The Importance of Instructing & Inspiring
LESSON #1 - Provide Biblical Teaching Most churches found
that their people were in need of practical and inspirational
instruction and encouragement in the areas of Christian
generosity. Churches found it helpful and very important that
these areas be taught from the
pulpit by the Sr. Pastor and/or an experienced financial speaker so
that a proper spiritual tone and Biblical basis was in place for the
drive.
Many churches have found that
using the "40 Day
Spiritual Journey to a More Generous Life" Bible devotional
(www.GenerousLife.info)
has greatly inspired people spiritually to become more generous and
to increase their giving commitments.
LESSON #2 - Aim To Make The Fund Drive A Rich Spiritual
Experience Many churches indicated that their expansion drives
helped deepen people's faith and spiritual commitment (i.e. -
especially through the increased vision people received, the
interaction people had with others during the drive, and/or their
increased or sacrificial giving to the Lord's work at the church).
To add positive humor to your encouragement for people to be generous, use
"Financial Funnies" cartoons from:
www.kluth.org/cartoons.htm.
LESSON #3 - Include Personal Testimonies A number of
churches actively included personal testimonies during worship times
from people who have experienced the grace of giving in their lives
and/or who were specifically led by the Lord to become supportive of
the expansion project. Written testimonies, handouts, and articles
were also used to help encourage people in the spiritual aspects of
their giving decisions. Weekly questions from the
www.GenerousLife.info
devotional can help people determine how to share their generosity
story/testimony in a positive way.
The Importance of Identifying & Informing
LESSON #4 - Have A Comprehensive Plan Every successful
funding effort had a specific plan on how they were going to
instruct, inspire, inform and appropriately involve people within
the following groups:
- LEADERSHIP:
Church leadership, pastor(s), staff, heads and key leaders
of church ministries/committees.
- ACTIVE MEMBERSHIP:
People regularly involved in serving and small group
ministries.
- POTENTIAL MAJOR
GIVERS: People
who exhibited the gift of giving in the past or who may have
the potential to be a major financial help in the drive.
- REGULAR ATTENDERS:
People who attend church at least twice a month.
- FRINGE PEOPLE:
Occasional or sporadic attenders.
LESSON #5 - Get Experienced Counsel And/Or Help In
addition to the active involvement of many lay leaders and present
staff, nearly all the churches that raised major dollars for
expansion efforts used some level of experienced help and
professional guidance (usually from external sources) to lead them
through the funding process.
LESSON #6 - Develop Helpful Collateral Materials Each
church developed materials that effectively informed their
congregation what the plans were and what level of help and
support would be needed. Items often developed included multimedia
presentations, case-statement brochures, question and answer
flyers, personal presentation packets, commitment cards, mailings,
and update sections in church publications.
The Importance of Inviting & Involving
LESSON #7 - Have Specific Commitment Time(s) Following a
period of advance instruction, inspiration, and information,
churches would invite their people to carefully and prayerfully
indicate how the Lord has led them to be involved in the church
expansion plans. In a number of cases this was done in two stages,
the first stage would be receiving the commitments from the families
that make up the church's main leadership and lead givers and the
second phase (2-4 weeks later) would be receiving the commitments
from the rest of the congregation on a specific target date or
event.
NOTE:
This information was gathered through interviews Brian Kluth
conducted with churches of various sizes. Churches that followed
these principles successfully raised several hundred thousand to
millions of dollars. The author has seen churches whose leadership
ignored, disregarded or violated these principles fall seriously
short of their funding goals.
For additional generosity and building fund resources, visit:
www.kluth.org
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Brian Kluth is a national and international speaker and writer
on Biblical generosity and financial matters.
He is also a church pastor and the founder of MAXIMUM Generosity, a public ministry dedicated to advancing Biblical generosity through inspirational preaching, leadership training seminars, writing, resources and the media. Brian’s written materials have been distributed to more than 350,000 Christian leaders in more than 100 countries .For additional materials or to contact Brian, email:
bk@kluth.org or visit:
www.kluth.org
© www.kluth.org.
Copyright reprint permission for non-commercial purposes can be purchased for
$20 to photocopy, fax, email or print this materials for 1-25 people, $50 for
distribution to 26-500 people, $75 for 501-999 people, and $100 for distribution to 1000 or more. To
purchase the required reprint permission, go to the products page on this website (www.kluth.org), call 1-888-443-7407, or email:
bk@kluth.org
