YEAR-ROUND STEWARDSHIP #3

            I am continuing to share information about year-round stewardship that I started sharing a couple of weeks ago. So far, we’ve talked about the first six months of the year. Now we’ll cover the summer months of July and August and the first fall month of September.

 

July

·         The summer months usually aren’t terribly busy, but I think it’s a good time to consider whether have some sort of quarterly report that talks about faith and finance, and what that would look like.

August

·         Again, not a terribly busy month finance-wise, generally, but spend some time preparing budget requests to the various team and ministry leaders, so that these team leaders have them prior to their busy fall.

September

·         Send out quarterly statements to all givers. This is a good way, as people “return to church” and see the church ramping up activities, to catch up on their giving that may have fallen behind during the summer.

·         Receive and review budget requests that had gone out to ministry and team leaders last month and start to put together a preliminary budget for next year.

·         Review income and expenses to date, and see if the “summer slump” is more significant than normal.

·         Continue planning for the fall pledge campaign.

It is now the busy time of the year finance-wise, but if you have been doing some of this work since the beginning of the year, you will be entering the fall in good shape!

 

 

                  YEAR-ROUND STEWARDSHIP #2

            I am continuing to share information about year-round stewardship that I started sharing last week. Last week, I talked about the first quarter of the year, and this week, I’ll talk about the second quarter (April, May and June).

 

April

• ·         This might be a good time to hold an estate planning & giving workshop. Do you have a planned giving policy in your church? This is a specific plan that is one part of a “good” stewardship program. We usually do a decent job talking about operating or general fund giving, you know, the day-to-day operation so the church. And sometimes we do okay with a capital campaign when there’s a big building project. However, planned giving is different from both of those, but not necessarily separate. This is the type of giving that is after death, or trusts or estate giving. Having a workshop is a good way to introduce different ways of making gifts, which could include trusts, retirement accounts, life insurance, naming the church in their will, etc. Have you talked to some of your folks and discussed why they think it’s important to support their church with their regular giving? If supporting the church is important to them now while they’re alive, why would they change after they are no longer attending? The needs of the church aren’t going to go away. Create a flyer to talk about different ways of giving, have workshops to set up powers of attorney and other legal documents, or talk about them. Share the different ways someone can remember the church financially after their death.
• ·         Have someone speak during a worship service this month about why the church is important to them.

May

• ·         Mail a letter and/or send emails between Mother’s Day and Memorial Day to preview the activities planned for the summer months. Use color, different fonts, be positive and enthusiastic. Despite the “rumors” I’ve often heard that church is closed in the summer 😊 Ministry is still happening. Let people know what is going before they start making their summer plans.

·         Include an envelope with the letter, encouraging people to pre-pay contributions before they leave on vacation.

• ·         The stewardship committee and finance committee should start planning their fall stewardship campaign!

June

• ·         Send some thank you notes to givers or make thank you calls.
• ·         The second of four newsletter articles should be published.
• ·         The stewardship committee and finance committee should continue their work on planning their fall campaign.

This is work that needs to continue year-round. It cannot be limited to just the fall.

 

                               YEAR-ROUND STEWARDSHIP #1

            Earlier in the year, I shared information about fall stewardship campaigns and how important they are, and how work should be started well before the fall. I wanted to also share information about how our stewardship work cannot stop there. We must “do stewardship” year-round.

            That is not to say that every week, you’ll get in front of the congregation and ask for money. Stewardship is so much more than money. It is includes time, talents, worship, and service. Also, different voices are important to be heard. How often do our fall campaigns include the same voices again and again. It may be the finance chair or the treasurer or the pastor or someone else that is willing to get up in front of the congregation and speak. And I am not saying to stop that, but I am saying other voices need to be heard as well. Those voices could be a youth, a Sunday School teacher, a choir member, someone who went on a mission trip. The list goes on and on.

            In much of the information I subscribe to and read, year-round stewardship calendars are included. I am going to spend my next few blogs working through the year. Stewardship does not end when the fall campaign is over.

            So how should you start your “stewardship year”?

