BE CREATIVE YEAR-ROUND #4

 

            For the past two weeks, I have been looking at Vanco’s creative list as a year-round stewardship idea. This list is part of the last of eight rules for effective church leadership laid out in the booklet put out by VANCO, titled The Complete Guide to Church Stewardship. It was to BE CREATIVE. In being creative,

            My breakdown of their list is below. For the fourth quarter of the year (October, November and December), I am providing some additional ideas below.

 

January                            First Fruits

February                          The Gift of Love        - Our Brothers and Sisters Keeper

March                               Ministry Team Spirit

April                                  Miracles and Wonders

May                                   It’s our Anniversary (heritage Sunday)

June                                 Planting Good Seeds

July                                   Virtual Messages/Social Media Sunday/The Conversion

August                              College Alumni Day

September                       The Unexpected/ Brick Layers

October                            Financial Testimonies

November                        A Praise of Thanksgiving

December                        The Christmas Gift

The fourth quarter of the year would include Financial Testimonies, A Praise of Thanksgiving and The Christmas Gift.

Financial Testimonies – Most of us do our stewardship work and plans in the fall, so I thought hearing other peoples’ generosity stories during October made good sense. I find it much more motivational to hear someone who has traveled what I have traveled or that I know speak about their generosity and talk about financial miracles and giving, than I do hearing someone talk about it in generalities. After all, it’s the faithful givers who have allowed our churches to continue his mission work and help others.

A Praise of Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving occurs as a holiday in November, so we could use this time of the year to be thankful and to reflect on the blessings received during the year. Hearing sermonettes from different people in the church or outside the church based a theme and scripture would be interesting to hear. Are there ways to share with others during a time when you’re thankful for what you’ve received?

The Christmas Gift – During this season, many people are in a giving mood. Remind your folks that the church should have a place on their Christmas giving lists. Do this reminder at the beginning of December and again the Sunday before Christmas. Use skits, have youth help. Christmas giving shouldn’t just be the latest joy or gadget, but sharing with others what has been given to us at Christmas!

We’ve traveled through the entire year with various creative ideas. Consider using a couple during this upcoming year!

            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 or susanranous@unyumc.org.  I’d be happy to help or answer any questions.

 

                                      BE CREATIVE YEAR-ROUND #3

 

            For the past two weeks, I have been looking at Vanco’s creative list as a year-round stewardship idea. This list is part of the last of eight rules for effective church leadership laid out in the booklet put out by VANCO, titled The Complete Guide to Church Stewardship. It was to BE CREATIVE. In being creative,

            My breakdown of their list is below. For the third quarter of the year (July, August and September), I am providing some additional ideas below.

January                            First Fruits

February                          The Gift of Love        - Our Brothers and Sisters Keeper

March                               Ministry Team Spirit

April                                  Miracles and Wonders

May                                   It’s our Anniversary (heritage Sunday)

June                                 Planting Good Seeds

July                                   Virtual Messages/Social Media Sunday/The Conversion

August                              College Alumni Day

September                       The Unexpected/ Brick Layers

October                            Financial Testimonies

November                        A Praise of Thanksgiving

December                        The Christmas Gift

The third quarter of the year would include Virtual Messages/Social Media Sunday/The Conversion; College Alumni Day; and The Unexpected/Brick Layers

Virtual Messages – During COVID, many of us started offering live-streaming or virtual messages. Now that some people have returned to the worshipping in the pews, there is conversation whether virtual messages should continue. I believe they should. There are people that cannot return to worship because of health and distance. Many people are more comfortable online then off-line, it seems. What if our virtual messages were more than people “watching us” and more worshipping differently? These messages can be live or recorded. Attention-grabbing graphics are important; a “talking head” alone probably isn’t enough. What if offsite Bible study were offered? This conversation came up for me recently in a discussion when a church that had traditionally offered a Lenten series realized that some of those classes had had to be cancelled in past years because of weather (Upstate New York—who knew?). Virtual worship would allow every class to occur.

Social Media Sunday – This is a continuation of virtual worship. What if people who have worshipped virtually were invited to come to church in-person for a special occasion. It could even be offered outside in the summer, so people might be more comfortable!

The Conversion – Virtual worshipping also brings up the idea of online giving. People who are in the pews also give online, of course. But, how are we asking/encouraging/helping online worshippers to participate in worship through their giving? There are websites, texts, chats on Facebook; simply providing the ability to respond to a moving message or a call from God by giving is a way to encourage online giving. This, of course, goes back to the virtual messages paragraph above. We need to change from watching worship and instead worshipping virtually.

