The days of passing the collection plate around in order to fund a church and it’s outreach projects are long behind us. As a matter of fact, the churches that are constantly and vocally asking their members for money are simply losing membership to other seemingly well funder churches that do not focus so much on constantly harassing their members to give. My wife and I are members of a church that has never passed a collection plate out in front of us and yet the members of the church go above and beyond the tithe weekly.
That being said, we all know that regardless of how noble we try to make this sound, churches need funds to function. Electricity, heat, water, supplies, staff, rent, real estate fees, etc. all cost money. One cannot simply pretend that a church without funds can survive in today’s world where we are charged “x” amount of dollars if we sneeze. So if the collection plate is out, how do we get our members to commit to a tithe and freely give above the tithe to sustain & fund vital church functions, outreach, growth and evangelization projects?
We are blessed that studies have been done on this issue. These studies show that there are far more effective ways to find necessary funding than the old school collection plate. Today’s strongest and most adequately funded churches have hired consultants to help them develop plans on how to raise the needed capital to function effectively and how to budget correctly to function efficiently. We’ve been helping churches not just survive, but thrive for more than a decade now.
The first step is to eliminate wasteful spending. I once walked into a church that had less than 80 members but was spending a few hundred dollars a month on coffee and donuts, half of which ended up in the trash. They were operating under the impression that if you serve it (coffee, tea and donuts), they will come. Something as simple as replacing the stale donuts and terrible free coffee at the connection point with a community table where the members of the church came together for a pot lunch every Sunday after service totally changed the vibe of the connection point. The community came together, brought food they proudly prepared for their church brothers and sisters, and the fellowship was so much fun that the membership roll tripled in just 8 Sundays.
While needless spending is one of the major problems in churches, there still is a need for the church to raise funds. So instead of the collection plate, we recommend donation boxes on all the exits so people can give on their way out. We also recommend keeping up with the times. Third party services like the Pushpay app, ShelbyNext, Elexio, etc. are an excellent way of giving people the option to pay online and even set up a weekly tithe. Then there are fundraisers (please stop with the bake sales). We’re talking about fundraisers to the level that politicians, celebrities and startups use. And of course, there are always generous givers who will gladly fund special projects in their church.
The question now is, how to we motivate people to give. My suggestion, and the one that has worked the best for as long as I can remember, is to be completely transparent about the appropriation of the money collected through tithes and offerings. I’m talking about disclosing the salaries of everyone on staff, from the person that cleans once a week to the lead Pastor. Don’t just disclose it to the board. Disclose it to the entire congregation. Let every member, from the oldest elder to the brand new Christian know who makes what and why. Also, offer a quarterly report to all the members of your church of how their tithes and offerings are being spent (projects, maintenance, bills, upkeep, etc.). No one should come to your church on a Sunday wondering if their tithe is going to be buying the Pastor and his friends an expensive trip and a steak dinner.
Finally, more members means greater resources for growth and sustainability purposes. I’m not talking about recruiting members for your church. I have always taught all my clients (church and secular) that they should never try to recruit people into their fold, but rather attract new members. We have so many ways to do this that we would spend weeks writing them all down in here. So instead, let me give you just a few right off the top of my head. Social media marketing, outreach events, social events, sponsorship of local little league teams, sponsoring city and town events like parades and the Christmas tree lighting, capitalizing on public speaking engagements for Pastors, leaders and members, etc.
My all time favorite way to increase your churches membership? Let us hire and train a Marketplace Pastor for you. This is a full pledged Pastor who must also have his foot in the door with local merchants and business owners. The best candidate for this position is a person who is already in the Marketplace; a Christian, Bible Based Business Owner. We’ve perfected the art of screening all potential candidates within your congregation, hiring and training this Pastor. We also provide proven strategies, programs, tools and plans of action for the Pastor to get started and get growing.
This all sounds like a commercial for our GC Rosario Group firm, but I assure you it isn’t. We simply want to share our knowledge with you and give you some tips you can start using right now without even hiring us. We even offer you a complimentary 30 minute consultation to give you as much information as possible, and if you see a need to hire us to move things forward correctly, we are prepared to do so. I can honestly say we’ve given away more information free of charge than that which we’ve received payment for, and yet our firm has been so blessed that we’ve been able to generously give back to the community without hurting ourselves.
If any of the tips mentioned above resonate with you and you feel you want to learn more about what we do, schedule your free 30 minute consultation HERE and let’s see what else we can come up with to help your church family grow and impact more lives. We truly believe that a relationship with Jesus changes everything and that the Great Commission is our call to action directly from God. Our goal is to help you make more disciples of men. Let’s talk about it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
George L. Rosario is a Brooklyn NY born & raised businessman & entrepreneur turned consultant. He started GC Rosario Group with his lovely wife Claudia. With over 30 years of service to the marketplace in NYC, George has relocated and been graciously adopted by the business community of South Florida. He now travels the country helping businesses and organizations thrive in today’s noisy environment. The post-Covid era forced many to close their doors, but also opened new doors of opportunity, growth and prosperity for innovative thinkers. George & Claudia Rosario help companies, businesses, organizations and teams develop the necessary skillset and plan of action to not just survive, but thrive in this new world. GC Rosario Group helps both secular and Christian based institutions meet their goals.
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