Though important, teaching a 5-minute lesson on tithing every week isn’t enough to increase giving in your church.
In today’s post, we’re going to have a quick look at the importance of building trust and casting your church’s vision as a way to increase your church offerings and get more money for ministry.
One of the best resources I can recommend in this area of increasing your church’s annual financial budget is Church Fuel’s Giving Course.
Packed full of insanely practical coaching, done-for-you resources, real church examples and online church-giving solutions, Church Fuel will help you have more money for ministry.
Trust & Vision
People don’t give because you ask them to or because bills need paying…
People give if they trust you as a leader and if they know where you’re taking them; it all comes down to trust and vision.
Do you want to increase financial giving in your church?
Build trust and cast the vision.
Do you want people to sacrifice their time and talents more?
Build trust and cast the vision. Do you want people to trust you?
Find opportunities to admit you’ve made a mistake – seriously! Say “I was wrong, I’m sorry”. It doesn’t fuel mistrust, the opposite in fact.
You need to talk about and cast the vision of your church constantly because the fact is, like water in a holey bucket, vision leaks.
What Is Vision?
“Vision is a mental picture of what could be, fueled by a passion that it should be.”
Do you have an idea of what your youth group could be like?
Can you imagine what your worship team could be like?
Do you have a mental picture of what your church could look like if it grew?
It’s not enough.
You need to have a passion, a burning desire, a determination that it should be!
2 Ways To Make Your Vision Stick
1. State it Simply
People will sacrifice more, work harder, be more dedicated and give more if they’ve ‘got’ the vision and they’re carrying it around with them.
Memorable is portable so make your vision simple.
To make vision simple it doesn’t have to be complete. Look at the most famous vision statements in history and you’ll see that they’re simple so they’re memorable and portable:
- “Change” (USA Elections)
- “I Have a Dream“
- “Just Do It“
- “Make Poverty History“
Your vision may ask more questions than it gives answers and that’s fine, you don’t need to go into the ‘how’, ‘what’ and ‘why’.
2. Cast It Convincingly
Nehemiah is a book of vision.
In chapter 2 the king noticed that Nehemiah, his cupbearer, was deeply troubled and asked, “Why is your face sad?” Nehemiah then cast the vision before the king.
When we cast vision we can follow his pattern, we can do these 4 things:
- Define a Problem: “Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father’s tombs lies waste and its gates are burned with fire”
- Offer a Solution: “I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father’s tombs, that I may rebuild it”
- Explain Why: Judah had recently become part of the king’s domain
- Explain Why Now: Present your vision as the solution to a problem that must be addressed immediately
As a church, what problem are you called to solve?
Your mental picture is the solution to that problem.
Don’t make the mistake of giving people the solution before presenting the problem, in the post ‘How to Grow Your Church Systems‘ we talked about telling people why they need to know something before telling them.
Take Your Church To The Next Level 📈
An Example:
Defining the Problem: Pastor Kelly Stickel of Parallel Church in Lethbridge defined their problem as irrelevance; a vast majority of the people in Lethbridge thought the church was irrelevant.
This was illustrated by the 50,000 cars that drove past the church each day with only a small handful of people thinking that the church would have answers or relevance to their lives.
The Vision (Solution): “We want to be a church unchurched people love to attend.“
When you paint a picture of a problem so that it’s big in people’s minds and then offer a solution, a way to change it, to make a difference – people will commit to that.
You won’t only see an increase in giving, but you’ll begin to see a higher level of commitment from your people too – if you live out the vision, repeat, repeat, repeat and do what you say you will do.
How important do you think casting vision is to your church’s giving? Does your church have an online giving option? Would love to hear from you in the comments!
Recommended Reading:
I love to work with you. Sir you have blessed me
Thank you 🙂 I know if we as church leaders lead with a vision that is clear and compelling enough people will be able to catch it, remember it and be more than ready to give their time and money towards making it a reality.
I need your help how to make my church grow. Please send me more insight so that our church can grow. The spirit of poverty in our African churches is rampant so please help here.
I’m not sure about a spirit of poverty but there’s definitely a mindset and culture of poverty. Let me quickly tell you a personal story.
A few years ago when I started out as a missionary in Thailand I got frustrated that not enough people were supporting me financially. I came from a small church in a poorer part of town.
Then one day I just decided in my mind to be a giver and not a receiver. I started supporting other missionaries and Bible students. That’s when everything changed for me.
Want my advice on breaking the “spirit of poverty”? Start giving more generously!
Hope this helps, God bless.
Honestly that switch changed everything for me.
Taken will do that coz we want to build churches. but the problem is that most pastor has huge sums of money billions just for themselves.
That’s a big issue, especially in Africa. Again, want to break poverty? Give generously! Want to break greed? Give generously!
May we decide here and now to be leaders who serve the people and serve God. Yes we should be paid a salary but we shouldn’t abuse our position. I believe there’s a severe penalty for those that do.
I truly appreciate you, Simon for your response to brother Esau`s request. Its not about one`s geographical position, but the state of one`s mind. Poverty is not geographical, but mental. How come there are churches in the same Africa that are doing well financially. Its time Africa stopped looking to the west for handouts. Handouts never put an end to poverty but by the practice of the Word of God. I refuse to agree with the notion that Africa is poor. Its very rich, unfortunately occupied by poor minds. GOD FORBID!
Pastor Felix
I could not agree with you more pastor Felix. It’s so true – deal with the mindset and everything else will change.