January

• ·         The annual giving statements are mailed with a cover letter expressing thanks and how their generosity enabled ministry to happen. This is the letter that is required by the Internal Revenue Service for tax purposes. While it has a secular purpose, use the paper to thank your folks!
• ·         Look at your budget and start discussing short-term and long-term plans and goals. This includes your finance people but should include others. Our mission and ministry should never be handicapper by money!
• ·         Create a calendar and start scheduling monthly ministry moments or stories. These would be short, maybe three to five minutes each. Start out monthly if this is something you haven’t done before. Tell the story. Communicate and inspire.

February

• ·         Have your first ministry moment during worship.
• ·         Start watching the “Wesley and Giving” videos from UMC Giving. Start with your financial people watching this video and discuss it. Should others be invited to watch?
• ·         If you haven’t done a narrative budget before, start researching narrative budgets and how you could do this. If you have done one, put your current year’s narrative budget together and send it out to your folks.
• ·         Review your policies and procedures, including accounting and financial, endowment and gift acceptance policies. If you don’t have any, start working on this.

March

• ·         Publish a newsletter article, talking about a ministry that has happened because of the generosity of your church. Include pictures.
• ·         Consider scheduling workshops, including personal financial worships or estate planning and planned giving workshop.
• ·         Review the church website and Facebook pages for how money is talked about and what resources are provided.

            I know it seems like a lot of work, but start working on some of these items now. It doesn’t all have to be done by one person, but stewardship and everything that is part of that must be celebrated throughout the year.

 

 

 

                                   OUR SOCIAL CREED

 

            I am finishing my series of weekly blogs talking about the United Methodist Social Principles. I have discussed the many sub-sections, including The Natural World, The Nurturing Community, the Social Community, the Economic Community, the Political Community and The World Community.

            This week we come to Our Social Creed. The United Methodist Church strongly encourages that the Social Creed be used regularly during our worship services. How often do we this? I am sharing that Social Creed here, easy to cut and paste or print and post. Just as the Social Principles worked through those many sub-sections on many topics, Our Social Creed[1] also summarizes the beliefs on each of those topics. I have, accordingly, bolded the relevant words.

            We believe in God, Creator of the world; and in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of creation. We believe in the Holy Spirit, through whom we acknowledge God’s gifts, and we repent of our sin in misusing these gifts to idolatrous ends.

            We affirm the natural world as God’s handiwork and dedicate ourselves to its preservation, enhancement, and faithful use by humankind.

            We joyfully receive for ourselves and others the blessings of community, sexuality, marriage, and the family.

            We commit ourselves to the rights of men, women, children, youth, young adults, the aging, and people with disabilities; to improvement of the quality of life; and to the rights and dignity of all persons.

            We believe in the right and duty of persons to work for the glory of God and the good of themselves and others and in the protection of their welfare in so doing; in the rights to property as a trust from God, collective bargaining, and responsible consumption; and in the elimination of economic and social distress.

            We dedicate ourselves to peace throughout the world, to the rule of justice and law among nations, and to individual freedom for all people of the world.

            We believe in the present and final triumph of God’s Word in human affairs and gladly accept our commission to manifest the life of the gospel in the world. Amen.

            In addition to this Social Creed that summarizes the detailed Social Principles, a litany is also provided. Each section starts with the words “today is the day God….”.

·         Psalm 118.24 in the English Standard Version, says this: This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

·         Hymn #657 in The United Methodist Hymnal, titled “This is the Day” says: this is the day, this is the day that the Lord hath made, that the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice, let us rejoice and be glad in it, and be glad in it.

Each section ends “and so shall we”.

• ·         If God cares for the integrity of creation, so shall we.
• ·         If God embraces all hues of humanity, so shall we.
• ·         If God cries with the masses of starving people, so shall we.
• ·         If God deplores violence in our homes and streets, so shall we.
• ·         If God classes for nations and peoples to live in peace, so shall we.
• ·         If God brings good news to the poor, proclaims release to the captives, gives sight to the blind, and sets the oppressed free, so shall we.

So shall we…

So should we….

And so we shall…..

           

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[1] From The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church - 2016. Copyright 2016 by The United Methodist Publishing House.