it is coming, and fast! So…
Get ready to change the 1% train wreck for your church, RIGHT NOW!
How is this accomplished? The following are my steps of advice.
Step One: Keep What Ya Got! A recent study on generational giving in the future admonished readers to work on retention of existing donors. To that end your focus should be two fold. You need to help your existing younger generations learn about and exercise true biblical generosity. At the same time you must continue to cultivate your best giving group, Baby Boomers. Let’s start there.
Right now Baby Boomers are the largest giving generational group in America. If you check the top 10% of your donors I believe you will find the overwhelming majority of them are Baby Boomers. You need to keep them in the fold for as long as you can. My recommendation to my clients with regards to this key segment is twofold.
First, help them get their financial house in order. Consider these startling facts…
- 40% of households headed by people aged 55 through 70 lack sufficient resources to maintain their living standard in retirement.
- Households with 401K investments and at least one worker aged 55 through 64 had a median $135K in tax advantaged retirement accounts in 2016. For a couple who aged 62 and 65 today that would produce about $600 a month in annual income for life.
- The percentage of families with any debt headed by people 55 or older has risen steadily for more than two decades, to 68% in 2016 from 54% in 1992.
- Americans aged 60 through 69 had about $2 trillion in debt in 2017 an 11% increase per capita from 2004.
- $168 billion in outstanding car loans in 2017 is the amount Baby Boomers owe
- 6 times as much student loan debt in 2017 as they did in 2004.
- Americans older than 65 are filing for bankruptcy has more than tripled since 1991.
Calling Dave Ramsey! There are other programs out there but consider using Financial Peace at your church or some similar program to help your Baby Boomers better position themselves for retirement. In turn this will help you keep your offering plate full as you work to bring up the next generation of donors. By the way, the same programs teaching debt reduction are also needed for younger generations. A debt reduction plan is a two for one type of strategy.
Second, encourage Baby Boomers to think about leaving a legacy to your church. It is said that the greatest transfer of wealth will occur over the next 30 to 40 years as $30 trillion in assets will pass from Boomers to their heirs in the United States alone. Right now less than 10% of bequests in America go to any church. That is because less than 10% of churches in America have any type of estate planning offered for their members.
One way you can assure a better financial future for your church is to offer programs that help Boomers think and plan for their estates. To a large extent we missed the last generation let’s not miss this one!
Step Two: Win what you don’t have. Evangelism seems to be a lost art in far too many churches. Jesus did not call us to a social or political movement. The Great Commission is about one thing, seeing people come to Christ. I am not saying social issues are not important. I am saying that the answer to every problem our society has can be answered by the Gospel.
Logic tells us that if a church doesn’t continue to grow it will ultimately die. If you want to avoid the 1% train wreck you must have some plan of evangelism.
Step Three: Teach them up! We need to go back to old fashioned discipleship. For too long we have focused upon attracting a crowd on weekends with cool music, rock concert type of settings and clever sermons. The result is a poorly trained, fickle crowd that often gives little to nothing to support the work of the Church. We need to again stress discipleship. A part of being a disciple is to learn the importance of generosity.
Generosity is taught not caught. So, as you work to engage the younger generations make sure they understand our biblical call to be good stewards of that which God has entrusted to us.
Will your church avoid the 1% train wreck? If you do nothing today you won’t avoid it. Let me close with one of my key mantras…
The church that survives into the future is the church that plans today for tomorrow.
Get started NOW to avoid the 1% train wreck!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach