From The Stewardship Journal Team

Welcome to another edition of the Stewardship Journal. What will the offering of the future look like? How should churches respond to the changes in commerce? We probe those questions and more in this edition of the Journal.

“Digital offerings will be the end of the offering as worship.” That is what someone wrote to me many years ago when I wrote a post encouraging churches to set up online giving. Ten years later, my response is still the same as I gave then: the offering isn’t dead due to technology, but it has changed.” That is the start of Mark Brooks,’ The Stewardship Coach, column entitled The 21^st-Century Offering.

“Churches spend much time and effort getting new people in the door. Yet, few think about how to get those same people to return the next week. As churches prepare for one of their largest gatherings of the year, Christmas, my thoughts are on how to devise a strategy for when attendance and engagement spike to yearly highs.” Find out more about this strategy in our Bonus Section entitled, A Come Back Strategy for Christmas.

Could Digital Payments Give You a Jolly Holiday? is the title of our final post this week. Consider that a record 79% of e-commerce traffic this past Black Friday/Cyber Monday was on mobile phones. What does this mean for your offering, and how can you use digital giving to enhance your end-of-year giving? This post shares why you should be thinking digitally and how to do that.

Remember, on January 8^th, we will be going national with the Stewardship Journal! Next week, we will focus on many of the new offerings you will have at your disposal. We are going to make the Stewardship Journal the leading stewardship/generosity resource in the SBC! And every resource will be free for church leaders. Our passion is to help SBC churches establish a culture of generosity built upon biblical principles.

In Jesus’ name!