Paul Clark

A few more...

Yesterday I discussed Brian Kluth's list of ways to make giving go up in your church. It was a good list.  Besides the eight steps I have listed elsewhere on my blog (take a look), here are 8 more things that came to my mind that I think are important to creating a culture of generosity:

1. Present the budget with stories, pictures, vision and enthusiasm. Make it exciting!
2. Stay out of the weeds.  However you need to do it, move the congregation away from discussing details that are too specific to add any value.  In my opinion, you should never discuss specific account budgets in a congregational setting.  Present the vision and stay at the 50,000 foot level.
3. Be sure the tools are in place to insure that the church family can give with confidence: i.e an annual audit by a qualified CPA. When that audit happens, use it to affirm the church family and comment on your desire to be wise and trustworthy money managers.
4. Make your money, stewardship, or generosity (whatever you call it in your church) sermon series an annual, multi-week, high-impact event.  Make this series as intentional and strategic as any series you'll present all year long.
5. As you periodically report finances, connect financial information with vision and results.  Finances should never appear as disconnected from the ministry of changed lives.
6. Tell stories of impact and transformation. People need to know that their generosity is accomplishing something eternally significant.
7. Communicate to the congregation how the church is being generous to the community.  You must model generosity to inspire generosity.
8. Affirm the congregation's generosity every chance you get. People need affirmation. That's just human nature.

You can't create a cultural shift overnight, but you can move people's thinking a little at a time if you stay focused and consistent.

Top 10 ways to make giving go up

I came across an interesting article about the TOP 10 New Year's Resolutions to Make Giving Go UP in a Down Economy. As I read the list, I was encouraged that 9 of the 10 suggestions from generosity guru Brian Kluth are already present in Fairhaven's approach to stewardship and generosity. Here's the list:

1. Emphasize generosity not because of what the budget says but because of what the Bible says.
   ✓ We talk about vision for the work of the Kingdom, not the need of the budget...
2. Share a generosity Scripture verse when receiving the offering.
   ✓ No, but we do consistently connect the offering to generosity and our faithful response to God's kindness and His vision for Fairhaven...
3. Give people a Bible devotional to help them in their finances and generosity
   ✓ We've used the Kluth 40-day devotional and others...
4. Preach a sermon series on finances and generosity
   ✓ Wow, we hit this one with a hammer: we had a 6-week all-church series on money called "Financial U." Take a look...
5. Help create more ways for people be more faithful in their giving
   ✓ We offer envelopes, online and EFT options, automated check processing, stock brokerage accounts, gifts-in-kind, and estate gifts.
6. Teach our children Sunday school lessons about being generous
   ✓ The financial U series included both children's and student's curriculum, so it was an all-church experience...
7. Provide online video seminars and resources to our church members on generosity
   Missed on this one: we had it, but I just found out it's gone in the quest for a website, not an online encyclopedia...
8. Offer financial classes and seminars in our church or tell people where they can attend them in our community
   ✓ Not to be redundant, but we offered a wide array of seminars during the month of February...
9. Empower people to include God in their asset and estate giving
   ✓ We provide this information and inspiration both to the congregation and specifically to our senior adults...
10. See generosity as a vital issue of spiritual transformation more than financial transactions
    ✓ If you relate stewardship to transformation and discipleship, you won't be afraid to preach, teach and talk about it...

Not to imply that these 10 things will automatically help your giving increase, but they will certainly create an environment where generosity can grow.  Tomorrow I'll add a few of my own list...

Year-end financials: providing context

This past Sunday, we communicated to the congregation how we finished the year in our giving.  It was great  to be able to tell them that we exceeded our budgeted income by some $288,000!  It was a celebration moment, to be sure, and when you have those moments you need to take advantage of them. It's a great time to affirm their generosity and connect them to the vision for the year ahead.  David did a great job with that.

But especially when you exceed your budget by a significant margin, it's important to provide context.  Exceeding your budget by big margins can have a negative backlash. People need to see the figures in the context of the broader picture of people and ministry--how you used what the Lord provided.  The figure below shows how we placed our final figures in the bulletin to give people the big picture. I've heard from many in the congregation how helpful this information was to them.

IRS Announces 2010 Standard Mileage Rates

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2010 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

via www.irs.gov

No Raise for Pastors | LeadershipJournal.net

About half the nation's full-time pastors they received no salary increase in the past year, continuing a downturn in salaries among top leaders in churches, to a new survey published by Christianity Today International and Leadership. In fact, the extensive survey, published in the 2010-2011 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff, shows a slight decline or stall in pay levels for the majority of all church staff positions surveyed. 

Total compensation for all lead pastors (combined solo and senior pastors' data), including housing, insurance, and retirement benefits, was down about 2.4%. Solo pastors lost the most, about 6.6%, which averaged more than $300 per month in salary and benefits last year.

No Raise for Pastors | LeadershipJournal.net

Each year's budget is different

Do you ever find yourself trying to explain or defend how much of your budget is allocated to staff costs?  Or why ministry budgets didn't get an increase in the new year?  We've all been there.

People often ask me about budget percentages. What percentage of the budget should be allocated to personnel?  How much is too much to spend on facilities or financing? What percentage of your budget is directed toward ministry costs?  Those are great questions, but they are a bit narrow in their scope.  The reality is that a church budget is a reflection of the overall strategy and focus of the church in a given calendar year.  That focus can change from year to year and consequently, the budget percentages will change accordingly.  Let me try to illustrate.

