To maximize impact start early.

 A year-end giving request can be a very useful tool and can have a profoundly positive impact on your ministry.  But if you are going to do it you need to start early, as in now.  Many of your church members make year-end gifts annually and there are dollars in your congregation that will either end up being sent to the I.R.S. or to a tax-exempt charity.  Most folks would rather give to a charity than pay taxes, and if you do not ask for those dollars someone will.  United Way may end up with some of your members’ offerings.  But if you are going to maximize your year-end giving appeal, it needs to be done right.

Failed year-end giving appeals in churches happen for a number of reasons.  Perhaps the most common reason is that churches don’t to see the value of a year-end giving appeal and so they don’t even try.  A year-end giving appeal for your congregation can offer your members a wonderful opportunity to worship in giving during the holy days of Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas, and bless your church as you enter the New Year.  You need to consider having a year end giving appeal.

A second reason year-end giving appeals don’t work is because they are poorly prepared and presented.  A form letter addressed to “Dear Member”, and asking that they consider a special “Thanksgiving offering” which arrives on November 25^th will likely not get a generous response.  Some appeal letters motivate people to give less and not more.  Worse than no year-end appeal is an appeal that comes across as sloppy and thoughtless. 

One other reason that a year-end appeal might fall flat on its face is that it smacks of self-aggrandizement and greed.  If you send out a letter that tells folks you are so wonderful, listing all your accomplishments in the year and asking for more of their money so you can be more wonderful next year, you deserve to be ignored. 

So what does this have to do with a year-end giving discussion in January?  Year-end giving needs to be a special opportunity to carry on a yearlong expression of holy, wholesome, and Biblical giving.  By developing healthy giving attitudes now when you make a year-end appeal it will not seem like you are trying to sheer the flock between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.   A sound yearlong approach to stewardship that is holy, wholesome, and Biblical will bless any church, weather you have a year end appeal or not.  Here are three foundational points you need to have in place.

Vision: Why on earth has God put you here?  You are not here by accident; God has a plan for your congregation.  Be able to articulate the answer to the question “Why?” simply and directly.

Mission: What are we doing about that?  If God has put you here for a purpose you need to be able to state how are you going to accomplish that purpose.

Relationship:  How are we connecting to our members as givers?  People do not give to anyone or anything they do not trust.  You build trust by the currency of relationships. 

Next week I will take a moment to point out some basic tools that will help you build trust and your relationship with your givers all year long. 

Lesson from Ham Potatoes and Cheesy Cream Sauce

“I don’t like that.” 

“What do you mean you don’t like it?  You haven’t tried it.”

“I don’t like that; I know I don’t like it.”

This was the conversation between my 4-year-old grandson and my daughter.  My daughter is an excellent cook and a great mom, but at the moment she was more aggravated than anything else.  When she was little she was not a bad child, but she was definitely creative and stubborn, which is a powerful combination and her strong will and dynamic personality drove me crazy at times.

Now the role has changed; she and my son-in-law are the parents of a strong willed child.  She tells me the stories of how her son drives her crazy and I just laugh.  Couple of more grand kids and I can get off anti-depressants altogether.

Z-man, that is what I call my grandson, has decided that this new dish is absolutely inedible.  Of all things, she has placed before him a plate of ham and potatoes with a creamy cheese sauce.  Z-man, having never tasted this, has decided that it is beyond his ability to ingest and is flatly refusing to eat.

My daughter and son-in-law have a rule in their home; if you refuse to try a new food, you will see the same food at the next meal.  A challenge of the wills was about to happen. 

“Son,” my daughter begins patiently, “food is a gift from God.  It is one of the ways He shows us that He loves us.  Because of that we do not waste food; instead, we are thankful for this wonderful gift of God.”

“I’m not eating that.”

“Son, this is your supper,” the patience of mom is beginning to wear a little thin, “if you don’t want to eat it, you don’t have to; you can go to bed without any supper.”

“I’m not eating that”.

“Go get ready for bed.”  There remained only a thin veneer of patience over the frustration for a stubborn child.

Now one might suppose that by morning things would have changed.  But even with my daughter dressing the ham, potatoes and cheesy cream sauce with a little bacon, the refrain continued.  “I’m not eating that.”  So went breakfast, and lunch and supper.  That night the family was going to Wednesday services at church, which includes snacks and light foods.  “You can’t have any of the treats at church till you try at least one bite of your supper.”  The anthem of defiance sings on, “I’m not eating that.”  We are now 24 hours into this battle of the will and the boy has not budged a bit.

The next morning my son-in-law makes an executive decision.  He allows the 4 year old to have some cereal for breakfast with the understanding that at lunch he will face the ham, potatoes, and creamy cheese sauce again.  

At lunch my daughter dresses up a drinking straw into a puppet and this puppet dances across the dinner table while singing the praises of ham, potatoes, and cheesy cream sauce.  Now Z-man tries the bane of his pallet and finds that he loves what he has so long rejected. 

