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    Rich Church, Poor Church: Keys to Effective Financial Ministry
    Rich Church, Poor Church: Keys to Effective Financial Ministry
    Rich Church, Poor Church: Keys to Effective Financial Ministry
    Ebook110 pages2 hours

    Rich Church, Poor Church: Keys to Effective Financial Ministry

    By Dr. J. Clif Christopher

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    About this ebook

    Does your church have the necessary funds to do ministry?

    In Dr. Clif Christopher's nearly forty years in ministry as a pastor and President of Horizons Stewardship Company, he has witnessed the financial stewardship practices of thousands of churches. A few have exceptional records in acquiring and managing the necessary funds for mission and ministry, but the vast majority struggle every year to get by.

    In this important new work made even more relevant by our economic times, Christopher contrasts the traits of the most productive congregations with those who perennially fail to secure the funds to perform transformational ministry. Some churches practice the necessary financial habits that form the foundation of successful ministry, and others waste valuable resources and undermine ministry opportunities.

    Through Christopher’s insight born out of years of experience and consultation, readers can assess the financial condition of their own churches.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateNov 1, 2012
    ISBN9781426765292
    Rich Church, Poor Church: Keys to Effective Financial Ministry
    Author

    Dr. J. Clif Christopher

    Christopher founded the Horizons Stewardship Company in 1992 following a challenging career in pastoral ministry. He serves as the company’s CEO to this day. In his twenty years as a pastor, he led numerous major building and capital campaigns. Since founding Horizons, he and his strategists have led consultations in over 2,000 churches, conferences, synods and diocese in all phases of building, finance, and church growth raising billions of dollars for ministry. Christopher is a certified church growth consultant and has earned the coveted title CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive). In 1995, he was given the National Circuit Rider Award by the United Methodist Church for outstanding leadership in developing vital congregations. He has personally worked in over 42 states and is a frequent speaker at stewardship seminars around the country. He is the co-author of the book Holy Smoke, the author of Not Your Parents’

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      Book preview

      Rich Church, Poor Church - Dr. J. Clif Christopher

      INTRODUCTION

      A pastor friend of mine commented the other day that if he were ever truly successful he might find himself out of work. I asked him what he meant, and he said, Well, I preach for persons to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. If they all started doing that, then I would be out of work. My reply back was that if and when he found himself unemployed, we would both celebrate.

      I find myself writing another book around the topic of Christian financial stewardship because I have been unsuccessful with my past efforts. Indeed, if all those who call themselves Christians and members of a church would start tithing tomorrow, I would be out of work. My company might cease to exist, or our mission focus might become a whole lot more fun and rewarding. Instead of helping churches acquire funds, we would be in the business of helping them be faithful in their distribution. We would spend a lot more time assisting them in formulating a plan to spend most efficiently what they have in their storehouses. We would discuss how to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, care for the sick, and restore the prisoner. We would be a community of believers fully devoted to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, overjoyed at the opportunity to be his servants to the world around us. What fun that would be.

      But alas, we are not there. My company is not about to go out of business, and few of the pastors I know will not be needed once again to preach this Sunday. This book was written because we do not give as Christ taught us to give, and that is because Jesus is not yet the Lord of our lives. The church finds itself in serious trouble financially, not so much because of a lack of money, but because of a lack of passion and commitment to One other than ourselves.

      The statistics are screaming to us that we are in great jeopardy if significant change does not take place:

      • Religion used to receive 60 percent of all charitable gifts in America. Today it receives 32 percent.

      • Charitable giving as a whole is down from $315 billion in 2007 to $298 billion in 2011.¹

      • United Methodists give an average of 1 percent of their income to the church. Presbyterians give the same percentage. Episcopalians and Lutherans give 1.1 percent. Baptists are all the way up to 2 percent. Those of the Orthodox and Catholic faiths give less than 1 percent.²

      • In a study done in 2008, it was found that baby boomers give about 15 percent less than their parents gave at the same age (using current dollars). The lack of giving is most pronounced with religion.³

      • Giving to congregational finances is down 22 percent since 1968, and giving to benevolences in the same time period is down nearly 50 percent.⁴

      • Financially healthy churches totaled 31 percent of all churches in 2000, but only 14 percent of churches by 2010, which is a drop of over 50 percent.⁵

      I could go on and on with statistics that point out that the American church is in serious financial trouble and without serious change could move into irrelevancy. It appears that I will have a job for a while longer.

