Generosity
Does it feel like you’re always standing at the pulpit, asking for more money from your congregation? Is offering time a chore for your people? Well, are you taking the time to celebrate ministry that is happening? Perhaps if your people hear testimonies of how God is working, they will be more generous when the plate is passed.
Estate Planning for Churches in the 21st Century
Estate Planning is an often overlooked financial tool when evaluating church funding now and in the future. National surveys tell us that over 65% of our church members don’t have any type of estate [...]
Generosity: What’s Ahead in 2024
Generosity is an action. It is the ongoing activity of giving away what you can’t take with you at the end of your life. To understand it better, Brad will share about what happened [...]
7 Reasons to Offer Estate Planning at Your Church
Most church leaders don’t have a will or an estate plan. So it is easy to see why church leaders don’t encourage congregants to get one either. So many say, “I don’t have enough [...]
End-of-Year Letters Are Vital
Year-end letters are vital to the life of your people and church. They can share stories of ministry and remind people of God’s great work during the year. A number of years ago, my [...]
The Top 5 1/2 Questions XPs Are Asking about 2023 Giving Trends … with Surprising Answers
We had the pandemic and that raised lots of eyebrows about giving. Now we are in a post-pandemic era. There is angst about economic uncertainty and changes in core giving engagement. What is giving [...]
Legacy Gifting: From the Why to the How
As leaders, we are called to seek out and then shine a light on the path for the faithful to follow. One of those paths is stewardship and generosity. But how do we facilitate [...]
Top 5 Urgent Hurdles to Make or Break Your Financial Year
A Focus on the Next 10 Months to Finish the Year Exceeding Budget Even though giving is stable now, what variables loom ahead that could disrupt your financial world to diminish your church mission? [...]
River Valley Church Receives $400,000 in Crypto Donations
Creating Catalysts of Generosity with Cryptocurrency An interview with Clynt Reddy, Executive Director of Operations for River Valley Church and Engiven. Each year River Valley hosts an annual event called Kingdom Builders, where they [...]
Eight Practices For Effective Online Giving
I’ve spent a lot of time on church websites recently ... like dozens of hours on hundreds of websites! Along the way, I noticed some trends about online giving. Having grown by 21% in [...]
4 Essential Tools for the Future of Church Growth
We all have ideas about how our church could grow in the next month. There are a number of digital tools and systems that can help you run your church, but what’s actually working [...]
Heart Financial Planning: A Summer Check-In For Pastors
Almost every pastor I talk to gives to the church. But, the majority seem to give from duty, obligation, almost joylessly. I can almost hear some of their inner thoughts: The box is checked. [...]
Legacy Gifting: The Heart of Stewardship
The stewardship journey is not only the work of a faithful follower of Christ but those chosen to lead them. The church has a unique opportunity to provide leadership in encouraging the completion of [...]
Giving in 2021 & How to Engage More Donors
What should you expect in projected giving through the balance of 2021? How will you engage more givers to end the year financially better than you expect? Get answers to these pressing questions. We'll [...]
State of Giving 2020
Full of charts and graphs, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability has produced a free 24-page report on the state of giving in 2020. Warren Bird Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Equipping, served as [...]
Anchor Your Giving If the Economy Falters
Of all the things you as an XP have to navigate and worry about, what if a downturn in financial resources this fall is added to your list? Let’s talk about how to position [...]
Hone Your Online Giving & New Features
Fletch and Troy Pollock always have intriguing discussions. This time they will focus on how to hone your online giving. This will be coupled with new features in online giving. Fletch loves technology—automation that [...]
Digital Giving Trends
Fletch and Troy Pollock began an intriguing discussion at the 2019 XP-Seminar. Back by popular demand, this "state of digital giving" continues that discussion. From his vantage point of working with thousands of churches around [...]
Running a Church
Tuesday, January 8, 2019 Hey Fletch … I’ve been reading the columns for a while. It seems like you know so much about churches. I would say that ‘Fletch knows how to run a [...]
Four Levels of Givers
Friday, December 14, 2018 Hey Fletch … I was at the Smart Money for Church Salaries workshop in Dallas. It was awesome. I’m creating an executive summary of my notes for our directional team [...]
Please Support Me
Thursday, December 6, 2018 Hey Fletch … I am senior pastor in Kenya. We face financial problems in our small church. A salary for me is just a dream. We kindly request if any assistance. [...]
What Should I Look for in Online Giving?
Monday, August 20, 2018 Hey Fletch … Our church is considering starting online giving. What are the kinds of things that we should be looking for? DRF—From a user’s perspective, the number one thing for [...]
Understanding “The Big Shift”
Do you remember the E.F. Hutton advertisement? The essence of the ad is two people are talking about investments. One says, “My broker is E.F. Hutton and he says …” At that point everyone [...]
Capital Campaign = Spiritual Revival. Seriously?
Can a capital campaign in a church cause a spiritual revival? Absolutely! I know from first-hand experience. When I was 25 years old and went through my first capital campaign, it transformed my life, [...]
Giving Away 50% of Church Income
Thursday, June 7, 2018 Hey Fletch … In all of the church connections you have, do you know of other churches that are attempting to give away large percentages (50%+) of what they receive [...]