RL 358: Growth Always Outpaces Funding - So Where Is the Money Coming From?

[00:00:00] And it's the stories of transformation. So that is what it recalibrates the printer.

[00:00:07] It recalibrates the machine because it reminds you this is God's work, this is what we're about.

[00:00:13] This is what we do all these other things. This is what we're raising money for.

[00:00:17] And when you start having this conversation across the church, people are excited to get, like actually excited, like where do I sign up?

[00:00:27] Welcome to episode 358. No matter what new church vision or ministry comes along, there's always a guy in the back of the room. You know that guy who's always saying that's great but how do we pay for it?

[00:00:39] Today we finish up our momentum series by talking about how to fund the vision, capital campaigns, weekly giving and more.

[00:00:47] That's today on the Reclaimed Leader.

[00:00:53] Welcome to the Reclaimed Leader Podcast on Jason Tucker, and I'm Jesse Skiffington.

[00:00:58] We're two pastors in the trenches, we're passionate about church health for greater gospel impact.

[00:01:04] We share the ups and downs of ministry, strategies that work for us, and some that didn't.

[00:01:09] Best practices and practical tools for church leadership.

[00:01:12] The goal to help all of our churches flourish. Let's get started.

[00:01:19] Hey everyone, so good to be with you again today.

[00:01:22] We are in the third and final in our momentum series because Jesse, this is the important question. How do you actually pay?

[00:01:33] How do you actually fund the growth that you're either seeing or hoping for? And this is a place where it this actually is a huge obstacle not just practically but I think psychologically.

[00:01:45] It is no matter what you're an issue that if you can have this great vision meeting with your session, with your elders, with your congregation and you kind of you ascend Mount Sinai together and you come down and there's always some kind of back to it.

[00:01:59] It's like, well how are we gonna pay for it? And sometimes that guy is you.

[00:02:05] I'd say often that guy is more and more is me but yeah, no totally. I like the tone of voice that you get because that's probably probably.

[00:02:14] So yeah, so today we're talking about funding and before we get started again, just want to answer a quick favor of all of you listeners if you've been with us for a while.

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[00:02:53] I can't say something.

[00:02:56] So thank you. Thank you so much. So momentum we've been talking about momentum, right? That it's a product of excitement excited people invite other people. So how do you leverage or sort of utilize the people who are already excited was are mostly newcomers and then how do you reinvigorate those who've been in your church a long time. We've been talking about that.

[00:03:18] Momentum is about consistency and enthusiasm over time. It takes compelling vision, buy in and it clears strategy and momentum happens with people. It's all about the people. It's figuring out again. What do they need?

[00:03:36] What do we have that can fill those needs and how do we close the gap between the two?

[00:03:40] And if you start having that conversation everywhere in your church, no matter what ministry you start getting more traction.

[00:03:48] Which builds momentum. It's it's funny. It's like it's this great mystery, but really it's about you start meeting needs.

[00:03:56] And amazing things start happening.

[00:03:59] I remember Jesse so I had a financial crisis. I was well, I had one every day in the future of my life, but so I was a lowly youth director at that time I was I was part time I was living in a church members attic.

[00:04:15] Which was very lovely of them to allow me to do that. They did not charge me rent and you know there's a reason I was the ceiling was like five feet.

[00:04:27] And so I had to you know those who aren't watching visually, you're not going to get the full.

[00:04:32] Yeah, it's been a long time.

[00:04:43] But anyway, not a ton of cash flow coming in and I had I was with some kids and we decided to go to McDonald's.

[00:04:50] Because you know that's where we live back then you get fairly cheap food.

[00:04:55] So we're in the drive through and nobody has any money so like okay, you know I'm buying.

[00:05:02] And we were 25 cents short.

[00:05:05] 25 cents short. I didn't have a credit card.

[00:05:08] I didn't have a debit. I didn't have anything. I just said whatever was on me.

[00:05:12] And so all right guys we got to find 25 cents. We're literally at the window is so embarrassing.

[00:05:17] 25 cents and you would have thought somebody would have had pity and been like, look here's a quarter man.

[00:05:22] You know no.

[00:05:24] So I had the car the car full of kids start looking under all the cushions and like in all the cracks and crevices and low and behold we found 25 cents.

[00:05:34] And you would have thought we just won the Super Bowl.

[00:05:37] Yeah, and I remember the kid his name was also Jason he came up and he's holding the quarter like you know.

[00:05:45] Like it was a you know, Camelot you know the anyway so holding it holding it up and we paid and enjoyed our food but I'm like isn't that what it's like.

