How Pastors Can Become Stewardship Connected

The Disconnected Pastor is the number one reason churches struggle financially. The question is, how can you become connected? Here are some thoughts on how pastors should be engaged in the stewardship process.

One of the major reasons that pastors are disconnected from stewardship is time. The tyranny of the urgent seems to always press in upon them. So, knowing that, let me say that if a pastor does not find time to devote to stewardship planning and implementation, giving will not increase in the church.

How much time should a pastor spend on stewardship? I believe pastors should spend 5% to 10% of their time on stewardship! Funding your church’s ministry needs to be seen as that important.

While 10% is my ultimate goal for pastors, I will take what I can get. Start by giving some time to stewardship. Then slowly adjust your work week to increase the amount of time you give to stewardship. Frankly, one hour a week is probably more than most pastors spend in a month! The time you invest in stewardship planning will be rewarded.

What are some ways to spend time on stewardship? The following is a list of things I think every pastor should do every week.

• Stewardship Evaluation – You should get the report of the past Sunday’s giving every week. At least fifteen to thirty minutes of every staff meeting should discuss where you are and how you might improve offerings for the next week. Once a month, you should spend thirty minutes to an hour reviewing and updating your stewardship plan.
• Stewardship Education – Besides reading this newsletter, read a stewardship blog every morning. Add ten to fifteen minutes to your study day browsing websites that give stewardship education. Here is a list of where you can find my blogs.  https://www.onlinegiving.org/blog and https://acts17generosity.com/blog/
• Stewardship Cultivation – Write a weekly personalized thank you note to your top donors and new donors. Have your financial secretary alphabetize the names if you don’t want to know how people rank. The note should express gratefulness for all they do and promise that you will pray for them. Another idea is to take your top donors to lunch or dinner throughout the month.
• Stewardship Planning – Every week, you take up an offering. Typically, this is one of the most boring times of our service. When we fail to make the offering meaningful, we fail to see meaningful results. Spend fifteen to thirty minutes each week planning and preparing for the offering. Improving your offering time is the best and easiest way to increase giving and givers.
  
  Access my offering talk vault at https://acts17generosity.com/the-offering-talk-vault/.

How much time should you spend on stewardship? That will depend upon each pastor. However, it is safe to assume that every pastor could spend more time on this crucial area. Spending a few quality hours a week could make all the difference in the world when it comes to making budget or not.