There is gold in those banks!
Take heart: “There’s gold in those banks!”
Sitting in your pews each week is a goldmine of resources waiting to be lovingly mined and put to work for Christ. If your church’s offering is poor, I assure you it’s not because your people are. They have a lot more money to give than you think.
The proof is in the results we have seen in the world’s poorest churches. When pastors in Zimbabwe, Africa, implemented the ten steps I’m about to share with you, their giving increased by 100 percent. In the Philippines, churches that followed these steps saw giving increases of 100, 200 and nearly 300 percent. Obviously, even the poorest of God’s people have money to give. They just need to be taught biblical stewardship.
The first year I implemented these ten steps at my church, our giving initially increased by 68 percent and then leveled off at 32 percent over the year. Our donations increased 32, 23, 27, 19 and 18 percent in five years in a row. Other churches in the United States have seen increases of 25, 30 and 57 percent in their donations.
Your church will experience similar results.
As I was writing this, I received an email from a pastor who recently implemented the ten-step Dynamic Giving System. I got permission from him to share it because I think he will cheer you up.
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“Hi Rod, just a little update from here at Calvary Church in Pueblo. We have some exciting results to report! We implemented your Dynamic Giving System this spring (2005). I hosted our first stewardship series during the month of April. We distributed and we collect God’s Guarantee cards on the last Sunday in April.
“I was immediately overwhelmed by the response from our people. Just reading your cards and seeing the commitments people were making was such a blessing. I also had several wonderful conversations with people throughout the month as they let me know about the work they were doing.” God was doing in their lives in relation to stewardship.”
“Well, the first month results after the stewardship series are out. Our general fund offerings for the month of May show a 57 percent increase over our average monthly offerings for both the prior fiscal year and the calendar year . [emphasis mine]. For the last three years, our giving had been stagnant at best. We even saw a slight decrease last year.”
“Needless to say, we are thrilled by the results. But even more so, we are thrilled by the spiritual response and growth we see in our people. Many seem empowered and encouraged to follow the Lord more fully in this area of their lives. I know It’s only been a month, but we’re sure God has done something great here.”
“We look forward to implementing the rest of the Dynamic Giving System and will plan an emphasis on stewardship annually. To God be the glory,
Dr. David Asch Calvary Church Pueblo, Colorado”
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Amen!
Here are the steps Dr. Asch is taking to bring spiritual and financial renewal to Calvary Church:
Step 1: Master the Biblical Principles of Stewardship.
o Overcome a common misunderstanding about the generosity of grace that prevents pastors from bold stewardship leadership.
o Be clear about what the Bible really says about tithing and what to say that will encourage your people to give much more than 10 percent.
o Grow your faith as you study God’s amazing promises of emotional, spiritual, eternal, and financial rewards to the faithful giver.
Step 2: Personally follow the biblical principles of stewardship.
o Be encouraged and challenged to give faithfully to your church, for your own good.
o Learn why it is vital that you set the example of biblical generosity.
o Seeing your personal story of faithful giving inspires your flock to similar generosity.
Step 3: Preach an Annual Stewardship Series.
o Learn how and when to deliver an annual stewardship series that transforms your people from dumpers to tithers in just a few weeks, year after year.
o Preach an expository, biblical, out-of-the-box sermon series that has been shown to increase donations and ignite spiritual renewal in hundreds of churches worldwide.
Step 4: Expose your people to stewardship testimonials.
o Learn what the Bible really says about public witnessing and how you can unleash its tremendous power during your stewardship series.
o Let testimonials from faithful givers practically deliver the messages for you.
o Use a sample stewardship testimony guide to help your people prepare theirs.
Step 5: Ask for a 10 percent commitment.
o Learn a commitment method to ask for a generous donation from your people that will move them to increase their donations tenfold, overnight.
o Learn how to offer a money-back guarantee that captures the imagination and stimulates generosity.
o Use a sample pledge card that you can customize to collect additional donation pledges from your people.
Step 6: Send Follow-up Letters to New Donors.
o Personalize and distribute pre-written sample follow-up letters to reinforce your people’s new donation commitments.
Step 7: Pray for your new donors.
o Harness the power of the prayer of faith to bring God’s blessing to your people as they launch into bountiful new territory.
Step 8: Distribute frequent giving logs.
o Use a simple and easy method to provide non-threatening accountability and encouragement so that people continue to give generously throughout the year.
Step 9: Use donation estimates at budget time.
o Unleash the power of donation estimates at budget time to increase donations.
o Customize a sample donation card estimate to use at your church.
o Distribute and collect the cards to plan and implement an increased and realistic church budget, year after year.
Step 10: Teach stewardship in new member classes.
o Learn how to use your new member classes to get pledges from newcomers throughout the year.
o Teach from a sample stewardship lesson outline in your new members’ classes.
If you faithfully implement these ten steps in your church, you will be thrilled with the results.
You might even spark a revival.
Copyright 2006 Rod Rogers