[00:05:57] In ministry all the time we have a need or let's say we have a vision and we have a strategy.

[00:06:04] And we push forward and we just are barely getting to the finish line. And then somehow some way at the 11th hour we got has to show up and he does but man I don't know if I can handle that kind of roller coaster too much right so.

[00:06:22] So how.

[00:06:25] How do we fund it? How do we deal with the reality that growth always outpaces funding that they're all about.

[00:06:34] And it always seems to be a gap and it takes a lot of faith and a lot of courage and a lot of moxie to keep going and to trust that God's going to fill that gap.

[00:06:44] I don't know if you can relate to that.

[00:06:46] I love that story first of all that's awesome how many times can you look into the seats and still find change either.

[00:06:53] No, you go back again and again and again hoping hoping to find more but no I think there is there's just a truth to it.

[00:07:00] I mean we talked about momentum can go both directions and we didn't really talk about the dark side of momentum and when you have going the wrong direction and maybe that will come another time how do you get out of those ruts that are taking a bad direction.

[00:07:12] But when you have forward momentum even the funding often lags behind at the growth or the excitement or the new season in the life of the church and you might have newer people coming in.

[00:07:23] Sometimes those people are going to become really faithful invested spiritual you know spiritually discipline givers but what I've noticed is that growth or momentum.

[00:07:34] And so the momentum is going to be a leading indicator and giving is a lagging indicator comes later and it works in both directions incident people start disappearing from your church while you're giving.

[00:07:46] Is going to maybe be okay for a little while it'll follow eventually so giving kind of follows those things and I think knowing that is helpful and so we go okay if we're seeing positive things there will be a time where we start to see that on on on our finances as well.

[00:08:02] But it can be that gap in what do we do when we're growing and we know we need more funding more resources to fund that growth and continue that momentum and we're sort of waiting for.

[00:08:15] For that to follow and not lagging indicator to catch up so let's kind of what we're talking about today how do we bridge that gap how do we keep things moving forward and not let finance is be the reason we say no.

[00:08:27] Yeah, yes because I do think that is such a huge obstacle for for pastors and not just in growing churches but in churches that feel like in order to grow.

[00:08:40] We need to do this initiative we need to hire the staff person we need to make this change and where's that money going to come from so there's a lot of stress.

[00:08:50] Yeah a lot of stress around church finances and today is all about what's we're just going to try to be really practical practical about what are some things that you can do.

[00:08:59] That might help.

[00:09:01] Knowing that this is real and I don't care what church you are so interesting I had a conversation years ago with.

[00:09:06] A leader at North Point Community Church Andy Stanley's church that we reference almost every episode.

[00:09:14] We pay royalties not you know.

[00:09:17] Yeah, don't say that too loud.

[00:09:19] So but I remember they said they were they were trying a new ministry initiative and in the end it it actually didn't work out and I remember talking to this leader and he said and I'm just like I said something.

[00:09:34] I don't know it's kind of like when you see a celebrity sort of disabled.

[00:09:40] I said something to the effect of man it's great that you guys have the resources to launch these really cool new things and he said to me it was interesting he said yeah, but just because we can doesn't mean that we always should.

[00:09:56] So either way, whether you are a super rich congregation you have all the resources in the world you know if you're a life church or something like that.

[00:10:05] Or you're like most of us where even if you're a big church it's like we don't have piles of money sitting somewhere.

[00:10:12] It's weird it's all scale it it's all the same problem there's never quite enough.

[00:10:17] Yeah, well and if you're a good word you're maximizing your resources for the secular ministry so everything's getting used I mean it.

[00:10:25] And and if you make a change you know it's not long before those resources are eaten up by another programmer activity or whatever so we kind of fit our ministry size into our budget and hopefully that doesn't drive it too much but that becomes a reality there's not.

[00:10:40] Usually there's not a ton of margin unless you're really purposeful the budget it in for new things or new opportunities or to fund.

[00:10:48] Roof or or that momentum so we typically have already assigned all those resources so how do we where do we go how do we find what we need to move it for.

[00:10:57] So I'm going to share with you what our church has done over the that started a couple years ago just as a as a starting point to talk about.

[00:11:05] What are some strategies that you can think of as a church that may be helpful for you and if anybody wants to reach out to me.

[00:11:12] Further by any of these please reach out there's nothing proprietary.

[00:11:16] I'm just sharing what what worked and maybe it'll help you think through this for yourself so Jason at reclaimed leader.com.

[00:11:26] Or Jesse at reclaimed leader.com if you have questions for him too but here's here's what it looks like this is our story.

[00:11:31] We've heard it in bits and pieces if you've been with us over the last few years on the podcast but.

[00:11:38] 2020 to was a big year for us where we felt like.

[00:11:43] We had hit some new milestones as far as engagement when we came out of the pandemic.

[00:11:48] We saw big influx of of new people and a lot of those people I remember in those first times or gathering again we had a ton of people who had been watching us.

[00:12:03] We were watching us regularly online and that was a brand new experience for them and they started showing up and we had our first new members class I remember we had like.

[00:12:16] We hadn't done a new members class and like you're in a half and we had like a hundred new it's some crazy number of new members in that first year that we were kind of back.

[00:12:25] And you know engagement sort of at all time high but here's the problem.

[00:12:31] We didn't we saw immediately there were gaps.

[00:12:35] We didn't have enough resources we didn't have enough we still needed a pastor another pastor.

[00:12:42] It was just me and part time as a parish associate 10 hours a week.

[00:12:49] And we were grown by like a hundred people year over year for a couple years and it's just like we already.

[00:12:58] Didn't have enough resources we knew there are some other staff positions like in our in our production team that we needed we knew that there is.

[00:13:05] We were concerned that we were creating a crowd and not a congregation and what do we know about spiritual formation and and how's that going to work and.

[00:13:14] And oh by the way to afford all this staff in this area is a big chunk of change and pastors are expensive we're we're at least in the in the press of the interiors we're expensive to have.

[00:13:27] So we were trying to figure out what do we got to realize too that we had a big increase in in kids.

[00:13:36] And our spaces we didn't have enough breakout rooms for the kids where building was built in the 1950s kind of old style 1950 style classrooms Sunday school rooms that weren't adequate for what we're doing.

[00:13:49] We had some deferred maintenance problems so we hadn't painted the outside of the church I think in 40 years or so it was some it was like a crazy number awesome.

[00:14:02] We had some deferred maintenance issues that we just done money for we had a patio outside that sort of in a courtyard area that become a tripping hazard it was slate.

[00:14:13] And the whole thing was just like it was a hat it was an accident waiting to happen.

[00:14:21] So and we needed we needed enough money to do all the things and we needed not just capital improvement money we needed annual giving increases as well so what do you do right that.

[00:14:35] That was the position we were in in 2022 and here's what we did and so I want to kind of go through the steps that we took and maybe these steps will help you.

[00:14:46] There are seven that I would consider at least in this short time that we're talking today the first is this start looking under the car cushions for money.

[00:14:57] That's what we did.

[00:14:58] All right so what does that mean it means we started looking through our we have a lot of specialized funds in our accounts designated funds that are like protected.

[00:15:12] Usually these are funds that people give as the nevel when they pass away memorial funds that are designated for a purpose so legally you can't spend it for anything else.

[00:15:22] And so one of the first things we did was what are in those funds what are the parameters.

[00:15:27] Can we reach out to any family members if we have a different need and ask if we could spend it a different way.

[00:15:34] We're turning over the cushions what money do we have and actually we used a lot of it we had ox had some designated funds for traditional worship music.

[00:15:43] That funded some pro musicians to come in and bolster our choir because our choir had diminished over COVID.

[00:15:54] And we wanted to bring it back up to a level that people were kind of used to and that we thought this was a good use of that money that was just sitting there it's been sitting there for years.

[00:16:03] Yeah and it's like I don't know if you're waiting for a rainy day, but it's raining let's use it.

[00:16:08] And what that did was it took pressure off our annual budget for that line item because we had some designated funds and there was kind of a bunch of examples of that so we started.

[00:16:17] We have a great executive director she went through and she loves she speaks spreadsheet so I don't.

[00:16:25] But she went in and she found all the kind of loose change that we could spend for different purposes that was one thing that we did.

[00:16:34] Yeah well thinking about that image now I was just thinking if we got some like light millennials you know Jen Z's listen they're like changing the couch.

[00:16:43] What are you talking about?

[00:16:46] You know that loose change or what's out there like that you can kind of pull together across a whole bunch of different things and actually I think Jason is you're looking at those designated funds a lot of churches end up with these little remnants of things and lots of women.

[00:16:59] There is a degree of discretion that the board or your session has over those funds to coalesce them to think about the intended purpose and to.

[00:17:09] To redirect them and ultimately those funds are to be used at the discretion of the leadership of the church they're designated for a reason but you talk to an attorney you can figure out.

[00:17:18] You know what what's fair game and what's not in all that there's a lot more than you think I remember we had some remnants of a Bible fund somebody had given five thousand dollars to purchase Bible.

