Last year, the average American spent $164.76 on Valentine's Day cards, candies, and flowers. As a nation, we spent almost $22 billion all in an attempt to say; I Love You.1. All those flowers wilted, the candy was eaten, and most cards were thrown out. Is it worth it? We...
If there were any doubts about the impact of online giving on offerings, those doubts vanished with the rise of COVID-19. I hear continually from pastors, “We will never pass an offering plate ever again.” Commerce had already moved to become digital. The pandemic forced churches to finally adapt. Now...
A few years ago, I asked a pastor what my biggest obstacle was in helping him increase giving at his church. He replied, “My staff.” I thought he was kidding until I held my first meeting with his staff. I walked into the room to bored looks, and everyone had...
64% of churches are optimistic about total cash gifts to their churches going into 2022, according to a study done by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).1 That was the opening line in our post last week on the 2022 state of giving and offerings. When we see national...
Missouri Baptist Pastors are optimistic about giving! You will discover that by reading our lead post. Last year we started a series called Missouri Baptist Pastors Speak Up. We asked pastors their views on stewardship-related topics. We pick back up with that series in this issue of the Journal with...
Dreams matter. Tomorrow's holiday honoring Martin Luther King is proof of that. On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the iconic "I Have a Dream" speech in front of over 250,000 supporters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. The speech was ranked the best American speech of the 20th...
Ideas to take your offerings to the next level – Since even my stellar offering talks can become routine, causing members to tune you out, let me give you some ideas on how to take your talks to the next level. You must keep changing what you do during the offering...
“Just when we really get going in worship, then it is time for the offering, and it interrupts the flow of worship!” I actually had a staff member tell me that once when I was attempting to help their church reverse a decline in giving. That statement sums up most...
64% of churches are optimistic about total cash gifts to their churches going into 2022, according to a study done by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).1. That is a 3% increase from their outlook going into 2021. “Despite incredible challenges through an environment with much adversity, 2021 has...
Happy New Year and welcome to the newly updated 2022 Stewardship Journal! The 2022 Journal is now a web-based newsletter with clickable links. Each article is a blog post, and each weekly Journal is an e-newsletter with teasers and links to the articles. This significantly improves the static PDF that...
