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Stewardship Stimulators

A New Kind of Budget

An online Covenant article dated March 27, 2008 reported:
A change in the way Montecito Covenant Church developed its budget for this year has enabled the congregation to more closely align its expenses with ministry priorities, says pastor Don Johnson.

Most churches use an incremental system of budgeting in which they determine general increases or decreases based on the current budget. Johnson says congregations may want to consider a different approach when it comes to sections dealing specifically with ministry.

Click Here to read the entire article.

Nine Pretty Good Stewardship Stimulators

by Don Fensterman

This article can be found in its entirety in the Fall 2006 edition of The Soul of a Steward, but here are a few key points to get you started...

1. Emphasize the use of offering envelopes.

2. Offer electronic funds transfer (EFT) and encourage its use. 

3. Mail a quarterly thank you to each donor.

4. Pray it in!

5. Prior to the annual emphasis, mail devotional materials and a daily prayer calendar to each home.

6. Use the pulpit.

7. Tell stories.

8. Use Crown Ministries or Good Sense materials to teach scriptural financial management principals in your church.

9. Promote an annual tithe Sunday. 

Click Here to read more in the Fall 2006 issue of the Soul of a Steward

Stewardship Spelled S-P-E-N-D

by Nils Peterson

At age 10, there is a currency that is far more valuable than dollars ... much like how the value of the dollar is set by gold in a vault - up until a certain age the value of a dollar is measured in candy!

"How much money do you have?"

... "I have enough for three Jolly Ranchers, and a king size Snickers."

And therefore, the most important day in the kid-economy is Halloween.  For me Halloween was always a very serious event.  As a fiscally responsible 10 year old, I knew that I had one chance each October to secure my savings ... this one night determined my base salary for the entire year.  I would calculate routes for the largest take, and then return home to sort and prioritize, stash and freeze ... making sure to have at least one last candy bar left 365 days later when the cycle began again.

It was these same skills that I brought into managing "real" money later on ... budgeting is a task that I have considered to be something of an art.  I remember at one point being proud that if I tracked spending properly, I could check on my computer to calculate how much change was in the jar of coins on my dresser...

Click Here to read more in the Fall 2006 issue of the Soul of a Steward