The 3 M’s of Church Finance Leadership

from The Rocket Company

As leaders, we crave progress. We love it when our church is moving forward, when ministry is happening when people are being saved, and when it just feels like we’ve got momentum.

One component of church leadership is financial. If you’re a senior or lead pastor and you’re reading this, chances are you approve the budget, you make the final decision on what ministry initiatives move forward and which ones don’t, and you speak into whether or not additional staff get hired or not.

It’s a lot of pressure.

So what do you do when giving is “stuck” and progress has screeched to a halt?

Step 1: Change your mindset

• Broke thinking leads to broke churches.

• Symptoms of broke thinking:

  • Broke thinking says your situation is different or unique, so giving isn’t good.

  • Broke thinking is being content with the status quo.

  • Broke thinking refuses to learn and grow.

  • Broke thinking focuses on the amount of last week’s offering.

• Solution: Do something. That fear is based on emotion, not reality.

Step 2: Change your motivation

• Want something FOR your people, not from them.

• Don’t ask people to give 10% without helping them know what to do with the other 90%.

• Do NOT use guilt as a motivator for giving.

• Inspire and equip your people to reach their financial goals, instead of just providing opportunities to help the church do more.

Step 3: Change your methods

• Create a system to follow up with first-time, consistent & high-capacity givers.

• Create a 52-week strategic offering plan for your church.

• Implement and emphasize digital giving and make it easy to give

• Do NOT overwhelm people with mind-numbing facts

• Use stories that show life change