[00:17:29] We had used half of it to purchase a bunch of Bibles but we were like well we have a resource for an ongoing source of funding for for Bibles in our church that we had just had kind of gotten forgotten off to the site.

[00:17:41] So it's worth looking through those spreadsheets as awful as they are there's hidden secrets in there for willing to look there's change waiting to be found or sometimes significant chunks of change that can make a difference.

[00:17:53] Absolutely we found money that we were able to use to upgrade our production to increase the lights it gets him new gear and all of that and it was literally sitting there for years and years and years so.

[00:18:07] So I think that's one thing start looking for resources you may already have when you're when you're looking to do that okay the second thing is and this is really like an overall arching posture and that is start as much as you can.

[00:18:22] Telling stories of life transformation that's happening because of the ministry of your church.

[00:18:29] Tell stories about what's happening with missions tell stories what's happening you know as long as you get permission or have them tell their own stories about people that have come into the church and.

[00:18:40] Have a reinvigorated faith or a confirmation kid or someone who got baptized tell story story stories because what happens is is people hear these stories and it they're so moved by them.

[00:18:54] Because they see themselves and then they even say that well if that person can experience live transformation maybe I can to yeah becomes an orbited out part of our cultural expectation in our churches.

[00:19:05] So how do you guys do that is that mostly in the context of worship.

[00:19:09] Yes, we'll also take some stories and we'll put them we'll make them available online.

[00:19:15] For people to see so we'll video some stories we do that ever once in a while with with that's his stories it's tricky because we want you know privacy and all that but.

[00:19:23] We don't even.

[00:19:26] We don't even.

[00:19:27] But we try to find ways to share those stories and here's the other place it comes up.

[00:19:32] Every elder meeting every committee meeting or team meeting that I'm in we start.

[00:19:39] By talking about where's God showing up we call them God sightings comes from you know, if you do VBS group VBS you're used to God sightings but.

[00:19:48] We spend sometimes half the meeting just talking about where to God show up since we last met celebrating it.

[00:19:55] And it's the stories of transformation so that is what it recalibrates the printer it recalibrates the machine because it reminds you this is God's work.

[00:20:06] This is what we're about this is what we do all these other things this is what we're raising money for and when you start having this conversation across the church.

[00:20:14] People are excited to get.

[00:20:17] Yeah, like actually excited like where do I sign up?

[00:20:21] Yeah, and make sense now here's the transformation that's happening we tend to think in terms of what transformation and impact sometimes it's not a change it's more look at the difference we made.

[00:20:31] And so the way that we've had we just had to be really disciplined.

[00:20:35] To have those stories front and center and so on a monthly basis are our four kind of moves on a Sunday are the first Sunday's communion.

[00:20:43] Second Sunday is an internal ministry highlight a story of transformation that happened in a ministry or how we're making a difference with an internal ministry of the church.

[00:20:53] Third Sunday is sort of highlighting the ways that are giving together as impacted in some way and giving thanks for all that and then four Sunday is celebrating an external ministry partner highlighting them.

[00:21:04] Being excited for what they're doing and biting people to participate so just we built it into the rhythm of our month. Yeah, so that we're not missing those opportunities to tell those stories because I have good intentions a lot of times but if I don't have a system in place I'll offer you to do it.

[00:21:19] Yeah, and then you're telling the story and then you're making a very direct ask which is which is seamless and that is will you join us in this mission.

[00:21:28] Yeah, yeah.

[00:21:29] Will you join us?

[00:21:31] We want to do even more.

[00:21:32] We want to see this more.

[00:21:34] How about you?

[00:21:34] Do you want to be a part of it?

[00:21:37] And and people are so that's what we did.

[00:21:39] We looked under the cushions and then we just started talking about what we were seeing in front of us.

[00:21:44] I mean, we had so many stories starting to pile up about people's lives that were changing because

[00:21:49] God brought them here and they felt God's pulling their life and so we started just sharing that all over and something we still do.

[00:21:57] All the time, then we knew we would need two different things to happen.

[00:22:02] We knew we needed some capital funds that we didn't have just sitting around.

[00:22:06] We actually did find some designated funds that helped but not significant amounts of money.

[00:22:14] And we capital funds to do capital projects but we also needed to increase the annual giving we need to make that ask at the same exact time which is not.

[00:22:22] It's so important.

[00:22:23] This is really important.

[00:22:25] There's to get our operations going alongside those things.

[00:22:30] They've been actually play off each other in this really positive way.

[00:22:34] So we got it.

[00:22:36] I don't want us to ever be thinking in terms of where we're doing a capital fund for our maintenance and improvement projects and then we're going to do our operations.

