GIVING COMMUNICATION

                                               CHANGING OUR FOCUS

 

            Over the last few weeks of summer, we focused on customizing the approach to discipleship and stewardship based on life stages, spiritual maturity and financial health.

            Lots of ideas, but we struggle in talking about money and giving and generosity in the church, don’t we? When someone approaches us complaining that “all we do is talk about money”, we promise that we only do it during the fall when we “have to.”

            Well, one of the problems with that is we’ve placed the focus squarely on the money, which shouldn’t even be the real point of the whole stewardship/discipleship story!  I know Jesus talked about money more than anything else in his stories and parables, but it wasn’t because money was the point, but because he knew how much importance we would place on it.

            What if we changed our focus? I’ve said it before, and I want to say it again, it’s the need of the giver to give, not the need of the church to get that we need to focus on.

·         Too many of our stewardship campaigns (and I’m as guilty of this as anyone else) is focused on what we need to pay for in the upcoming year, i.e. payroll, utilities, paper, technology, etc.

·         AND too many of our discipleship plans and work focus on getting more people on the pews—increase those numbers!

What if instead:

·         For Stewardship:

o   We made some changes in how we focus on what it “costs” to do church?

o   What is it we need to focus on in our particular context?

o   Looked at our church’s mission?

·         For Discipleship:

o   We looked at our church’s mission and who we have and who we don’t have in our disciples?

o   What if we looked at our folks’ spiritual gifts and where they are in their own discipleship?

It seems like a lot of work, and it probably is, but the benefits would be huge! For the next couple of weeks, I will spend time on how some of this could work and things that we could be doing to change our stewardship focus and our discipleship focus.

 

 

 

            If you wish more information on anything you’ve been reading about, please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com. I’d be happy to help.

 

                          STEWARDSHIP AND DISCIPLESHIP TOGETHER

                     TYING IT ALL TOGETHER WITH THE RIGHT TOOLS

 

            Over the last few weeks of summer, we focused on customizing the approach to discipleship[1] based on life stages, spiritual maturity and financial health.

            All of what was discussed in the past few weeks focused on both stewardship and discipleship. One cannot effectively exist without the other. I spent time during these summer weeks to discuss stewardship because many of us will focus on stewardship in the fall. I think it’s important to start some of the lead-up work now. If you read anything about stewardship planning, it all tends to focus on either:

·         Doing stewardship year-round (every month)

·         At the very least, plan and prepare some time in advance

            All of that is important, of course, but I think going through the steps focused on life stages, spiritual maturity and financial health – first, for yourself, to help you understand where you are coming from. This will help you understand others before you approach them.

            The next step would be to go through those same steps for your folks. Who are the more spiritually mature? Financially healthier? You can, and should, approach them far differently than you approach people who aren’t in those same positions.

            Don’t do it all alone. Get a team together and do some work. You may find (and I am sure you will) that time will get away from you, and you won’t be able to do all of this work before you have to start “doing” stewardship. That doesn’t mean that you stop doing the work.

·         Identifying folks that may need some help with financial wellness can help steer you toward a small group.

·         Identifying folks that are still working through the early steps of discipleship may create another small group or need.

·         Identifying folks that are extravagantly generous and spiritually mature may help you form a good team.

            All of this work that I’ve discussed over the past few weeks is important, but what is also important is that “good” stewardship campaigns or “effective” stewardship campaigns require certain things that make them good and effective. Good tools are important for any task; good stewardship tools are the same.

·         Sample Letters

·         Effective and useful Scripture

·         Ideas for offering time

·         Ideas for messages

·         Ideas for “stewardship talks”

            I will be working on pulling together some of these tools, and will be making this available probably this fall. Keep an eye out!

 

            If you wish more information on anything you’ve been reading about, or you’d like to know when resources are available, or would like to discuss stewardship and its relationship with discipleship, please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com. I’d be happy to help.

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[1] Stewardship Education that Builds Disciples, Furlong, Jessica and Dick, Don (Christian Stewardship Network), https://www.christianstewardshipnetwork.com.

 

                   STEWARDSHIP AND DISCIPLESHIP TOGETHER

                                         FINANCIAL HEALTH

 

            Over the last couple of weeks, we focused on customizing the approach to discipleship[1] based on life stages and spiritual maturity. This week we’ll talk about customizing our approach to financial health.

            The article from Christian Stewardship Network lays out four levels of financial health:

·         Struggle

·         Stable

·         Solid

·         Surplus

            Their definitions identify struggling as those in the midst of financial crisis and in need of financial health; stable are those living from paycheck to paycheck; solid are those who have learned the basics of budgeting and are now debt free with margin.; and surplus are those with more resources than needed to basic needs and wants.

            Most likely, you have people in all four of these stages of financial health, just as you have people in all stages of life and all stages of spiritual maturity. People in every stage looks at stewardship; at discipleship, and at life differently. We, therefore, need to approach this differently as well.

            One thing I have learned is not to assume someone is struggling and not ask them to commit, or vice versa. But if you are aware someone is struggling and in the midst of crisis, then we have a responsibility to help them through that. To move from struggling or stable to solid may require teaching and training. A financial program, or how to budget program, or how to get out of debt program would be of great help to many. Anyone can and should budget, not just people with money.

            It is hard to focus on making a financial commitment when someone may be worried about even putting enough food on the table, or to pay their rent. Helping someone out of that stressful situation will go a long way toward helping them care for themselves and to commit to a generosity program. Also, people who are focused too much on money may have great difficulty in even focusing on anything else, even discipleship or worship or prayer.