College Alumni Day – When it’s summer-time, college-bound students are getting ready to depart. Churches can provide scholarships to help those students. Maybe a way to encourage giving toward support of colelge0bound students could be a college alumni day, where people wear their college jerseys. The church could be decorated with college pennants; youth ministry its placed in charge of the service. With education, every dollar counts. Seeing the youth in action, and hearing about future plans well help people understand how those scholarships are used.

The Unexpected – This is one of those topics that doesn’t really fit anywhere, but anyone who has been in the church for any length of time knows that there are often issues with the physical plant: leaky roof, broken pews, worn carpet, broken windows. We need to maintain our church buildings; but sometimes there isn’t enough money for routine maintenance, which can lead to greater problems down the road. We can’t become slack in our giving, because the buildings need to be maintained; when maintenance is delayed, the costs go up.

Brick Layers – In addition to maintaining the current physical plant, sometimes we have to raise capital for an expansion, or an education wing. Making it memorable can help with the giving: engraving bricks, giving trees or something that gets people’s attention.

So just a few more ideas; next week, I’ll visit the last quarter of the year!

            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 or susanranous@unyumc.org.  I’d be happy to help or answer any questions.

                                        BE CREATIVE YEAR-ROUND 

                             SECOND QUARTER OF THE YEAR

 

            Last week, I starting looking at Vanco’s creative list as a year-round stewardship idea. This list is part of the last of eight rules for effective church leadership laid out in the booklet put out by VANCO, titled The Complete Guide to Church Stewardship. It was to BE CREATIVE. In being creative,

            My breakdown of their list is below. For the second quarter of the year (April, May and June), I am providing some additional ideas below.

January                            First Fruits

February                          The Gift of Love        - Our Brothers and Sisters Keeper

March                               Ministry Team Spirit

April                                  Miracles and Wonders

May                                   It’s our Anniversary (heritage Sunday)

June                                 Planting Good Seeds

July                                   Virtual Messages/Social Media Sunday/The Conversion

August                              College Alumni Day

September                       The Unexpected/ Brick Layers

October                            Financial Testimonies

November                        A Praise of Thanksgiving

December                        The Christmas Gift

The second quarter of the year would include Miracles and Wonders; It’s Our Anniversary and Planting Good Seeds.

Miracles and Wonders – I know I find, and I believe you do, that when there is a need, because of weather, or war or something else, our people are generous. UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief) is just one way our denomination responds, often as the first responder, when there is a natural disaster and need. The church often takes the lead. Our Conference has a Mission Central Hub that funds as a centralized location to lead our churches in equipping “local churches to bring hope and relief to their neighbors facing a socio-economic or natural disaster.” So much is done here in our Conference and outside. There are miracles and wonders that happen because of the church!

It’s Our Anniversary – Vanco mentions this as an anniversary of a major milestone in the life of the church: 200 years, etc. However, every year, on third Sunday of  May, The United Methodist Church is called to honor its heritage by committing itself to the continuing call of God known and spread by Charles and John Wesley, along with others the early Methodist movement reached and with whose denominations we are all joined as The United Methodist Church. Often, we celebrate the birthday of the church on Pentecost. In 2024, both Heritage Sunday and Pentecost occur on the same day!  What an exciting way to honor the history of the Church, the denomination, and of the local church!

Planting Good Seeds – There are a few different ways to view this. One is to plant the good seeds of a new idea, a new ministry, new fundraising. If good seeds are planted, then good ministry will grow! Another idea is to focus on environmental protection and climate change. Maybe conversation and understand around the United Methodist Social Principles would open up some of our eyes to ideas that the church is involved in!

So just a few more ideas; next week, I’ll visit the third quarter of the year!

            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 or susanranous@unyumc.org

 

                                          BEING CREATIVE YEAR-ROUND

 

            Last week, I read the last of the eight rules for effective church leadership laid out in the booklet put out by VANCO, titled The Complete Guide to Church Stewardship. It was to BE CREATIVE. In being creative, Vanco listed several ideas that could be creative ways to “do stewardship.”

            In looking over Vanco’s list, I realized that the creative list could be a great way to be talking about stewardship year-round.

