Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Leading Ideas: "Turning Your Church Inside Out | 7 Key Questions for Fundraising with Spiritual Integrity" from Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesleyan Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., United for Wednesday, 3 May 2017

Leading Ideas: "Turning Your Church Inside Out | 7 Key Questions for Fundraising with Spiritual Integrity" from Lewis Center for Church Leadership of The Wesleyan Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., United for Wednesday, 3 May 2017
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Wednesday, May 3, 2017

From the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary
6 Ways to Turn Your Church Inside-Out by Ben Ingebretsonb
To connect with people, you need to meet them where they are, says Ben Ingebretson, the director of new church development for the Dakotas and Minnesota Conferences of the UMC. He offers six practical ways you can air out your church by taking your ministry into public spaces.
For the past month, I have been meeting with 18 other people on Tuesday nights at a local coffee shop for a coupling class. Rather than do our premarital course at the church this year, we decided we would advertise it at the city bridal show in January and hold meetings in a public space in March. People came, and we talked and shared stories. We more than doubled the impact we would have had offering the course at church.
Doing ministry outside of your church’s four walls is as old as dirt, but so quickly we forget how important it is. John Wesley was a master at it with open-air preaching. He was taking his cue from the apostles who ministered in the public spaces of their day. Wesley knew that to connect with people, he must go to where they are.
We must be careful not to make the success of the past our only roadmap for the future. To connect with people, we must go to where they are.
Many churches are preparing for a future that may never come. We settle for trying to attract a crowd rather than working to penetrate one. If we look to Europe as a harbinger of things to come, we quickly see that attractional church is likely on the wane. We must be careful not to make the success of the past our only roadmap for the future.
Here are some practical ways you can air out your ministry:
  1. Hold your next staff or council meeting in a public space. Let that space challenge your thinking about connecting with your community.
  2. Offer worship in a public space. Crossroads Church, a multi-campus congregation in Minnesota, offers an outdoor worship service. Perhaps one of your services could take place at the public school, or several times a year it could happen somewhere else outside your building.
  3. Office at least one day per week at a local coffee shop. I recently saw a pastor who put a small sign on his table, saying that he was a pastor and that he would hear and pray for any needs of passers-by.
  4. Buy a jumbo-sized grill. Loan it to anyone in your congregation who will organize a block party in their neighborhood. Don’t let it be used on church property where you will only perpetuate the “church club” mentality.
  5. Begin to plan and pray now about staging a new ministry off-site. Perhaps this could be a career transition group, a recovery group, or a parenting group.
  6. Try a pub Bible study. Find a night that a local owner may be eager for you to imbibe, and invite others to join you.
It is worth noting that the first martyr of the church, Stephen, challenged the idea that buildings are sacred to God: “The Most High God does not dwell in houses made by human hands” (Acts 7:48). If we push on the idol of sacred structures, we might get some push back. We might also discover the practices of missional leadership so needed today.
This article is reprinted from a blog post on the Minnesota Annual Conference’s website. Used by permission.
Related Resources:
7 Key Questions for Fundraising with Spiritual Integrity by Ann A. Michel
How can we raise money with spiritual integrity? Anyone who wants their work in cultivating generosity to reflect the gospel needs to wrestle with seven key questions from Peter Harris and Rod Wilson's book Keeping Faith in Fundraising.Ministry takes money. So, there is no shame in encouraging others to give to support vital Christian works through fundraising. If you need convincing, just pick up your Bible and take another look at Paul’s exhortation regarding giving and generosity in the eighth and ninth chapters of 2 Corinthians.
Yet when Christians engage in the work of fundraising, it’s all too easy for us to get caught up in the game. Even when you’re raising money for a godly cause, and even if you can recite chapter and verse on the theology of stewardship and faithful giving, there’s a tendency to think of people as prospects, to see the goal as dollars not ministry, to view relationships strategically, and to let achieving the goal become everything.
Because seeking and offering funds is holistically and inherently connected with every expression of ministry and each Christian’s walk of faith, fundraising is a high calling not a necessary evil.
Keeping Faith in Fundraising (Eerdmans, 2017) by Peter Harris and Rod Wilson is a spiritual gut check for anyone involved in stewardship ministry or Christian fundraising. Grounded in a thoughtful exegesis of 2 Corinthians 8–9, and informed by the authors’ development work for Christian organizations, the book wrestles with what it means to raise money with spiritual integrity. It goes well beyond a Stewardship 101 understanding of faith and money to consider more subtle questions about the attitudes we bring when we ask others to give. They reflect on seven key questions that require the attention of anyone who wants their work in cultivating generosity to fully reflect of the gospel.
  • Are our Christian commitments and beliefs fully integrated into every aspect of our fundraising endeavors?
  • In our work of raising funds, do we see people as being of much more value than the money they provide?
  • Do we position our fundraising work in the bigger story of God’s work in the world?
  • In the kingdom work of fundraising, is the financial outcome the only measure of success and failure?
  • If we emphasize the needs we are seeking to meet, do we risk negating God’s call and priorities for both asker and giver?
  • Does an overemphasis on techniques in fundraising blind us to the reality that both askers and givers need to pay careful attention to God’s call in the process?
  • Do we understand money simply as a transaction in the fundraising process or as something transformative for all concerned?
Too often, questions like these become excuses for pastors and other leaders seeking to avoid what they consider to be the distasteful and unseemly work of asking people to give. But Harris and Wilson know better. They understand that seeking and offering funds is holistically and inherently connected with every expression of ministry and each Christian’s walk of faith. And they know that when we honestly and faithfully grapple with these questions, our fundraising can be a high calling rather than a necessary evil.
Their work is summarized in a prayer, which reads in part: Grant us the capacity to do all our fundraising as we would all other aspects of life that reflect Christ.
Keeping Faith in Fundraising (Eerdmans, 2017) by Peter Harris and Rod 
Wilson is available at Cokesbury and Amazon.
Related Resources:
Read more.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
When discussing what to do next in a ministry area, these discussions often sound much like previous conversations. A way of changing the dynamic is to ask the group (or, even better, divide and use multiple groups) to pretend that they are consultants engaged by the congregation to do an analysis of the ministry topic at hand. They are to prepare a response to this question.
  • Given what you have learned about our church, what are your most objective observations and what are your best recommendations for the next steps our church might take? 
Want more Right Questions? Read Right Questions for Church Leaders.