[00:22:43] Those are we can put those web those things together.

[00:22:46] I think is is pretty important because if you disconnect them and you fund a whole bunch of stuff,

[00:22:52] you don't have the operational budget to continue to build momentum.

[00:22:55] You're just going to hurt yourself.

[00:22:58] So anyway, a little aside, just a little preachy moment.

[00:23:00] Well and and here's the fear that most people have and it's a fear that I get all the time and that is well if you.

[00:23:07] If you ask people to give to a capital campaign, it's going to cannibalize the annual operating budget.

[00:23:14] They'll just shift their giving to the capital thing.

[00:23:17] What's interesting is what we have found is that's not true but it's actually a myth.

[00:23:22] That people understand if they're already giving to the operation that that needs to continue.

[00:23:29] It's it's interesting.

[00:23:30] I don't know what that means.

[00:23:32] I think it just means it it's a fear that at least in my context isn't realized at all.

[00:23:36] It's it's an unfounded fear.

[00:23:38] Yeah.

[00:23:38] Okay, so capital campaign how do we do it?

[00:23:41] We every time we've done a capital campaign, we've done it ourselves.

[00:23:44] We've not hired a company to do it.

[00:23:46] I'm sure there are really good reasons to hire companies to do it.

[00:23:49] I'm sure they're great at it.

[00:23:50] We just I felt like we never had the time.

[00:23:52] There's always a sense of urgency.

[00:23:54] It's like, I don't have time to bring out another group.

[00:23:56] Yeah.

[00:23:57] Yeah.

[00:23:57] Well, it might depend on the scale.

[00:23:59] If you're doing a eight-year-old or new build, you know, massive effort.

[00:24:03] Maybe that's different than yeah.

[00:24:04] You're talking about funding the vision and some key projects in the near term.

[00:24:08] Yeah.

[00:24:09] So here's how we were thinking about the capital campaign.

[00:24:12] We needed to improve our youth or next-gen spaces as we call it.

[00:24:18] We needed some AV upgrades.

[00:24:21] We'd fix the patio.

[00:24:22] We had the exterior work to do and we needed to do some interior work like some painting.

[00:24:27] We wanted to, you remember this happen and I'm still here.

[00:24:30] We changed out the red carpets because we needed a new carpet.

[00:24:34] But these are all things that we didn't have any capital funds for.

[00:24:37] It was five buckets.

[00:24:38] And we said, look, let's wrap them together in one campaign because we want to make one ask and not a million asks.

[00:24:45] Nicola and Diamond people to death.

[00:24:47] And honestly, that is more important than you think.

[00:24:51] People don't want to be asked every month for a new thing.

[00:24:56] They would much rather lump it into one ask.

[00:24:59] So here's how we did it.

[00:25:01] We did it strategically.

[00:25:02] But the first thing is we gave it a name.

[00:25:03] We gave it a theme as a unifying thing to bring all these things that really

[00:25:08] didn't make a whole lot of sense separately, but they make sense together.

[00:25:11] We called it writing the wave.

[00:25:13] We're in a beach community.

[00:25:14] It resonated with us.

[00:25:16] And it was literally writing the wave of what God had been doing from,

[00:25:21] especially from 2020 forward.

[00:25:25] And I think what that did to is we used lots of images of surfing and everything right in the wave.

[00:25:30] But we also talked about how.

[00:25:33] We don't want to miss this wave that God's creating.

[00:25:37] We want to ride it intentionally and how do we make the most right now?

[00:25:42] It's like that old ad ad ad you make a when the sun shining.

[00:25:45] So while the sun shining, how we make and hey,

[00:25:47] it makes a metaphor here, but you know what I mean.

[00:25:51] So we gave it a name right in the wave.

[00:25:54] And interestingly, it made sense with all the things we were doing because what we're doing is trying to.

[00:26:01] To be good stewards of what God was giving us in all these different buckets that we had to address.

[00:26:07] So it actually worked really well as one unified campaign.

[00:26:12] We showed lots of vision boards, pictures and let's talk scale.

[00:26:20] We were asking for something like I want to say $300,000 something in that neighborhood.

[00:26:26] So not crazy big campaign but big enough we needed a campaign.

[00:26:33] Lots of kind of dreaming lots of hey imagine what this could be like.

[00:26:39] What God could do with this I think telling the story to the congregation.

[00:26:44] It creates so much buy-in for the campaign it's like.

[00:26:48] What I do is I showed them the current youth spaces and then showed them pictures of dreams we had for the spaces.

[00:26:57] And then talked about why.

