I’ve heard it a billion times in local churches:  everyone wants to give to a capital campaign or to a special project and no one wants to give to the operating campaign. In that boat?  Then cancel the operating campaign and replace it with a capital campaign. There you go, problem solved. Well, except for […]

Imagine it’s early December and the avalanche of end of the year fund raising letters arrives in the mail.  For some unknown reason you decide to actually open one of them.  The letter reads: “Use the enclosed envelope to send us your contribution.  Remember to put a stamp on it before you send it.” And […]

I had an interesting conversation with a great young pastor a couple of weeks ago.  In his second Sunday at his new church they did their monthly special offering.  A special container was passed through the congregation with no announcement about what was happening, why the offering was being taken or how it would be […]

When I head into a church for a stewardship consultation, I used to think I could predict the situation.  Afterall, a church in an affluent neighborhood was going to have plenty of money, right?  A church with old Chevy pickup trucks in the parking lot was going to be dirt poor. Not even close to […]

When I was a student at Mount Union (back when it was a college, not a university) every fall a ginormous pumpkin would appear in the cafeteria.  Dr. Paul Froman grew it on his farm, and I always wanted to see it delivered.  This pumpkin would fill the back of a pickup truck and, I’m […]

The town of Viganella, Italy had a problem.  Located in a valley in the Alps, it had 86 days in the winter when it was in the shadow of the mountains.  The sun never, ever shined on this town between November 11 and February 2. By 2006 the town had enough and decided to erect […]

  A Dozen Thoughts About Stewardship Never think of stewardship as begging for money.  Your church does good work and you are inviting others to invest in that ministry. Giving to God is not a transaction.  Anytime you give anyone a gift it is a reflection of your relationship.  Your commitment to the church should […]

It used to be that when a baby cried, you heard it.  Then came baby monitors and babies could cry by remote control.  Now a new line of baby wear, Exmobaby, has biometric sensors built right in.  Now a concerned parent can be halfway around the world and receive updates on junior’s  heart rate and body temperature right […]

This blog is about stewardship and is not the appropriate place for me or others to weigh in on Planned Parenthood’s myriad of services.  Let’s keep the discussion to the Komen decision. It’s not very often that the Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure gets it wrong.  But it sure happened a few weeks […]

Last week I talked about a campaign to get your church out of debt, and I appreciate all of the feedback.  I knew it would be a hot topic. Let’s stay on the same topic but take a bit of a shift this morning. Circle of Hope, a Brethren in Christ Church in Philadelphia has the […]