Annual Stewardship Plan
Most churches have committees for
worship, Christian education, mission, personnel, facilities and
finance. Frequently stewardship is considered a part of
finance. Unfortunately, stewardship and finance are not the
same thing and the stewardship activities are overlooked. This
is a major oversight! One of the essential roles of the church
is promoting personal stewardship through teaching, preaching and by
example. The information here is to assist you in putting
together an annual stewardship plan
for your church .
The foundations
for giving and stewardship are found throughout the Old Testament.
“The choicest of the
first fruits
of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your
God.”
Exodus 23.19
“The earth is the Lord’s and
all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for he has
founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.”
Psalm
24:1-2
“Honor the Lord with your
substance…and with the
first fruits of
all your produce…”
Proverbs 3:9
Jesus frequently
talks about stewardship and the use of money. Sixteen of the
thirty-eight parables are about money or wealth. In fact,
Jesus talks twice as much about money and wealth as he does about
prayer and faith.
“From everyone to whom much
has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much
has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”
Luke 12:48
And the early
Christians also practiced regular financial stewardship:
“On the first day of every
week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you
earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come.”
1 Corinthians 16:2
Regular financial
stewardship was an essential part of the ancient Israelite’s and
early Christian’s religious life. How do we make stewardship a
central element in Christian’s lives today?
People do not
suddenly become good stewards just by joining a church.
Instead, becoming a good steward is one of the journeys we take as
Christians. The journey is not an easy one because our modern
society emphasizes acquisition and consumption instead of giving and
gratitude. Giving doesn’t come naturally. The church
needs to help them by teaching and preaching about stewardship.
But more importantly, those who are good stewards need to be
examples for others to follow.
OK, that all
sounds very nice, but how do you do it? It’s not going to
happen all-at-once. You need to realize that the stewardship
journey has distinct phases starting with Spontaneous Giving and
progressing to Enduring Giving. Each step along the way
represents significant progress in an individual’s stewardship
journey.
-
Spontaneous Giving
– Giving in response to an immediate need such as a personal
illness, a family in need, weather related disasters or some
unanticipated but urgent need in the church. More money is
given when there is a close connection between the giver and the
need. Spontaneous giving is unplanned, irregular, one-time
giving. While this is a beginning level of giving, long-time
givers also respond to spontaneous giving needs.
-
Worship Giving
– Putting money in the offering plate on Sunday. Money is
only given when the giver attends worship and the amounts tend to
be a single denomination bill (i.e., a $5, $10 or $20 bill).
-
Special
Planned Giving
– The four denominational offerings, One Great Hour of Sharing,
Pentecost, Peacemaking and Christmas Joy Offerings are examples of
Special Planned Giving. These occur at regular intervals
throughout the year and emphasize ministry and mission rather than
brick-and-mortar projects.
-
Major Project Giving
– Brick-and-mortar campaigns and other projects with a one to
three-year horizon. Many churches experience increased
levels of giving to the annual budget after a major project
campaign is complete as church members see that their capacity to
give is more than they realized.
-
Annual Budget Giving
– Presbyterians emphasize proportionate giving of our resources
for the annual church budget. The individual motivations are
varied. Some people may give in exchange for perceived
benefits received from the church. Others give as a family
obligation or to support a long established, traditional
institution. Ideally, people give out of a sense of
gratitude for what they have been given by God.
-
Enduring Giving –
Two-thirds of retired people want to leave a legacy. Most
estate money goes to family members. The competition for the
remaining charitable portion is keen. The church is competing
with other charitable organizations and institutions of higher
education for these dollars, and the church is not doing very
well.
Your Stewardship
Committee should be looking at all of these methods of giving to
provide a strong financial foundation for your church. Someone
once said that relying on an Annual Financial Campaign for all of
the church’s income “is like trying to milk a one-legged cow.”
Not everyone will give to every one of these approaches, but
everyone will give to one or more of them.
Unfortunately,
the Finance Committees of some churches are so preoccupied with
annual budget giving that they fail to consider any of the other
alternatives for income. Since it is their responsibility to
develop the annual budget, their focus becomes centered solely on
this type of giving.
While annual
budgeting is important, the more important task is to help our
members grow in their Christian stewardship journey. When we
ignore all of the ways people give except one, we are doing our
people a great disservice.
Because people
are at different places on their stewardship journey, some are
motivated to give generously to short-term projects, and some prefer
to give to specific causes, while others prefer to give to the
annual budget which supports all the church’s ministries. If we
don’t offer all of these giving opportunities, we may miss some
gifts altogether as well as fail in our efforts to lead these
members farther along their giving journey.
One common
misperception is that giving to the denominational offerings draw
money away from local church giving. Nothing could be further
from the truth. The denominational offerings come with a
variety of interpretational materials that can be used to explain
and promote the offerings to the congregation. This alone
expands the congregation’s sense of ministry and mission as part of
the larger church and adds a few more steps to your members’
stewardship journey.
Now is the time
for your Stewardship Committee to put together a plan for the coming
year. What activities can you do to promote each type of
giving? When can you do the activities? Plan to put an
emphasis on at least one type of giving each month of the year.
What resources will you need? How can you incorporate giving
and stewardship growth into Sunday worship, monthly newsletters and
educational programs in your church?
Click Here
for more information and ideas.
Financial
stewardship is just one element in a year-round stewardship program.
The Presbytery of North Central Iowa web site has new ideas each
month for stewardship activities that you can use in your church.
Some of the ideas include:
Ø
Stewardship of Self – Health & Wellness
Ø
Stewardship in our
Church & Community – Recycling &
Parish Nursing
Ø
Stewardship
of the Earth –
Green
Church Initiative & Restoring Creation
Ø
Leaving a Stewardship Legacy -
Wills & Estates
North Central Iowa Presbytery
2302 Falls Avenue, Waterloo, IA 50701
319-233-1747
319-233-2015 (fax)
www.presbynciowa.org