[00:26:59] Listen, every single person knows that kids desperately need spaces like this where they could feel comfortable feeling themselves and it opens them up to relationship with God.

[00:27:12] And now more than ever in our lifetime is this needed.

[00:27:19] And it's sold itself.

[00:27:21] It literally sold itself.

[00:27:24] So the thing that we did though is we led with the next gen spaces because that was the thing that sold itself that people were excited about.

[00:27:31] People don't get super excited about interior painting or a new roof or an earthquake.

[00:27:37] So we included those but those were buckets three four five they were buckets one and two if that makes sense.

[00:27:43] Definitely yeah, makes total sense Jason I really like this idea of giving it a theme.

[00:27:47] Or a name and talking about how it fits into the vision and the momentum and the direction and to that we've done it or kind of in the same scale sizes is you guys.

[00:27:57] One we called vision and legacy we were changing denominations we wanted to leave a legacy with where we've been and some thank yous and some different things and build for the future and some of those pulled it people's hearts in different ways as we were talking about where we're going.

[00:28:11] But also honoring where we've been and then we did what you used our hundredth anniversary as an excuse to do some really cool upgrades and make build a playground and do some other things and we call it the celebrate 100 campaign.

[00:28:22] Let's celebrate all that got us done in the last hundred years and set ourselves up for a great future and whatever we have in store and here's the projects that we want to tackle as part of this effort.

[00:28:32] And so I think it's creating theme it's creating excitement it creates it's almost momentum it feels like we're doing something that's that's forward looking.

[00:28:39] And so I think people are responsive and kind of to your point one thing we've done is all often do walking tours.

[00:28:48] If you want to know and I'll be creating a really detailed frequently asked question sheet we try to show our work and then I'll walk people around in the very spaces and.

[00:28:56] I intend to be the primary communicator of vision and so I just really get excited because I'm an am excited and I wanted to see that and catch that too.

[00:29:05] And a lot of times that's our folks who are very deliberate in their giving but a lot of times also have significant resources to give they really want to vet and be sure and know what they're saying yes to so and there's a lot of different little.

[00:29:19] Strategies within the campaign that I think can set it up for success.

[00:29:23] Yeah, so let's talk about a couple of those strategies one is we we typically give three years for people to give their gifts in.

[00:29:33] That seems to work really well.

[00:29:35] We end up getting more than if you were just say not we need to by Thursday you know.

[00:29:39] So given them three years to plan to think about it to give accordingly and then there's also some strategy to capital campaigns like one is having a soft campaign to start.

[00:29:52] So the idea here is you actually end up raising 70 80% of your funds before the campaign goes live so to speak and that is you ask.

[00:30:02] Your most engaged folks who really are most passionate about the project and probably have the most to give.

[00:30:10] It's very strategic the ideas you're inviting them in on the ground floor and you're making an ask early.

[00:30:17] So what we did was we we invited I want to say maybe we had like 100 people on the list 50 hundred people.

[00:30:25] To sort of a presentation where I would talk through the vision of what we were doing share the dreaming boards and all that the what the why that the how.

[00:30:35] I had numbers so we we made sure that we got a bids that we so we weren't just talking in general these those things change as you go.

[00:30:46] But at least it's kind of a starting point for this about how much money we think it's going to be and again stories a transformation talking about it and we ended up raising again 70 some odd almost 80% of what we needed before we even went to the congregation.

[00:31:02] This is just a strategy of capital campaign that I had no idea about until you know I came here and we did our first one like 10 years ago, but.

[00:31:13] And then so then by the time you go to the congregation we're like we're so excited for you to participate we are this far already to our goal.

[00:31:21] And what that does it allows everybody if you like their part of it or they are but everybody at whatever giving like you give a dollar that's we're just going to celebrate that.

[00:31:31] But the dollars not going to get you the 300,000 so that's why you do that soft.

[00:31:36] Yeah and it creates momentum and it creates a sense of we're in this together look what's already happening and let's get it across the finish line so I do think that that pre or soft launch is is really important part of the process for sure.

[00:31:48] So we did that we raised the money and we've finished almost all the projects we have one left where demo is happening right now because we did it in stages.

[00:32:01] We want to make sure we had the funds to do it, but everything got funded which is awesome, but what we were very strategic about like cash flow and stuff.

[00:32:12] Yeah, we're like okay this can wait till spring or this can wait till the really urgent stuff with the with the rooms in this space that all happen right away.

[00:32:20] In fact our elders decided to front the money through our endowment.

[00:32:26] Before the money came in because we knew it needed to happen right away.

[00:32:30] Right so so there's all sorts of ways you could do it, but that's capital campaign then we had to address the fact that.

