I can give you one easy thing you can do to increase giving this week. It is so easy a caveman could do it. AND, it won’t cost you a cent. What is it? Plan out your offering time.
Before you hit the back button hear me out. First, let me ask you about your worship planning. How much time if any do you put into thinking about the offering? If you are like most churches the answer is probably zero. The offering is an after thought. About the only thing we think about in terms of the offering is who is going to pray over it. You don’t treat the rest of worship the way so why would you treat the offering, a part of worship, that way?
What if you took just 30 minutes each week to think and prepare how best to take up the coming weekend’s offering? I call that the Elevator Pitch.
The elevator pitch arrives from the idea that you are riding in an elevator when a big shot company executive enters in. You have maybe thirty seconds of time with him or her. What you say in those thirty seconds of riding the elevator will mean the difference of whether you get a full hearing later or are simply forgotten. The idea is to comprise the key information about you into a thirty second burst of energy that will “sell” your idea or you.
So, pretending I am on the elevator with you I might say, “Ah, Pastor Smith, you might have heard that giving to churches is off. In fact your church might be experiencing a decline in giving. When giving declines, ministry initiatives are threatened. Lives are impacted. Yet the churches we are partnering with have seen their giving go UP. We work with good churches and make them better. I would love to talk to you about how we can increase your giving.” That is better than simply, “Hi, my name is Mark and I would really like to talk to you about my company.”
Every Sunday you have an elevator moment – we call it the offering. Most pastors say something at that point in the service. Some explain away how people are not required to give; we don’t want to offend the guests. Some almost beg for money to be given. Some use guilt or some other tactic. All pastors have some approach to the offering even if they have no stated approach – I call it the Lack of an Approach.
Help your members connect the dots by showing them how a dollar given at your church helps change the world! The bottom line is we have to make a case for the offering every week. We can do that by telling members the amazing things your church is doing. Then it is as easy as saying, “When you give in our offering today you help us change lives for the better!”
The offering talk or the elevator pitch is the one easy thing you can do to improve giving at your church. So…
When your elevator moment arrives what will you say? Guess what? Every Sunday you have an elevator moment, the offering. What you say could make the difference between making budget this year or laying off staff members and canceling ministry. You better get your elevator pitch on!