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November 29, 2007
New web design
We (LifeWay Envelope Service) launched a new web design this week. Take a look and tell us what you think.
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November 28, 2007
Personal finance worksheets
I found a collection of worksheets that help with personal financial planning and decision making. I would bookmark this site and refer to it often. Buying is an emotional process. But financial success is based on consistent, healthy financial behavior. That means we can't always rely on our feelings.
So, close the door. Click over to the Web page. And have some fun with numbers.
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November 27, 2007
American Debt
Far from being a personal problem, Americans' personal debt is increasingly being fingered as the source of the next great global economic collapse.New York Magazine, 10/28/2007:
The U.S. economy, for all its worldly sophistication, is driven by mall shoppers and late-night Amazon addicts—70 percent of the gross domestic product is accounted for by consumer spending, which is buttressed by debt. According to the Federal Reserve, total U.S. household debt was, as of August, $2.5 trillion—a 24 percent increase in the past five years. Total credit-card debt, including gas cards and the like, was $915 billion.The willingness of consumers to keep spending and piling on debt in the midst of a slowing real-estate market is hailed on Wall Street as an act of patriotism, which Schiff considers perverse. Imagine, he suggests, that you ran into a good friend and asked him how he was doing. His reply: "I took out a third mortgage, maxed out my credit cards, and emptied out my kids' college savings account so I could buy a bigger TV and a new car, and we're going to Greece on vacation over the holidays. Things are great!" Schiff lets the idea sink in and then finishes the thought: "And we're celebrating the fact that we're doing this as a nation?"
Read the entire post here.
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November 26, 2007
Church stewardship resource page
I thought this was a great example of how a church's Web page can be used as an effecitve stewardship tool to clearly explain how people can give to the church and to offer some excellent excel spreadsheets and pre-calculated tables to help people determine how much they will commit to give.
I think we assume that people already know this stuff. Not true.
It strikes me odd that this approach is so under-utilized by churches. We expect to find this attention to detail on our financial planner, broker, or bank's Web site. Why not our church Web site too?
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November 15, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!
Just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. I'll be taking the week off from posting. My next post will be on Monday, November 26.
Let us hear the words of Psalm 118 as we remember that everything is a gift from God himself and our response should be one of thanksgiving:
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Let Israel say,
“His faithful love endures forever.”
3 Let the house of Aaron say,
“His faithful love endures forever.”
4 Let those who fear the Lord say,
“His faithful love endures forever.”
5 I called to the Lord in distress;
the Lord answered me
[and put me] in a spacious place.
6 The Lord is for me; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
7 With the Lord for me as my helper,
I will look in triumph on those who hate me.
8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in man.
9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in nobles.
10 All the nations surrounded me;
in the name of the Lord I destroyed them.
11 They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me;
in the name of the Lord I destroyed them.
12 They surrounded me like bees;
they were extinguished like a fire among thorns;
in the name of the Lord I destroyed them.
13 You pushed me hard to make me fall,
but the Lord helped me.
14 The Lord is my strength and my song;
He has become my salvation.
15 There are shouts of joy and victory
in the tents of the righteous:
“The Lord’s right hand strikes with power!
16 The Lord’s right hand is raised!
The Lord’s right hand strikes with power!”
17 I will not die, but I will live
and proclaim what the Lord has done.
18 The Lord disciplined me severely
but did not give me over to death.
19 Open the gates of righteousness for me;
I will enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous will enter through it.
21 I will give thanks to You
because You have answered me
and have become my salvation.
22 The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
23 This came from the Lord;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
24 This is the day the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Lord, save us!
Lord, please grant us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord.
From the house of the Lord we bless you.
27 The Lord is God and has given us light.
Bind the festival sacrifice with cords
to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will give You thanks.
[You are] my God; I will exalt You.
29 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His faithful love endures forever.
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November 14, 2007
Wikipedia on Stewardship
The word "stewardship" has an entry in Wikipedia. Check it out. I found it interesting that alongside a theological position on stewardship, secular organizations and environmental groups have also adopted the same basic premise: what we have is not our own and should be protected from exploitation and nurtured to advance "the work" to ultimately benefit the greater good.
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November 13, 2007
Executive Committee conducts CP Survey
Chapman said the purpose of the survey is "to collect data that will provide an empirical baseline of our churches' thoughts, feelings and perceptions about Cooperative Program/stewardship and to give us insights for developing a more focused strategy in the promotion of CP and stewardship across the convention."LifeWay Research, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, is conducting the survey at the request of Chapman, who described it as the most ambitious survey conducted to date by LifeWay.
Read the entire article here.
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Common Pitfalls in Purchasing Church Insurance
The best time to talk about insurance is before you need it. It's no fun, but these important items should be considered when it comes to purchasing church property insurance. Are you sure that you would be able to replace what you currently have should it be destroyed by accident or natural disaster? If not, read more here.