[00:32:38] We have we have growing needs work about to add another service we need to make sure there are annual giving is the same.

[00:32:45] So I talked more about annual giving.

[00:32:49] During the course of that year and actually the last two years then I did about the capital campaign and that's so for there will be targeted ask times where I'll be the one asking other times it's the person doing the welcome.

[00:33:03] We'll ask but here's the thing we do we try to make it really easy.

[00:33:07] We don't pass the plate anymore so we give clear instructions about how they can give there is a way they can give physically we have donation boxes like lock boxes that are in the in the hallway.

[00:33:20] Or right in the lobby as as people come in.

[00:33:24] And I'm always encouraging folks to get on online giving recurring online giving that's how my family and I donate I talk about how easy it is and how you get adjusted depending on what's going on in your life.

[00:33:36] And I made a joke and I did this sort of came out one day but it stuck.

[00:33:42] I don't know Jesse if I would recommend this but I said I said recurring giving is great because when you're not here your money is.

[00:33:51] And it got a big laugh.

[00:33:53] But are recurring giving went went way up.

[00:33:57] Yeah and I think here's the thing is people really do have good intentions they care about their church they want to give.

[00:34:02] If they're not here we know attendance patterns are different than they've ever been as far as frequency of.

[00:34:08] And so the old days of passing the plate and getting you know predictable offerings is it's just changed and that's okay things things change but we have to have something a strategy to deal with that.

[00:34:20] So we've stopped passing the plate too because it was kind of embarrassing frankly to have a get to the back.

[00:34:25] And have five bucks in there right because most people are giving online and so we we have a box in the back saying kind of deal with you guys.

[00:34:31] And we actually have folks that do recurring giving online through our online giving but others that do it through their banks they send an automated check.

[00:34:39] And we saw that take up during the pandemic and so just want to create easy clear and well rounded opportunities for different people to do you know what they want to do and we still acknowledge once a month we really take the time to acknowledge people's giving as an active worship.

[00:34:55] And what the pushback I've heard most from people about not passing the plate is this is a way that I'm worshiping I care and this I give because I want what God wants it in this church and so we we take the time to still celebrate and acknowledge that.

[00:35:10] Yeah, and again you're always tying story to giving and here's what I mean, so just an example.

[00:35:18] This summer when the kids went off on their mission trip.

[00:35:22] And when they came back we talked about how you know they repaired all these homes all the kind of the stories of life changes they're able to go because you're giving subsidizes the trip.

[00:35:34] You're you're giving directly impacts that so will you please consider joining us.

[00:35:40] You and it's honestly people are excited for the opportunity they thank you for the opportunity.

[00:35:47] Yeah, and that's as it should be in our faith it's an act giving is an active discipleship so.

[00:35:53] I've just I've been so allergic to asking.

[00:35:56] Yeah, yeah, talking about giving and and it's because.

[00:36:00] I was such a skeptic prior to becoming a Christian and giving was the thing that bothered me the most oh there always asking for money.

[00:36:09] Yeah, so I'm really sensitive about that and it's taking me a long time to get to this place where I feel like I could talk about it.

[00:36:16] Yeah, healthy way.

[00:36:17] Yeah, yeah, it that and I think there's two other little things I've mentioned here around operations are ongoing general fund giving is I think sometimes small asks add up in.

[00:36:28] In the sense of like we were doing we had some couple new things that we wanted to do and we knew that inflation is impacting our utilities and that kind of stuff and so we said, you know, we've grown can can you help grow with us.

[00:36:41] And would you all everybody who's giving would you consider increasing your monthly giving by twenty five dollars.

[00:36:47] And we know some of you that might be a stretch others that's, you know, maybe you could do more than that but if we all average twenty five dollars.

[00:36:54] And in increase in a month it kind of meets the change of our inflation costs and other things we want to do.

[00:37:00] And often you see a good response to a bite size asked like that somebody goes, you know what I have an increase by giving for a while.

[00:37:06] We could do that and it and it really when you take the whole group of folks that can add up to something substantial.

[00:37:12] And then the other piece I'd say is remember the lagging giving piece that people are going to come to your church and the route the ones that maybe moved into your community from another place and they were connected to church.

[00:37:25] A lot of times those people out of sense of loyalty and love for their former church will keep giving there for a while.

[00:37:32] And then eventually some of their giving will come over to the new church and then eventually they'll feel connected and plugged in enough to have their spiritual discipline of giving through your church.

[00:37:42] And so sometimes when you're growing it takes time for that change in their own sense of belonging and connection and so I'm just learning to be really patient with people.

