A recent study of over 1,000 churches across the United States who had recently completed capital campaigns revealed that seemingly subtle differences in the ways various churches approached their campaigns yielded startling and significantly different campaign results. The study was conducted in June-July 2010 by Volkart May & Associates, a Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota based marketing and market research firm.
This week hundreds of thousands of churches across the nation will receive at least 42% less in contributions than what they could be receiving. The reason has nothing at all to do with the economy. The reason is impersonal methodology. Most churches in the United States simply do not ask their members for financial support in a personal, relational way. Many excellent pastors and church leaders with the best of intentions are systematically and chronically hindering their church's financial potential because they fail to ask properly.
When a shrinking congregation forced the century-old St. Gerard's Church to shut its doors in 2008, its fate was uncertain. The 800-seat church had been a pride of its neighborhood in East Buffalo, NY, boasting stained-glass windows, marble columns, and a basilica modeled after St. Paul's in Rome. But its roof was collapsing and the parish could no longer justify maintaining it for a congregation that had dwindled from several thousand families in the 1970s to a mere hundred.
I have shared about managing time as if every second was a precious commodity given to us by God that is to be spent wisely in order to bring Him the most benefit and pleasure. Also that we should view every talent, skill, learned ability, or spiritual gift as uniquely shaped in us by God so that it can be used by Him to build and advance His kingdom purposes. In this area we become like a violin in the hands of the virtuoso performer. As we allow Him God brings beautiful music from us through the gifts, talents, and abilities He has given to us. By the same token, if we do not surrender these abilities to Him, we can never get the same musical quality on our own.
By S. J. (Skip) Schlafer
"What next" we question in frustration.
"What next" we cry out in anger.
"What next" we ask in anticipation..."What next?"
"What next" for Wall Street?
"What next" for Main Street?
"What next" for our sisters and brothers around the globe?
"What next" for me?
"What next" for my church?
"Glory to God, whose power, working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine." Those words of Apostle Paul resonate as the alpha and omega of all our frustrations. What is the vision for your church? Do you have crucial program needs for mission and outreach, needs for enlarged worship space or classrooms, infrastructure needs to update over-worked and out-dated mechanical / electrical systems, debt retirement needs, endowment needs...the visioning list is all encompassing. With an articulation of the vision comes "we need to do this...but, what are the priorities." In other words..."What next?"
The answer to "What next" can best be expressed in terms of our faith. Oswald Chambers, renowned devotional writer, suggests the lesson of the next step when trying to discern what God is calling forth from us. "If you do not know what to do next, simply trust God and do the next thing." The point is God is not hiding his will from you. His will is right before you, represented by the next thing for you to do. While there is much "we do not see", nevertheless, the next step must be taken - doing so in faith with trust in God.
Prayerful meditation opens the way to the possibilities of "what we do not see". Put wondering and questions aside and listen for God's will with a confidence that the next step will be made known. As always, the challenge is to "Let go and let God". The next step, whatever that may be, is what God is asking your church to take. What is the next thing to do? The next thing is to take the next step and do what is right before you to do.
"O Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavor any great matter, grant us also to know that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory." -- Quotation from Celia Haddon's The Yearbook of Hope and Inspiration for January 12.
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