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November 12, 2007
7 practical reasons to use offering envelopes
At the end of the day, a church is a faith-based non-profit organization that exists on the contributions or donations of its members. In the non-profit world, 20% of your responsibility is to set goals and define an operating budget to help you meet those goals. The other 80% of your energy is finding the donations to support your budget.
What is interesting is that even though offering envelopes are not "cool" to talk about or use in most churches today, they are and continue to be one of the most critical elements in any donor or contribution strategy. This is true in the church and in the secular world as well. Bottom line, offering envelopes deliver results.
So, here are 7 practical reasons to use offering envelopes.
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November 8, 2007
Study reveals that giving is tied to the heart not head
"The researchers found that if organizations want to raise money for a charitable cause, it is far better to appeal to the heart than to the head. Put another way, feelings, not analytical thinking, drive donations."
Well said. Maybe the reason church giving is decreasing is because we're trying to fight the heart with the head. New flash: it doesn't work. Facts won't increase giving. Evidence doesn't compel someone to respond. Only when we appeal to the hearts, the center of our beings, will people respond sacrifically.
Maybe the problem isn't the people in the pew. Maybe the decline in church giving lies in our inability to tell great stories that inspire sacrifical living and sacrifical giving.
Read a summary of the study here.
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November 7, 2007
Alarming Trends in Church Giving
I found an interesting article today. It's from 1996, so it's a bit dated. However, it's a futures trend analysis on church giving, specifically money set aside for mission work beyond the operational and ministry expenses of the local church. The article defines this as benevolence giving which is a wider definition than most of us hold on the subject.
I think we are beginning to see the realization of some of the author's predictions and conclusions.
1. We must acknowledge the decline in church giving as a trend.
Benevolence monies consist of funds earmarked for church activities whose focus lies beyond the congregation, such as support for denominational work at regional and national levels and funding for seminaries and international and domestic mission programs as well as local mission projects. In 1988 we noticed that of the two categories, giving to benevolences declined faster than giving to congregational finances for the period from 1968 to 1985...Giving to church benevolences as a percentage of income, for example, has been in a fairly regular decline for over two decades. Through what statisticians call linear regression analysis, we combined the past 26 years of data and then developed a trend line based on the accumulated information. What this trend shows is that in 1968, church members in the denominations we studied gave 0.66 percent of income to their churches' benevolence funds. By 1993 this number had declined to 0.43 percent, a decline of 35 percent in the portion of income directed beyond the congregation's own needs. At this rate of decline, by the year 2049 zero percent of church member income will be going beyond the congregation to benevolences.
2. We must consider the connection between giving and membership trends.
Some observers suggest that such membership trends represent a swing of members away from mainline churches and into conservative and evangelical ones. If that were true, conservative and evangelical membership statistics ought to be reflecting an increase that roughly corresponds with the decrease within the mainline. The numbers do not support that conclusion. It is true that a group of 15 conservative and evangelical denominations increased as a percentage of population between 1968 and 1993. However, between 1985 and 1993 this group's rate of growth slowed and the portion of U.S. population they represented declined...Data for 37 communions allow us to perform a trend analysis for a wide spectrum of American Protestantism. The group includes the 11 mainline denominations considered earlier, as well as 15 conservative denominations, some of which are among the fastest growing in the U.S. The trend suggests that historical Protestant Christianity as represented in these 37 communions will fall to zero percent of the population in less than 100 years.
3. We must have a strategic plan to ensure the the trend does not continue to it's logical end.
It is reasonable to propose, therefore, that the answer to declining giving, and perhaps to declining membership, will not be found in requests to help maintain institutions, whether those be local congregations or denominational offices. A much larger vision is required to capture the imaginations of church members living in this communications-rich society. A conclusion of the 15 denominational officials and one seminary vice-president who served on the Stewardship Project National Advisory Committee was that the church needs to offer its members a constructive agenda for deploying their affluence.
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November 6, 2007
The face of the Cooperative Program
Here is a great story about how the cooperative program has funded a lifetime of ministry.
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November 5, 2007
Stewardship Cartoon
I think we take stewardship way too seriously sometimes. And it's Monday! So I'm giving you a reason to smile and laugh.
Enjoy!
(By the way, this is our 100th post!)
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November 1, 2007
Microfinance and churches
I googled microfinance and churches. I thought it would be interesting to see if any churches/denominations were already using microfinancing as a model to accomplish their global missions strategy. I found this press release that announces a denominational relationship between Opportunity International and the Presbyterian Foundation Group.
The Presbyterian Foundation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has named Opportunity International a validated ministry mission, which will increase the opportunities for Presbyterian churches to work with the world's largest Christian microfinance organization in efforts to help the poorest of the working poor around the world.
The press release also outlines specific churches and how they are already working with Opportunity International.
I think this is a pretty cool way to tie stewardship directly to ministry. And it helps those who are giving to see a measurable impact which is something more and more people are requesting. They don't just want to give money to a machine who will in turn decide how to use their money. Those who give want to be able to have a say in where the money goes and how it's used.
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