[00:37:51] Three, four, five, six months sometimes a year they're sort of making that transition and you'll notice that over time too.

[00:38:00] All right so last couple things and these we can just talk about real quick one is maybe you just need to raise a couple thousand dollars for something right now like hey the projector broke we need to buy a projector whatever that looks like one of our favorites is to do the envelope wall.

[00:38:15] Yeah and that's where you just we just take out a big rolling wall and we put up a hundred envelopes and numbered one through a hundred the idea is.

[00:38:26] People pick an envelope and they donate that amount that's on the envelope and if you add it all up it's just over five thousand dollars and it's people it's fun people do it sometimes we'll have it out you know kind of in the in the lobby or or narthex if you will.

[00:38:42] And and folks do it and they get a kick out of it and it's like a quick kind of fun money generator I know you've got stuff like that yeah we've we've done few those things over the years we had one where we will out a TV with kind of a countdown.

[00:38:58] And we celebrate we share every time a number you know somebody jumps in and then we celebrate together as a whole community and we'll get done at holes for the whole church or something like just something fun but it's kind of fun to see at counting down like.

[00:39:11] We had we need 25 more 24 23 and so it's just those are little ways to generate some some giving some momentum around something really specifically like you're talking about.

[00:39:21] Yeah and then next we also didn't want to forget Jesse brought this up before we record that that was really good about legacy giving.

[00:39:28] Yeah yeah I would just I'm sure everybody's thinking in these terms already but when we are talking about our giving and you know whatever's in the pure rack or the chair racks or whatever you have.

[00:39:38] We just make it clear you know you can give online here's the instructions you can give in person box in the back.

[00:39:44] You can give by sending your gift directly to the church office instructions and then stocks in a state you want to give from an account if you have a required minimum distribution are in these for the folks in retirement years or other things that can get significant tax breaks by giving.

[00:40:00] A head of time rather than distributing and then giving so there's some other things and then just making it clear if you're doing some of the state planning we'd love.

[00:40:08] For you to consider the church no pressure on you know or anything but it's a way that you can make a difference and leave a legacy and so we just try to present those clearly and I can't wait next week we're going to hear about just a walk or a visit you I mean just a call.

[00:40:20] Yeah or that happened because the opportunity was was there for people to leave a legacy you know once they once they passed away so.

[00:40:28] There's just we want to make sure we're hitting across all the ways that people can because people want to know how can I be generous how can I make a difference in my church.

[00:40:37] Yeah and then lastly I would say with all of this right how you're going to fund momentum how you're going to.

[00:40:44] Come up with funds to do all this I do think.

[00:40:48] There is a possibility and that is maybe the Lord is saying wait.

[00:40:54] Wait on that new staff hire wait on that new initiative and the reason I put it last.

[00:41:00] Is because I never want wait to be an excuse we run to because it's uncomfortable to do the other things right but truly if you're not kind of praying through this process the Lord may be saying listen I love this idea.

[00:41:14] But the reason you don't have the resources yet is because it's not time yeah and that's okay but I think.

[00:41:22] I think a lot of leaders start with that and they never they never do it because there's well we don't have the resources.

[00:41:30] And frankly I think you right and there are times when we need to pump the breaks and wait and be wise about that.

[00:41:36] And I would say there are other times in my experience where the giving comes once the step of faith is taken it's almost yeah I'm not trying to be weird and whatever about it but it's like people get excited about something when they see traction or forward movement and so.

[00:41:53] Sometimes it takes that step to demonstrate we're going somewhere before someone will say hey I will help fund that sounds amazing so just knowing that balance and you know there's only so many times you can go under the.

[00:42:06] Calculation still fine money there is a room for that wisdom that says you know what maybe this is a time we've done a few asks we need to pump the breaks and wait and trust like not to provide when the time's right.

[00:42:18] Yeah well I hope this is helpful.

[00:42:22] Yeah pastors were praying for you next month past our appreciation month, you know and just now we're appreciate new what we're actually going to do some fun you'll hear in our next episode we're going to talk to you some giveaways and.

[00:42:33] Show our appreciation to you not just as listeners but as pastors and I pray that you hang in there there is a lot going on this is the time of your it's like feel like we went from zero to 100.

[00:42:45] Hang in there and you are doing such important work don't give up and know that.

[00:42:53] God's got you if if you're seeing growth of your seeing momentum or if you're excited to get something started God's going to give you everything you need I really do believe that he hasn't let me down ever.

[00:43:04] And that department so thanks so much for reaching out to us Jason or Jesse at reclaimed leader dot com as we always say ministry is hard it is so much better when we do it together.