            Like last week, let’s start with ourselves. Where do you fall in each of these areas? How do you know? What are the things that you can work on for each item. I attended a workshop that included completing a money autobiography that helped me understand why I believe what I do about money, why I spend money or save money. Start with that for yourself. If you’d like a pdf to a money autobiography to start your own work, please let me know. It will help you face your own financial health, but also to help others. A wonderful small group study could start with money autobiographies.

            When we’ve helped our folks care for themselves financially, other steps will fall into place.

 

            If you wish more information on money autobiographies, or would like to discuss stewardship and its relationship with discipleship, please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com. I’d be happy to help.

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[1] Stewardship Education that Builds Disciples, Furlong, Jessica and Dick, Don (Christian Stewardship Network), https://www.christianstewardshipnetwork.com.

 

                           STEWARDSHIP AND DISCIPLESHIP TOGETHER

                                                SPIRITUAL MATURITY

 

            Last week my discussion was focused on customizing the approach to discipleship[1] based on life stages. This week, let’s continue talking about customizing teaching styles for different individual’ life stages. This time we’ll talk about spiritual maturity.

            Last week, we basically talked about age; this week, while it may sound similar, it can be quite different. This week, instead of age, it’ll be spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity isn’t always based on age.

Each of us needs to look at where we are personally, but also where our folks are at. We’ll find that everyone is a little different. Is their spiritual maturity low, medium or high in:

·         Becoming a follower of Jesus

·         Developing a theological foundation with basic practical application

·         Embracing intentional generosity, with a solid, biblical foundation in generosity.

·         Growing in obedience (including planning to pay off debt)

·         Using God’s blessings for kingdom building and relationship

·         Discipling others in stewardship

·         Practicing radical generosity, with a goal of glorifying God.

 

            Looking back over this list can seem daunting. But did you notice that none of those items talked about writing checks or paying bills. Every item was totally focused on biblical foundations, theology, obedience to God, radical generosity. Also, all of it is aimed toward glorifying God, not ourselves.

            I think one of the best ways to start with this list is to start with ourselves. Where do you fall in each of these areas. How do you know? What are the things that you can work on for each item. Once you’ve worked through it for yourself, it will be somewhat easier to create a diagram or picture of what each of those items looks like and how to model it for others, and help others in their own path of spiritual maturity.

            All of this is about stewardship, yes, but also about discipleship. What does it mean for you personally, and what can it mean for your church?

            Next week we’ll continue this conversation about customization.

 

            If you wish more information on this, or would like to discuss stewardship and its relationship with discipleship, please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com. I’d be happy to help.

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[1] Stewardship Education that Builds Disciples, Furlong, Jessica and Dick, Don (Christian Stewardship Network), https://www.christianstewardshipnetwork.com.

 

                        STEWARDSHIP AND DISCIPLESHIP TOGETHER

                     Customizing Teaching Styles Based on Life Stages

 

            Last week my discussion was focused on the keys to effective discipleship[1] where I discussed creating a safe space for relationships to form and having organic conversation. This week, let’s talk about customizing teaching styles for difference individuals. I’ll start with talking about individuals’ life stages.

            Too often, and I am as guilty of this as anyone, there’s a “one size fits all” lesson. We’re explaining what we need to explain, asking what we need to ask, and we assume everyone is going to understand it in the same way. But, of course, first, we all learn differently, and more importantly, each of us has learned differently over time. When we were very young, we probably learned differently then we are learning right now. We grow and change; our lives grow and change; how we learn grows and changes; and how we respond grows and changes.

            So customizing our stewardship and discipleship approach to life stages probably makes a lot of sense. Life stages can be basically broken down as:

1.    Child – this teaching needs to be age appropriate. Children learn well with someone modeling for them and participating with them, often parents.

2.    Teen – this is the time when teens are learning concepts of adulting and consciously applying biblical principles (those things they saw modeled while they were growing up).

3.    Young Adult – there are two sub-categories to this one. Young adults cannot all be lumped together.

a.    Gen Z (to age 25) – reach them where they’re at

b.    Millennial (age 26-44) – they want to make an impact on the world. Help them figure out how to do that.

4.    Adult – there are sub-categories to this one as well

a.    Gen X (age 44-59) – these are the people who like in-person communication

b.    Boomer (age 60-78) – more formal interactions work here. This is a broad range of age, so this sub-category also expands into the senior category. I am at the lower end of the boomer, and I approach things differently than those persons 18 years older than me.

5.    Senior – the Silent generation are those age 79-99. They value relationships.

            So if you read through these breakdowns, you’ll see that the formal letter you send out at stewardship time may only work for one small segment. You’ll need more than a letter! Relying on what’s happened and worked in the past is only going to work for another small segment. Moving toward the future is important! Talking about the need for money only may not communicate well to the group that wants to make an impact on the world. Stories matter!

            For stewardship, you’ll want to figure out your message (which is different from “we need money to pay our bills”), and the multiple ways you plan to communicate it.

            For discipleship, you’ll want to figure out how disciples are discipled and how they grow, and determine the multiple ways you plan to communicate and learn and disciple.

            Next week we’ll continue this conversation about customization.

 

            If you wish more information on this, or would like to discuss stewardship and its relationship with discipleship, please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com. I’d be happy to help.

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[1] Stewardship Education that Builds Disciples, Furlong, Jessica and Dick, Don (Christian Stewardship Network), https://www.christianstewardshipnetwork.com.