Episode 12 - Churches don't know the first thing about Online Giving

Today's Podcast is for Pastors who know that many of their flock are not faithful givers and want their congregation to experience the joy of giving and want to increase the ministry within their churches.

Chances are… You may have been disappointed in the giving levels of a certain percentage of your flock. You are not alone. 

Yes, there are the faithful givers in your pews … the sacrificial givers who give out of obedience and even… get this JOY. . But, we know, not everyone who listens to the sermons, who reads scripture… gives to their church… sometimes ever.

Online Giving for Churches takes simple strategies and consistent communications to help engage Christian Givers online. 

Transcript

Welcome to the, This is HIS Story podcast the executive director

and pastor guide to sowing and reaping online givers.

Episode 12 churches,

don't know the first thing about online giving money and churches pastors asking for money.

How to Bible teachers, juggle preaching about giving,

listen to those you tuning in right now.

I run the same risk, we all do.

Speaking, the truth of God's word.

Some will think we're just greedy or what more money from their pocket,

your church members, maybe even you right now.

Put up a Quick wall when Christians discuss

money and giving there have been plenty who've gone before us.

Who did not ask biblically

or they misuse God's money

and that makes it harder for you and me to talk about the subject of money.

And giving, listen, I get it,

but there are ways to talk biblically speaking about the joys of giving and let's face.

It not everyone is in your church.

Each Sunday church member spend way more time.

I'm online than in Europe use

and you can teach about giving to your blue in the face and sometimes they just don't here.

So I want to talk about giving your flock

and ways to bridge the gaps right now in this podcast episode,

but I want to talk about something that is a little bit controversial to start,

but I want you to put this lens on,

it will help you with the rest of this episode.

And with the concept of church and giving And that is this a lot.

I won't say most because I have no idea what the number,

but I would say, a lot of pastors believe deep down inside.

If they don't even preach it from the pulpit,

that mature Christian giving goes like this,

you give to your church first and then you give sacrificially to parachurch Ministries.

You give your extra money, but you give your first fruits to the church.

Now, if you believe that, this is where you need to sit down for a minute,

because I know a lot of pastors who have come

to me and said they used to teach that early on in their Ministry.

And then, as they look further, they find zero.

And I underline zero, biblical principles are verses that say that it's true.

So what I want you to do is think that through,

it's a big pill to swallow if you believe it,

but that you can give to God,

you can give up your first fruit without necessarily giving to your home church.

First. I would say there's nothing biblical about Not Giving to your church,

but the idea that it gets all your first fruit tithe and then extra giving go somewhere else.

It's just not biblical. There's plenty of Of instances where the Lord talks about giving,

and he doesn't say church first church only.

He just says the lord loves a cheerful giver

and you actually see evidence of people giving to their neighbors

and actually see that churches gave to Paul that they may feed

the starving during the famine in Jerusalem.

And so what has happened with this mindset,

is that churches have Very little effort other than you know

once a year or a couple times a year talking about giving they're a little shy of

it and then online they just put a giving donate button in the top right corner of their website

and they just assume that good givers will give

and they don't have to work at explaining the needs of the church to The Giver.

It creates a giant problem. So just for the rest of this podcast episode,

I Want you to have a different lens on.

If you had the lens that a good Giver will just give to you

because you should be and that's biblical and mature giving.

But if you realize that the church actually has a responsibility to talk to donors givers

and the way that they think,

then it's going to change how you react and what you do,

not only from the pulpit for on your website.

Okay. So let's just back way up real quick and talk.

About covid. So what happened with covid with all the shutdown's is churches were forced.

Some are already headed in that direction and doing a good job,

but we all went online. And that means a lot of different things to a lot of different churches.

Size churches churches with resources searches without resources,

but I would say 80,

90 % of all churches, really concentrated on the streaming of there.

Our service, some worked hard on engaging people and doing Ministry online.

Even outside of the traditional service,

whether that means youth or zoomed,

for women's ministry and Men's Ministry Etc,

but I would say, from my knowledge,

a fraction of a percent,

really worked on online giving Now some people got a little bit more sophisticated with how they

ask and how that integrated with their giving page,

but I would say most churches were not very sophisticated.

And here we are two years past that time.

And a lot of churches still are not sophisticated.

And the here's what I blame that on.

I blame that on because of co-ed

and there have and the have-nots the people that were giving a lot

of people did very well financially during

covid and they weren't spending as much and giving increased to a lot of Ministries and churches.

So, churches are being blessed with online giving,

without really doing anything other than quote-unquote,

ministering online or streaming online. And so the urgency isn't there.

The problem is, I'm not having done this for decades.

We all know that. There's ups

and downs of the economy and Trends and when the spicket turns off on the giving or lowers,

there's been nothing and I want to underline and capitalize,

the word, nothing being done to me with most churches online fundraising strategies tactics

because a lot of churches just don't they don't like that word strategy tactics marketing,

but in all honesty,

it's biblical and what's going on.

