May 29 - June 4, 2006
May 29 - June 4, 2006
SOLI/Update
www.stewardshipoflife.org
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colleagues. If you would like to subscribe, send a note to
rcblezard@earthlink.net.
Is your church
contributor-friendly?
A 39-cent stamp brought me an urgent letter from my home congregation, its
message essentially this: Costs up, donations down, please send money.
I wanted to help. For a long time I had intended to become more regular in my
offering through "Simply Giving" – a Thrivent Financial for Lutherans program
that automatically transfers weekly donations from your bank account. So I
cruised onto my congregation’s excellent website to get more information.
But not only was there nothing about Simply Giving, there was no mention
whatever of the financial needs of our church or opportunities for helping to
meet them.
This is not to criticize my congregation's leaders or dedicated web volunteers,
because my church is hardly alone in this oversight. An admittedly unscientific
sampling of dozens of church-related websites showed only a handful
providing comprehensive guidance for giving.
The issue is important because experts say a smaller percentage of church
donations comes via the traditional check-in-the-collection-plate. In fact, a
growing number of people (I am one) do their banking electronically and simply
loathe writing checks. Others would rather give their via credit card. Still
other donors would be happy to give in-kind donations, such as stock, real
estate or bequests, but they don’t think of it or don't know how. Does your
church give them guidance?
Several items in this week’s resources stress donor outreach and education. An
article in Planned Giving Today
says many wealthy Christians do not remember their churches in their wills
simply because they are never asked to.
Another piece
from the United Methodist Church suggests a five-year-plan for educating members
about alternative giving.
What to do? Churches with websites could start with a page listing options for
giving. For inspiration, check out the great stewardship pages of
Trinity Episcopal Church,
Boston or
These possibilities boil down to two essential actions: Ask your people
to support God's ministries and educate them about their options for
contributing.
--Rob Blezard, webmaster and editor
Want to publish this message?
Great! See the note below!
New This Week!
Great weblink:
Stewardship Sermon Starters
Here's
a site to bookmark in your "stewardship" folder in Favorites. (You DO have a
Favorites folder for Stewardship, right?) This one gives a stewardship take on
the weekly lectionary offering. It helps pastors weave stewardship into their
messages, so stewardship becomes more than just one sermon in October.
Click here for Stewardship Sermon Starters, from the
Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America.
Managing
God's bounty
"There is no better
bargain to be had in this world than fact that God lets you keep 90 percent of
what is really God's. Even if we rightly turn over our life to God and let God
run it. if we see God as our manager, then it is still a bargain, because any
other manager would want 15 percent."
Click here for this column from Pastor Dana
Reardon.
Click here to peruse columns from her archives.
Is
our church ready for a capital campaign?
"That’s
a far more important question than most church leaders might think. Conducting a
capital campaign is a rare occurrence in the overall lifecycle of the church and
it must be successful or the failure may take years for the church to overcome."
This article lists signs your church is ready.
Click here for "Is our church ready for a
capital campaign?" from
ChurchCentral.com.
Planned
giving awareness in the local church
"It would appear that God and the IRS agree on one thing -- we
can't take it with us," says this compelling article that explains why churches
are frequently overlooked in their members' wills -- and how pastors and
stewardship leaders can change things.
Click here for "Planned giving awareness."
Good reading from
Planned Giving Today -- a newsletter for philanthropic professionals.
This week's
Treasure Chest offering.
Joke
of the Week!
Weekly
Gleanings, a sampling of articles with stewardship
implications from the popular press.
--SOLI/Update is produced weekly by
the Stewardship of Life Institute, 61 Seminary Ridge, Gettysburg, PA 17325
--Visit us and our resources online at
www.stewardshipoflife.org
--Send comments and
suggestions to Rob Blezard, Editor,
rcblezard@earthlink.net
--Message is (c)
Copyright 2004 by the Rev. Rob Blezard. Permission is granted to publish the
message for local, nonprofit use. Please drop me a line to rcblezard@earthlink.net
to let me know you're using it, and be sure to publish it with the following
notice:
(c) Copyright 2004 by the Rev. Rob Blezard, webmaster for the
Stewardship of Life Institute,
www.stewardshipoflife.org.
Used by permission.