It’s Not Fund Raising It’s Faith Raising
Last week, I told a story of a pastor I once worked with who explained to his leaders that the upcoming capital campaign wasn’t a fund-raising campaign but a faith-raising campaign. I want to further flesh that out in this Coach, entitled It’s Not Fund Raising It’s Faith Raising.
Last week, I defined fundraising versus faith raising: “In a fundraising campaign, I look at what I can afford to give. Faith is seldom a factor. A commitment to a church capital campaign should be an act of faith in response to God’s prompting.” Non-profit campaigns fundraise. Churches raise faith and, in doing so, raise dollars.
One of your goals in a capital campaign is to use the process to teach the importance of walking by faith. You begin by communicating a vision that helps your members be able to say, “’They’ are proposing building X.” You want to move them to ownership where they say, “We are building X.” Finally, you want them to arrive personally at a place where they are asking, “Lord, based on what my church is doing, what do you want my part to be?” You pour all your communication, preaching, and effort to get your members to that place. One thing is still required. You must utilize what I call Spiritual Connectivity.
Spiritual Connectivity is essential for members to understand what you believe God wants to do through your campaign. Your members’ hearts must be inspired. They must see the link between the project, why we are raising dollars, and the church’s vision. You must spiritually connect the members to the vision you believe comes from God’s heart. How?
Prayer is not just a practice; it’s the lifeline of your campaign. It’s what links our heart to the heart of God. Prayer is the vehicle that helps us link this project back to the God-given purpose of your church. You will want to plan events that will call the church family to ask for God’s overall blessing upon the campaign and what God wants each of them to do to support this vision. These could include prayer walks, twenty-four-hour prayer vigils, concerts of prayer, periods of prayer such as a Forty Days of Prayer and Fasting approach, and other prayer-related events.
One of the most overlooked aspects of fundraising is prayer. In our rush to create programs and catchy themes, we often forget our greatest resource: prayer. One reason for this oversight might be that we often overlook the importance of prayer in many of our endeavors in church.
“I have a problem.” That was a comment a lay leader made to me a few years ago after our team meeting. The man with the problem was the Prayer Coordinator on the team. I asked what his problem was. He said, “I’ve been asked to get people to pray for our church, but after hearing you, it sounds like what we really are interested in is their money.” He feared that members would feel that the prayer call was a disguised call for giving. I responded, “You are not asking them to pray when you are asking them to give. You are asking them to pray in order that they might know what God wants them to give. You are asking them to pray everyone in the church would respond to God’s prompting as to what He would have them commit and give.”
How you raise funds must be consistent with how you do all missions and ministry. I always tell pastors that a capital campaign is a teachable moment. Capital campaigns challenge our faith and our view of ownership of our lives. One of our goals in discipleship should be to teach biblical stewardship. If all we possess is God’s, why should we not pray about what to give? If we are truly trying to walk by faith, how can we do that apart from through prayer? So, be unapologetic in calling your church to pray about their giving.
By making prayer a key element of your campaign strategy, you teach your members to walk by faith and trust God. Small victories give us the confidence to pray for larger needs. The more we pray, the more our faith increases. The more our faith increases, the more generous we become. The more generous we are, the more your church has to do missions and ministry.
So, make prayer a key element of your capital campaign giving strategy because a successful church capital campaign is not fund-raising but faith-raising!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach
mark@acts17generosity.com
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