The Retirement Issue
“I think we will know when it is time to retire.” My high school wrestling buddy, who also serves as my financial advisor, made that comment to me back in 2018. When you get my age, retirement is all your buddies talk about. I wasn’t ready to retire, but I was ready to get off 100 airplanes a year! Yesterday, sitting on my porch pouring over notes, research, and past writing in an attempt to be brilliant, it hit me. I’m ready to retire my newsletters. So, with this Coach, I am announcing the retirement of my newsletters, The Stewardship Coach and the Stewardship Journal, with my final edition coming out in early December. I’ve named this Coach The Retirement Issue.
Back in June, I started thinking and praying about my future. You do that when you reach 67. In particular, my thoughts were about where to take my writing. I am not interested in retirement; it’s more like re-engagement. But where? Honestly, my field of topic is narrow, and after over 1,000 blog posts, five books, countless e-books, and hundreds of newsletters, I have written on every stewardship topic imaginable. I find myself self-plagiarizing on topics I have already written on because, well, I can’t say it any better. I’ve never wanted to be that guy that coasts into retirement.
I had thought and even communicated, that I would go another year moving toward a monthly magazine format dealing with a specific stewardship topic each month. To be honest, there are few people interested in that project. OK, that’s not true, no one is interested! To save money, one of the state conventions that was sponsoring me has already canceled. Let that sink in. Apparently, not enough church leaders in their state are interested in what I am writing.
“You write the best stuff on stewardship. Your problem is no one cares.” My friend, Brian Dodd, told me that several years ago. Compliments like that sting. It’s true, though. I’m not sure I write the best stuff, but I know no one else who cranks out prose on giving and stewardship like I do. My problem isn’t that church leaders are not interested. The problem is, they haven’t seen the problem. A secondary problem is church leaders are crushed by the tyranny of the urgent. A final problem is church leaders have zero training in stewardship. And most, including their denominational leadership, have zero interest in learning until it’s too late.
The window of opportunity is closing. In 2018, I began writing about the shift in generational giving. I stated then that experts were saying we had about a five-year window of opportunity to maximize Baby Boomer’s giving impact and train up the next generation of donors. Now, we are seeing the projected declines in giving accelerate. In my denomination, the SBC, our agencies, and state conventions are selling assets in order to survive. Many churches have missed that window of opportunity, and they, as well, will be faced with difficult decisions in the coming years. Most will close forever.
But not you! If I have been a good coach, you will carry on fine without me, hopefully using the principles I have taught you. My goal is to provide you with the best stewardship advice in these next few weeks. My focus will be on ending the year well and setting up a great start for 2025. Serving you has been my honor. Thank you for your years of support! Let’s continue to keep you fully funded!
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach
mark@acts17generosity.com
OnlineGiving.org, the leading online giving processor in America, sponsors my writing. You can find out more about their services at https://www.onlinegiving.org/.