50 Ways to Take Church to the Community
Churches can no longer open their doors and expect that people will come in. Effective congregations go into the world to encounter those in need of the gospel. "50 Ways to Take Church to the Community" provides tips on reaching beyond the walls of your church with worship, community events, ministries, and service.
Learn more and download free.

Learn about Stewardship and Biblical Generosity
Designed to nurture the spiritual discipline of giving, Theology of Stewardship and Biblical Generosity may be used in a variety of Christian education settings or in conjunction with an annual stewardship emphasis. Featured topics: Stewardship 101; What the Bible Teaches about Giving; A Christian Understanding of Money, Possessions, and Generosity; Biblical Generosity; and Faith and Generosity.
Learn more and watch an introductory video now.
Quotable Leadership
Weak leadership does not promote vital lay ministry; it compromises the health of the entire body by failing to provide laity with the basic spiritual guidance they need in order to be effective leaders themselves.[Christopher A. Beeley]

What Next Faithful Step is God Calling Your Church to Take?
Discovering God's Future for Your Church is a turn-key tool kit to help your congregation discern and implement God's vision for its future. The resource guides your church in discovering clues to your vision in your history and culture, your current congregational strengths and weaknesses, and the needs of your surrounding community.
Learn more and watch an introductory video now.
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Editor: Dr. Ann A. Michel
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