The Average Church's Stewardship Campaign Sucks

It wasn’t until I was 27 years old that I learned what a stewardship campaign was.
I had just been appointed to my first non-Korean church as an associate pastor at a mid-sized congregation.

It’s been nearly twenty years since I’ve been part of a Korean church. I’m sure plenty has changed. At least... I hope plenty has changed. There was no such thing as a stewardship campaign in the Korean church. Korean pastors did not shy away from talking about money with parishioners. Sometimes, giving an offering was presented as the solution to whatever spiritual struggle you were facing.

On back of the bulletin, they would list the names of people who gave certain amounts.
You’d have the tier of folks who gave 1k-5k.
The next tier is those who gave over 5K.
The next tier is those who gave over 10k.
And so forth.

There’s a lot of respect and prestige that comes with being part of that top tier. And let’s be real, the Korean Immigrant church is as much of a social network as it is a worshipping community. Actually… can’t that be said about all faith communities?

So, there was no such thing as a stewardship campaign or a pledge card.
In fact, one of the closest things we had to a pledge card was coming to church on New Year’s Eve. As families received a personal blessing from the pastor, they would give a generous offering, all in hopes of starting the new year on the right foot. But it was cash in an envelope, not a pledge card.

I was intrigued. I’d never experienced a stewardship campaign before, so I figured I’d better learn quickly. After all, I had no plans of ever serving another Korean church. Seventeen years later, that’s still true. I honestly didn’t think I’d be away this long. But that’s another story.

At my first finance meeting, we talked about how we were about $55,000 short of the budget.
The funny thing?
My salary was $55,000.
So yea, I felt like this:

That Sunday morning, our finance chair kicked off the stewardship campaign with something like: “We’re about $60,000 short of our budget. If you want to help us keep the lights on and continue the ministries of this church, we invite you to prayerfully consider your pledge.”
I remember thinking, Is this how American churches try to raise money?
Who would be inspired by this?

Be honest.
How many of your churches approach stewardship this way?
Pastors, be even more honest.
How many of you have planned a stewardship campaign like this?
If you answered yes...
Why?

And I swear, if one of y’all comments “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” well… actually, I don’t know how I’d respond.

Here’s why:
Nobody wants to give to a dying organization.

“Hey, Joe. We never said we were dying.”
Maybe not. But when the first thing people hear is, “we’re short on money. Help us keep the lights on,” that’s exactly what many of them hear.

Churches in survival mode ask people to preserve the institution.
Churches on mission invite people to transform the world.
Proverbs says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

The people most likely to respond to that appeal are the people who’ve been there forever. They’ve seen what the church has meant. They remember the good years. They already believe in it.
But imagine hearing that message on your third Sunday as a guest.

I get letters from Wesley Theological Seminary and University of Hawaii (my alma maters) for donations. Imagine opening the letter and reading,
Our institution is 5 million short of our operating budget.
Our enrollments been down and we are working really hard to make sure our doors stay open. So please give what you can.

Some people will give.
Most will not.

Universities understand something many churches seem to forget.
They don’t ask me to rescue the institution.
They invite me to invest in its future.
They tell me what students are accomplishing.
They tell me how lives are being changed.
They tell me where they’re headed over the next decade.
Then they ask me to help make that future possible.
That’s stewardship.

What is the vision of your church for the next 5 years?
If it’s “to keep our doors open”… well, that’s not a vision. That’s survival.
Churches aren’t called to survive. They’re called to bear fruit.
The tragedy is that many churches spend so much energy preserving what was that they have little energy left to imagine what could be. We keep doing the same things, hoping for different results.

The central story of the Christian faith is that resurrection comes after death, not instead of it.

We don’t worship preservation.
We worship resurrection.

Your congregation doesn’t need to know the line items.
That’s what the finance committee is for.
Instead,
Tell us what our generosity makes possible.
Tell us what we’re investing in.
Tell us where you believe God is leading this church.
Tell us how lives are being changed.
Tell us what we’ve accomplished together.
Tell us what could happen next.
Paint a vision and invite us into it.

Remember:
People don’t invest in budgets.
They invest in vision.

So don’t ask me to fund a budget.
Invite me to participate in what God is doing.

That’s stewardship.