So what has this got to do with ministry and the Christian faith?

Many times God places before us opportunities and our response is, “I don’t like that, I don’t want that, I’m not going to do that”. 

Like a four year old facing unfamiliar supper, we get bent out of shape because the circumstances of our life are not what we wanted or expected.   All the while our loving heavenly Father places before us delights that we can’t imagine and all we can do is bow up our neck, redouble our stubborn will and refuse God’s gracious gift.  I wonder how many times I missed blessing because I was too set on my agenda to see God’s great gift?  How many times have I been left with the lesser, rather than the greater option, because I refused to enjoy what was before me?

May God grant us a child like faith to follow His leading and protect us from our own childish stubbornness.  

How much does a hooker cost? Questions for ministry

“Andy, how much does a hooker cost?”  As soon as I said that, I realized I had posed the question rather poorly.  There was a very long pause on the other end of the phone. 

“Preacher, why do you want to know how much a hooker costs?”  Andy was a member of my congregation in suburban Atlanta and deputy sheriff in one of the Atlanta counties. 

“Andy, I am working on my sermon for Sunday about the guy in the Bible who hires a hooker.  He over pays by a long shot and I wanted to get a point of reference for my sermon Sunday.”

Another long pause.  “Okay, hold on.”

I hear Andy lower the phone and ask the officers in the room, “What is the going rate for a hooker?”

Pause

“No, it is for my preacher,” I hear Andy say.

Suddenly, I am having second thoughts about this whole sermon.

Andy returns, “One of the vice guys here said you can get a crack monster for $5, typical rate for a street hooker is between $40 and $75.  High-end call girls can go as high as $1,000 an hour.  It all depends on what you want.  Does that help?”

“Yea, I have more information than I can use.  Thanks, Andy.”

“No problem, I am really looking forward to hearing this sermon.”

Come Sunday, Andy and his wife, (their kids were in Junior church) were on the second row as I preached about Judah and Tamar, the ancestors of the Messiah.  While the price of prostitution was only a minor part of that sermon, Andy listened with special attention.  Unexpectedly, I had entered into his world for the sermon.  The Bible was, in a new way, something he could relate to.  Judah and Tamar were not just names from a list in the Bible; they were two novices in the world’s oldest profession.  Andy may have worked cases of such novices.  The events of the Book were connected with the life he lived.

In the contemporary church we hear-to excess-about relevant preaching.  Sometimes that is little more than a cliché or a rehashing of the latest book, or sermon series by a super star, mega-church preacher.  Let me suggest that there is a better way to make preaching relevant.

First, return to the histories and teachings of Scripture.  Clearly we need to be contemporary but not to the exclusion of the Word of God.  I recently heard a sermon in which the preach spoke apologetically about read a lengthy passage of scripture.

Second, draw out the timeless and timely themes.  One of the great things about scripture is how it seems like it could have been written yesterday.  The themes of scripture seem at times to be lifted from the news feed on your tablet.

Third, what I discovered by accident, ask people in your congregation about how their reality parallels the world of the Bible.  The best way to do that is by questioning your people.  What I did was an accident.  But with a little forethought and effort you could mine a mother load of teaching moments from you congregation.

P.S.  Thanks to everyone who participated in last week's survey.

Begin the new year by telling me what you think!

I love to write.  I also love the church and the ministry.  I hope that this blog is the intersection of those loves.  Over the last year I have addressed issues from the sublime to the ridiculous.  Some essays have been well received and others have had hostile reactions and, worst of all, some have been ignored altogether.  But I write anyway, just because I like to put my random ideas on paper, or whatever the digital equivalent happens to be.

However, in order to be more effective and useful, I want your help in knowing what would make a good article or essay in your opinion.  Tell me how I can help you in the New Year.   This survey is super short and will take you only a couple of minutes to complete.  I would be most thankful if you would be so kind as to share your opinion with me.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/J8RNZV5

Now on a completely unrelated and frivolous subject. 

I bet what we do with our old Christmas tree is more exciting than what you do with yours.  I want to share with you the video of The Exploding Christmas Trees.  This has become our family tradition.  I want to include the Christmas tree Manifesto which reads as follows: 

“Never in the history of trees has the need been greater for a dignity movement for Christmas trees.

As Christmas trees we are loved, adored, decorated, photographed and made part of the family until Dec 26^th.  Then we are thrown out like ripped wrapping paper.  We are tossed in ditches, thrown in landfills, sunk in ponds and treated with no respect.  We go from being the centerpiece of decoration to nothing in a matter of hours.

The time has come for us to receive the dignity we deserve in our passing.  We faithfully serve and bring cheer and we deserve better than to be thrown out like trash.  We deserve to go out with flash, flare and zing.

In solidarity with trees everywhere, we call for the great exploding Christmas tree to become the grand finale to the Christmas tree season.”

https://youtu.be/2GKDaUdv8dY