January                            First Fruits

February                          The Gift of Love        - Our Brothers and Sisters Keeper

March                               Ministry Team Spirit

April                                  Miracles and Wonders

May                                   It’s our Anniversary (heritage Sunday)

June                                 Planting Good Seeds

July                                   Virtual Messages/Social Media Sunday/The Conversion

August                              College Alumni Day

September                       The Unexpected/ Brick Layers

October                            Financial Testimonies

November                        A Praise of Thanksgiving

December                        The Christmas Gift

The first quarter of the year would include First Fruits, The Gift of Love and Our Brothers and Sisters Keeper and Ministry Team Spirit.

First Fruits - Often in the first service of the year, we do a Wesleyan Covenant Servant, or have a Watch Night Service on New Years Eve. To use the concept of first fruits, you could use actual fruit, to show the congregation how giving can multiply over time. When we bring our first fruits as a celebration, our harvests continue to grow. The idea is that we have more than enough fruit (money) to get everything done.

The Gift of Love makes sense for February since it is the month that has Valentines Day. Ideas about love, renewals of covenants (marriage/commitment) or covenants with God or with the church (commitment cards) are a great way to celebrate the gift of love. I thought the idea of Brothers and Sisters Keeper also made sense here when we’re celebrating love. There are too often persons in the church and neighborhood that are in need. People may come to church when they need help with medical bills or utility bills or rent payments. Perhaps something relative around the idea of the pastor’s discretionary fund would be cool!

Ministry Team Spirit – Starting out early in the year to celebrate the ministries that they church is involved in, and talking about spiritual gifts would be a wonderful way to celebrate what you have and encourage people to use their gifts for the benefit of God. Assessing what ministries are best for any individual is a good way to tie all of this together. It will celebrate who and what you already have and hopefully pique the interest of those not yet involved. Talking about volunteering and what is accomplished because of volunteers.

I will consider other ways you can be creative over the next few weeks!

            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 or susanranous@unyumc.org.  I’d be happy to help or answer any questions.

 

                                                      BE CREATIVE

 

            In continuing my reading of the booklet put out by VANCO, titled The Complete Guide to Church Stewardship, I read about the eighth of eight rules for effective church leadership: Be Creative

            As you know, there are people that don’t pledge; and there are people that don’t give at all. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t ask. Break up your regular giving requests. There are multiple reasons that you might want to ask for special gifts (because there is a special, non-recurring need, or because you want to encourage non-givers to give).

Some of these creative ideas that Vanco gives in their booklet could work really well in a year-round stewardship emphasis. I am going to spend time the next few weeks going through these, explaining what each is, and where it could fall in a regular year-round stewardship plan.

·         The Gift of Love

·         A Praise of Thanksgiving

·         The Christmas Gift

·         First Fruits

·         It’s Our Anniversary

·         Virtual Messages

·         Financial Testimonies

·         College Alumni Day

·         The Unexpected

·         Ministry Team Spirit

·         Social Media Sunday

·         Planting Good Seeds

·         Our Brothers and Sisters Keeper

·         Brick Layers

·         Miracles and Wonders

·         The Conversion

Consider ways you can be creative and tune in the next few weeks!

            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 or susanranous@unyumc.org.  I’d be happy to help or answer any questions.

 

                                                    COMMUNICATE

 

            In continuing my reading of the booklet put out by VANCO, titled The Complete Guide to Church Stewardship, I read about the seventh of eight rules for effective church leadership: Communicate

            There are multiple ways to communicate and different reasons to communicate. I would strongly suggest to plan and coordinate an effective strategy to communicate. Keep in mind that communication about stewardship is not about “hounding” someone for money.

            Ways to communicate can include social media (Facebook, website, etc.); quarterly giving statements, stories in the bulletin or newsletter or on the website about how their gifts have made a difference.

            Even new people, who may not be familiar with giving, can hear about what the church is doing and how gifts are used. Asking someone to “give what they can” can encourage them and let them know that every little bit helps and they are a part of the mission.

            Be transparent, be specific, be clear about the financial goals of the church. You don’t have to be tedious about details. A simplified statement, or tri-fold or narrative budget can be provided to anyone. A detailed budget (or ministry spending plan) can certainly be made available for anyone who requests it.

            Follow up on all pledge commitments, no matter how large or how small. Thank your givers!

           

 

            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 or susanranous@unyumc.org.  I’d be happy to help or answer any questions.