What About Stewardship in These Times?
In days of increasing unemployment, downsizing of family/individual budgets and increasing demands for church budgets how do we deal with these realities and continue to move forward? This question, along with many others are at the forefront of the minds of many leaders and churches.
Stewardship is about giving – How can a church give back to members these days? How can members give to churches? How can churches give to communities – churched and unchurched? Maybe we need to rethink what we mean by giving. Consider….
How can a church give back to members these days? Consider…
- Offering financial counsel and coaching to members to help them rethink their budget, reduce their credit etc. The Financial Peace University is a helpful tool www.daveramsey.com
- Creating a safe place for all family members to dialogue and pray about financial adjustments they face as well as career challenges
- Invite members to give time/skills/energy to the church instead of giving money. That is what skills can they offer that might compensate for their tithes/offerings while income is low. Maybe custodial services, equipment repair, lawn care etc.?
- Offer genuine encouragement, affirmations and celebrate the things in life and faith that can be celebrated….birthdays, anniversaries, health and faith recoveries, children’s first steps, new friends, new jobs, new skills etc…..
How can a church give to their communities – churched and unchurched people? Consider….
- Offer training/budget counseling, in partnership with members of the community or church, who have financial counseling or money management skills.
- Offer safe places for prayer and discernment for all members of the family or even age group dialogues to help them reframe current realities and find the security of God’s presence in tough times.
- Plan, in cooperation with the community, a job fair or a job bank designed to help network, create new resume’s or create mentoring relationships.
- Waterfront Church in Chicago found a great way of giving back to their members – they design their ministries in such a way to minimize their weekly financial needs so they can give their tithes away to people who need it. Visit http://www.waterfrontcc.com/loving-god-and-people-well/ and their video at http://www.waterfrontcc.com/blog/
- Neel Road Baptist Church www.neelroad.org offers prayer and support groups for the unemployed and their families in Salisbury, NC. Periodically they invite in community leaders to help with resume’ updating, interviewing skills etc.
- First Baptist Church Huntersville, NC responds in practical and powerful ways through their community based ministries that feed, cloth, offer financial counseling and spiritual counseling to persons in their church and their community www.fbc-h.org.
- Research indicates most pastors do not know of church members debt http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0%2C1703%2CA%3D168714%26M%3D201340%2C00.html
“Church members tend to look within their own congregation for guidance on promoting and teaching stewardship, according to the survey. A full 74 percent of pastors said the congregation looks to them for guidance and 31 percent said their church turns to members of their church. Only 2 percent said church members look to an independent stewardship consultant and 9 percent look to a preferred author, while less than 1 in 4 look to their associational or state convention leadership.”
Coaching Questions:
- What do you resonate with most in this newsletter?
- How can your church minister more effectively during these tough economic times?
- Who can help you?
- What resources can you make available now?
Suggested resources:
Copyright by Eddie Hammett , Senior Consultant North Carolina Baptist Convention,
www.ncbaptist.org