      Rich Church, Poor Church describes the characteristics I see in most of our churches, which are always behind financially and searching for money (Poor Church), compared to what I witness in churches that are not always struggling to find resources for mission and ministry (Rich Church). It could just as easily have been called Healthy Church, Sick Church or Vital Church, Insignificant Church.

      This book is not written by a researcher. I have never had the patience to do good research. It is written by an observer. Over the last forty years, as a pastor for twenty years and now as the president of Horizons Stewardship Company, I have been afforded an opportunity to work with thousands of churches, pastors, and laypersons. I have begun to see common traits among those churches with resources and also among those that never seem to have resources. You are free to disagree with me, and I am sure many will. I have only my own eyes and ears to back up my findings.

      My highest hope for this book is to get you, as a church leader, to ask questions. Questions about the condition of your church and its vitality need to be asked. Explore whether your church is on the rich or poor side of the scale and why. If you need to make changes, then how can those changes best be done? At a minimum, I simply hope that after reading this book, you will not remain as you are. As far as the church goes, this has not worked out so well lately. What we are called to be and do is far too important not to do it well.

      The initial chapter reviews my previous writings regarding why people give. I still find far too many church leaders who are working on the answer to the question, Why should I give? and not on the right question for today, which is, Why should I give to you? If we can’t learn how to answer that question, then our Poor Church will never become a Rich Church.

      The chapters following deal with areas that separate the haves from the have-nots. I will cover how the Rich Church focuses on mission rather than survival, compelling communication rather than facts communication, debt principal rather than debt payments, asking rather than not asking, humility rather than arrogance, high expectations rather than low expectations, knowing the facts on our donors rather than just guessing on the donors, being transformational in talk rather than obligatory, and pastors taking the lead. At the end of each chapter is a series of discussion questions that will hopefully stimulate groups to wrestle with the condition of their church and to develop solutions.

      Jesus has died and has been resurrected. The Holy Spirit has been sent to be among us. Martyrs by the thousands have died to bring us to where we are today. The church is the living body of Christ in the world, and we are a part of it. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. There is no excuse to be poor anymore!

      NOTES

      1. Giving USA, The Annual Report on Philanthropy (Indianapolis: Indiana University, 2011).

      2. Patrick M. Rooney, Dispelling Common Beliefs about Giving to Religious Institutions in the United States, in Religious Giving: For Love of God, ed. David H. Smith (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010).

      3. Noted by Russell James in Advancing Philanthropy (April 2008).

      4. The State of Church Giving through 2008 (Champaign, IL: Empty Tomb, Inc., 2010).

      5. David A Roozen, A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000–2010 (Hartford, CT: Hartford Institute for Religious Research, 2011).

      CHAPTER ONE

      WHY GIVE TO

      THE CHURCH?

      I was working with a pastor of a midwestern Protestant church, assisting his recruiting persons to serve in an upcoming capital campaign. A few weeks before, he and I reviewed the candidates and determined those we thought would be the best fits for his campaign. The campaign was not an exciting one. The funds would primarily be used to do delayed maintenance on the facility and replace some old HVAC systems. The church’s operating budget had no room to absorb these expenses, so the church was calling on a capital campaign to produce the revenue. I felt that we had a pretty good lineup of active laypersons who would do their best to lead in the campaign. Each one was asked to come in for a thirty-minute session with the pastor and me to hear what the job would entail and hopefully to say yes to serving.

      The third person we met on the first morning of recruiting was someone who I felt would be a slam dunk to serve. She had been the immediate past chairperson of the board and a member of the church for the last twenty years. She and her husband were the third largest donors to the church. I did not anticipate any problem.

      The pastor quickly introduced us and asked her to take a seat. He then asked to me to explain the job in a bit more detail. I did so in about five minutes while the church member listened politely, but with a serious look on

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