And I'm explain that in a minute, but what's going to happen is when things are going wrong,

then everyone's going to look and say, well what what can we do?

And I'm here to say there's so many things that churches should be doing to speak.

The language of human beings / members,

part of their flock who are online.

They're giving to other organizations online and they're not giving to their churches.

So even if you're, if you're listening to this podcast and your church is doing Very well online.

Here's what I challenge you. I bet you the same people who weren't giving in Europe.

Use still aren't giving online so we can argue that things are fine.

No, no matter. In fact, they may even be worse because you have givers that are giving more.

So it's really throwing off your numbers of just not staying front of

Mind of how many people you have city in Europe.

Use that are not giving,

okay. So let's let's talk about that for a minute about it.

Being biblical to ask talking about marketing strategies.

Listen, if marketing,

and strategy is good enough for Jesus. It should be good enough for you and your churches.

I know a lot of churches don't like that word.

It feels like a bad word. But Jesus was strategic all along the way.

Even when he moved to Capernaum,

like he was out in the middle of nowhere in Nazareth,

and he moved to a city right on the Sea of Galilee.

Right by one of the main thoroughfares of the Roman Road.

So when Jesus performed a miracle people who saw it and heard about it,

moved down the road and the his ministry grew very fast.

Because word got around, he was strategically where he located and the timing of his ministry.

And the timing of his miracles.

He was very strategic and how he talked to people the woman at the well strategy.

All along the way and churches sometimes it's feel like,

well, people come to us. We don't have to work hard.

The Lord will supply at all. Well, I guess the Lord can blow up,

winning, 100 million dollar, winning lotto ticket against the church window.

He could don't know if he's ever done that,

but he could. But yeah, it's okay to talk about your church.

It's okay to talk about needs.

It's okay to talk about Ministry.

It's a Okay, to talk about needing funding to perform something of big and important.

It's okay. It's not a bad word and the little donate button in the top,

right of your navigation is not marketing.

It's not compelling. It doesn't speak to people who have a passion to

give and you're just assuming they are going to wake up one morning walk to their computers.

Go to your website. Go to the top right,

click the word, give, no matter how clunky the giving page

is and they're just going to give like that.

That'll never happen. It'll never happen to the people who don't give to your church.

And so you have to have a plan a strategy,

and you have to talk to people in a way that works the proofs in the pudding.

Here. I work with an organization out of Chicago.

No, actually, this one was San Francisco. The story they gave me.

People in their Church who had never given to their Church before they were members

or frequent attendees,

but they had never given,

and all I did was help them compose a story of something that their church already does.

And I help them tell that story to that group and I think they raised $17 an hour.

So 27,000. I don't know, was one of the other either one significant resources.

From a group that has never put one penny in to pass,

you know, the passing of the plate of their Church. Why?

Because I just told the story better than they were.

Do you think those people would have woken up and given anything that day?

No, we talked to them in a language.

They understood, we gave them a need,

you know, we use best practices that I already use with other nonprofits and now,

these people think about the church,

when they want to give because now they connect Ministry of their heart to the church's Ministry

and there was a gap until we closed that Gap.

Frankly. I'm a little worried about the House of Cards.

It's going to happen when the economy goes down churches

or going to see a dip and they're not going to know what to do about it.

Well, the old adage, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago,

but the next best time is today.

Well, it works the same with online digital strategy.

It just does is if you haven't been working on telling your story

and engaging with people and potential givers,

then when you need it, I'm you're going to be in trouble.

So start today with that, right?

So some Churches think of this,

there's two ways to deal with the church with when it comes to online.

Some churches are online and the fact that they're just they're thinking about the mall

and they put a sign in the middle of the mall like a kiosk with no person in it.

So that people walk by and they see your ad,

but you're not there. Other churches are doing a way better job of putting a person in the kiosk

and sort of really being online.

They can stop and talk and engage with people that pass by,

but when it comes to online,

giving the idea of just putting a sign up and someone's going to walk by and give it just,

it will not work. Trust me been doing this for decades.

It will not work. So it takes a little bit more quote,

unquote strategy, to learn,

how to speak to people,

and to their hearts and connect the dots.

If you want any help doing this,

you can pick up the phone and call me, but the easiest way is going to creative.

Digital guide.com and clicking on the church's start

here and there's a little webinar

and that webinar will really look through the differences between churches and nonprofits.

And how there are people in Europe, use that are actually can be mature givers.

They're giving a lot, just not to the church

and I help explain this even better than I do here on the podcast and then give you resources,

if you want to go deeper diving into how your church and your flock can be engaged.

So blessings. I will talk to you guys in the next podcast.

Thank you for listening to today's episode of.

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