The Biggest Reason Churches Fail to Increase Giving
I have learned a few things over twenty years of helping churches increase giving. I call these my Brooks mantras. One of my mantras says, Get a plan and work your plan to achieve the goal of being fully funded. I preach this all the time, and the lack of planning is the biggest reason […]
Bringing Lottie Moon to Life
Churches start something a certain way and then do it that way forever. It’s the old, we’ve always done it that way before syndrome. In this fast-paced society we live in, If you keep doing the same thing you have always done, you will not get what you always got. The above is one of […]
They’ve Got to Know Before They Will Love or Give
“To know, know, know…is to love, love, love…” Many songs have been sung with this theme (from the Beatles to Dolly Parton). It’s true! If the one you know is worth loving. To know them is to love them. Meet Lottie She was a little lady with a big heart and a huge request. She […]
What a Lottie Moon Offering Taught Me About Giving
“How many of you have a dollar bill on you tonight? Hold them up.” I made that comment one Sunday night in late December at the church I was pastoring. It was the typical Sunday night crowd of around 150 adults and youth. Across the sanctuary, hands went up, waving dollar bills. I said, “I’ve […]
What to Do When Giving is in Decline
We have been going through our email inboxes of questions when we received this. “We are at a difficult time at our church due to a major employer in our area laying off and cutting salaries. We’ve lost core families, and our financial base is much smaller.” That pastor’s thoughts are on the mind of […]
Our Best Advice for Developing a Stewardship Strategy
We love it when pastors reach out to us with questions. For one thing, your question is typically the question other pastors have. So, when Jeff Anderson, the Sr. Pastor of Calvary Hannibal, wrote us, we asked if we could use his question for this post. Jeff gladly agreed. Here is the question: I have […]
The Multiple Platforms for Giving
Do you know how your members give to your church? Twenty years ago, that question would have been easy to answer as most churches provided few giving options beyond the Sunday morning offering plate. Things have changed dramatically, according to a new study done by the Barna Group. Barna recently asked over 500 U.S. pastors […]
In Defense of the Offering
Scrolling through social media this past week, I came across this headline, “Top 5 Heresies Among American Evangelicals.” The link led me to a Christianity Today article about a survey released by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research. It’s not an encouraging read. How can it be when the survey found that 53% of Evangelicals don’t […]
When It Comes to Giving, Patience Pays
Few companies are as profitable as Apple. Most Apple products are met with immediate acceptance and quickly become best sellers producing millions of dollars in their first year. But this is not always the case, as reported in a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled “When Did We All Start Using Apple Pay?” The answer […]
Using Tax Planning to Increase Giving
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Matthew 22:21 Those were Jesus’ words in answer to a trick question presented to him by the Pharisees. The question was, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Paying taxes was a huge issue for first-century Israelites as the conquering […]