David Smith often tells our staff and Board that you are usually either buying staff, buying building, or buying ministry.  You usually can't do all three in the same budget year. Each new budget will probably reflect one of those three priorities.

In our 2010 budget, we are definitely buying staff. We are opening a new satellite campus in September and we need to staff it.  We're also adding a Director of Communications.  In total, we'll be adding about a dozen new staff positions, some full-time, others part-time.  That will skew the personnel percentage of our total budget in this calendar year. It will push 59%. But as I've projected our budget out to 2013, which I had to do in order to be sure those new staff costs could be sustained, our personnel percentage will fall back to a more comfortable level (53%).

Last year, we were focused on buying building.  We were focused on the costs of an $8M facilities expansion project.  Because we were trying to be prudent about the realities of the economy and our own capital campaign, ministry and personnel were held flat in order to create breathing room for people to give toward the building project.

Two years ago, we significantly increased ministry budgets.  Each ministry received additional funding that was wrapped around their ministry goals.  They were excited and that funding has helped carry them through the last two years when their budgets were held static. As I've told the Board, they are "comfortable" with their current level of funding.

The point I'm making is that percentages will change from year to year.  It's a mistake to create arbitrary targets and expect that every year budget categories will be forced to fit within that target range. A budget is only a tool to help you accomplish your church goals and it should be as fluid and dynamic as your approach to ministry.

The leadership challenge is to help your staff, Board and congregation understand that the landscape of ministry is constantly changing and each year the financial approach will be refocused.

Agree?  disagree? Your thoughts?

Generosity instead of stewardship

There was a nice section in an article I was reading in the NACBA MultiBrief today regarding the concept of generosity as juxtaposed with stewardship: 

'Generosity' as a broader concept 

The word “generosity” can express the concepts in a way that is more understandable and palatable today. “We don’t find the word as often as stewardship in the Bible, but we see the actions of God and people that reflect generosity and abundance,” Swint said. “If we are made in the image of God, we should have received the generosity gene in our spiritual DNA. We don’t necessarily want to be labeled a good steward, but we want to be seen as generous.” 

Generosity can be expressed with different terminology. “Be anti-budget,” Swint declared. Promote an “annual ministry plan” instead. “Don’t talk about income; talk about contributions.... Don’t talk about expenses; talk about costs. It’s costly to follow God and costly to carry out our mission.” And be sure to include the stewardship’s other aspects -- hours and talents given -- in the church’s annual reports.

We stopped talking a long time ago about stewardship. We talk exclusively in terms of generosity. But I especially like the advice about reframing the dialogue about budgets, income and expenses.  I'm going to use that in the weeks ahead presenting our 2010 budget (opps, I mean "ministry plan").  That's good advice!

how to approach the big buy- part 3

A big-ticket purchase is creeping up on you. The bus is breaking down. Or the server is malfunctioning. Or the phone system is obsolete. You know you’ll have to persuade the pastor, the board, maybe even the congregation, in order to make the buy...

The Congregation

1. Collect information and support beforehand, if possible. Introduce the issue to a subgroup of the congregation beforehand. This helps you uncover questions and gain support before the congregational meeting. Asking a focus group, “What questions or concerns would you have about this purchasing decision?” isn’t manipulative, it’s strategic. It helps you build consensus and tailor your presentation to answer concerns before they are voiced.

2. Lead with vision. People respond to vision. Use the power of story to explain how this purchase will impact people’s lives and extend the church’s influence in the community. Use your executive summary, prepared above, to briefly explain the issue and have all of the supporting documentation at your fingertips in case detailed questions need to be answered.

This article was published by the great people at Your Church magazine as part of their 2010 Church Buyers Guide edition.  Click here for the entire article.

Going Beyond the Numbers at NACBA '09

This week I presented two seminars at the NACBA National Conference, the first of which was explaining how to use financial reporting as part of an overall strategy for communicating vision among measured outcomes.  Here's the workshop description: "Financial reports are the cornerstone for understanding the fiscal health of any church. Financial reports are generated every day by thousands of church administrators across the country, but too often financial reports never get beyond the basics of information or go beyond the administrator’s office. This seminar will examine the benefits of using financial reports to inform our staff and leadership in order to measure, plan for and evaluate our ministries from a strategic perspective. Going beyond informing, we'll also look at how financial reporting can involve staff and leaders in good financial decision-making, gain greater buy-in, and improve organizational control. The seminar will also address using financial reports to inspire the church towards celebrating God's provision, connecting finances to stories of transformation, and inspiring greater generosity"  If you'd like to take a look at the slides, you can download them under Conference Resources on the right sidebar.

What might happen...

In yesterday's workshop with Dan Busby, the president of the ECFA, he mentioned five things that might happen in Washington which would impact the way we manage the church.  I thought you might find them interesting:

1. Annual reporting to the IRS.  We may be required to complete Schedule 990's, which would add an enormous burden to the church office.
2. Reporting of contributions.  We could be required to track donors contributions and report each one to the IRS according to the donor's social Security number.
3. Church definition.  The working governmental definition of a church could be defined, which would affect the wide variety of church models, including house churches, etc.
4. Health care reform.  As the government moves toward a massive government health care program, and tries to find ways to pay for it, the existing health care plans we provide could become taxable income to our staff members.
5. Cellphone policies.  The government is working toward eliminating the IRS restrictions for cell phone use for business purposes and the confusing and complex paperwork required to substantiate.

Some good, some bad...  a good workshop, though.