From the Desk of Our Executive Director

Welcome to another edition of the Stewardship Journal. In this issue, we continue with a focus on end-of-year planning and giving. Our desire is to help you close out this year strong and position you for a great start to the New Year.

Here is a preview of this week’s Stewardship Journal.

What has been the long-term impact of Covid on churches? Our lead post, entitled Yes! You Can Go Back, takes up that topic addressing a common theme made by many that we can’t go back to the way things were. This post challenges that by showing the impact of not returning to physical worship or the passing of an offering plate.

It’s Late, But It’s Not Too Late is Mark Brooks’, The Stewardship Coach, article this week, giving you key tips to help close out your giving year strong. Not interested in end-of-year appeals? Here is a quote from Mark’s post, “Why the End of Year Matters – For retailers, the holiday season can represent as much as 20-40% of annual sales. Studies have shown that charities collect around 10% of all their yearly giving the last three days of the year! The final days of the year are also key for churches making their budgets for 2022 and establishing a base to start 2023 strong.” Let’s close out your year strong!

To help you accomplish this, in the Bonus Section, Mark shares samples for a December 31^st Email and Text Blast. This section of the Journal is meant to help you craft your church’s message in an appealing way. These are written so that you can add your name to them and send them out as is or edit them to suit your culture and context.

Can you believe we are only days away from Christmas? This week’s Mission and Ministry moment is entitled Keep the Focus on Christmas. The talk will help you remind your members of the true reason for this season and that their gifts will make an eternal difference. As with our samples, you can use this talk as it is written or as an idea starter to help you craft your offering message.

Do you have some thoughts on stewardship that you would like to share with us? We love posting articles from pastors. Let us know by writing Rob Phillips at rphillps@mobaptist.org. We would love to have your thoughts published in a Stewardship Journal.

Advancing the Gospel!