Do you know what you can learn from Black Friday that applies to Sundays offering? A lot! First, for those that don’t shop let me explain what Black Friday is. Black Friday is the day AFTER Thanksgiving that has typically been the kick off for retail for Christmas buying.
I say typically because Black Friday has changed. It used to be that people camped out at stores like Toys R Us hoping to be the first in the door on Friday morning after Thanksgiving to grab the few discounted items on the shelves. A couple of years ago something amazing happened. More people shopped online on Black Friday than went to actual brick and mortar stores! That continued this year as well.
26%. That was the increase in online sales over last year for the Black Friday period. Clearly how Americans do commerce has changed. Just ask Toys R Us.
How does this apply to Sundays offering? If we don’t change our methods we will be the next Toys R Us! Here are some lessons for us to learn from Black Friday…
Set up the offering earlier. Retailers started advertising sales days and even weeks before Black Friday. Early bird offers and special pre-sales has extended the time for shoppers to get that bargain. While the major focus is still upon sales around one day the time for that one day has been extended.
The lesson for the church is that we need to think of the offering as not something that happens exclusively on Sunday morning. If you wait until the offering time to “sell” the offering you have waited too late. Ours is the greatest story ever told. Start telling your story BEFORE you take up the offering to prepare people for the offering!
Provide multiple options for people to give. Americans love options. Some still love to get in line early in the morning and shop. Others want to do it all in their PJ’s from the comfort of their homes. From smartphones to computers to actually going to the store retailers gave customers tons of options on how they wanted to interact with their stores.
Churches need to offer the same kinds of options when it comes to giving. Can people give on Sunday morning using their smartphone? Can they text in their gift? Can they set up automated giving so they never have to worry about bringing a check book? Can they still write a check and drop that in the plate? To survive in this fast changing day of commerce you must provide multiple platforms upon which people can give.
Why? The easier you make it for people to give the more apt they are to give.
Don’t neglect the old fashioned Sunday morning offering time. Even though more sales came online than in classic brick and mortar stores those stores were still open and they did bring in millions of dollars in revenue. Despite the demise of stores like Toys R Us brick and mortar retail still captures a significant amount of Black Friday revenue. Traditional brick and mortar stores are not soon going away.
The same is true for this weekend’s offering. A Lifeway study this past summer revealed that the majority of people still give via the old fashioned offering plate on Sunday morning. While it is true that many churches are seeing a huge increase in online giving the traditional offering time is the leading source of income for churches. As such we must make sure every weekends offering is planned out and prepared for. Give time to planning and implementing a worshipful offering experience and you will go a long ways towards increasing your giving.
Yes, the times are changing but the traditional offering IF done right can help you be fully funded. Are you ready for this weekend’s offering?
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach www.generis.com/mark-brooks
I write a free weekly newsletter called, “The Stewardship Coach,” that contains an offering talk. Places like Giving Rocket charge $99 a month for offering talks. Get mine for FREE by emailing me at mark.brooks@generis.com