Inaugural Stewardship Survey 2022 - Findings and Recommendations
We’ve witnessed considerable changes in church attendance, demographics, and giving since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though these changes have been challenging, we also believe there are great opportunities ahead if the right steps are taken. CSN, in collaboration with Vision 2, has initiated a Stewardship Survey to understand what churches are dealing with and to develop recommendations and resources to help churches navigate this new normal. In this episode of Stewardship Leader, we discuss our findings and provide recommendations in 8 specific areas for stewardship and generosity ministries.
New Normal (attendance and giving are down) - but there's hope.
Though attendance and giving are down, some churches are seeing new growth.
Churches need to Embrace these new members - not engage them in the same way
The new normal includes a digital-first group.
Need to be more specific and thoughtful of the process of engaging digital-first attendees. For many, the focus has shifted from gathering in person to how to recreate digitally. There’s a growing awareness of this, but churches need to invest in making it happen.
Due to the challenges of this new normal, it’s important to have an annual stewardship plan (or checklist) to communicate content and equip all groups of givers.
1. Stewardship vs. Generosity
As discussed in the webinar - both are about more than money.
Our survey results showed that for larger churches, stewardship (financial discipling) was a top priority over simply focusing on giving amounts and budgetary concerns. Smaller churches were more likely to focus on giving amounts due to financial challenges.
Stewardship is not a campaign, it is about a relationship with God - Gal 2:20 .
Every decision in life is a stewardship decision. Our time, talents, and treasure aren’t ours. Are my decisions about me or thinking through how to fulfill my role as a follower of Christ?
Generosity is how we respond to the needs around us. A generous person demonstrates that characteristic across every aspect of their life.
While churches need to focus on holistically building financial discipleship in all areas, for our purposes today...we’re focusing on financial stewardship.
Because Finances are the clearest indicator of whether we’re building God’s kingdom or our own.
Are we helping members embrace stewardship and generosity?
OUR RECOMMENDATION: Do both! But prioritize stewardship of givers’ relationship with God over giving amounts. Even smaller churches and church plants stretched thin financially should skew toward this intention.
2. What should we be doing and on what schedule, whether we have a dedicated stewardship role or not?
During Webinar Poll, we asked, “Do you see the value in a dedicated stewardship role?
Overwhelmingly “yes.” (Out of 122 respondents, only 3 said “no”)
Is this a role for one person who does this, or does only this?
Definition: A dedicated, strategic FOCUS by one or more staff/leaders - can be a full-time or PT role, shared role, or one aspect of someone’s other role.
Easier with a dedicated role – (even if one or more people are assigned to different responsibilities).
You can’t measure what isn’t defined. Who is the person accountable for doing this? Someone needs to own it.
Nearly half of both sized groups see stewardship and generosity as shared responsibility across the leadership team.
Webinar Feedback: “Even with a set role, stewardship and generosity need to be a shared concept throughout the team and a heart everyone shares.”
We listed 3 main roles of a stewardship pastor: Managing top donors, ministering generosity, and teaching financial discipleship.
The survey showed that large churches are more focused on education over general messaging on giving and are more likely to have a dedicated stewardship role than smaller churches.
Webinar Poll: Responsibilities of Stewardship Role (76 responses) - added option to choose “all of the above”:
A. Teaching financial principles = 23 (30%)
B. Ministering Generosity = 14 (19%)
C. Managing Top Donors = 4 (5%)
D. All of the above = 35 (46%)
For the 50% of small and 32% of large churches with no stewardship role, we wondered, are churches not focused on stewardship education...or do they just lack a more in-depth plan which would include someone overseeing it? Having a program based rather than process-driven ministry approach.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
While having one person responsible for this role as their sole job is ideal, a full-time Stewardship Pastor isn’t always within reach. However, a stewardship strategy cannot be successful without someone owning it. That could be accomplished with the following:
A part-time Stewardship Pastor .
A team with specific responsibilities assigned.
A current leader who adds stewardship oversight to their responsibilities.
Note: The Senior Pastor should be involved.
Education should include the following:
Resources (administer or point to).
Reporting.
Acknowledgments.
3. What can we learn from the survey data about goal setting for stewardship and generosity?
These are 2 different goals. The survey revealed:
Large churches were more likely to emphasize increasing discipleship over increasing giving.
Smaller churches were more likely to focus on increasing giving.
Even for new churches or church plants that are in survival mode and focusing on giving, building strong stewardship from day one is critical to the church’s health.
We need to balance education on financial discipleship (stewardship) and giving (generosity) – we NEED BOTH!
Two drivers to increase generosity
Describe impact
Members’ Giving Capacity
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
Set Specific goals:
Number of people to go through financial training this year
New givers (and how to engage them)
Weekend message
Discipleship program on giving
Demonstrating Impact
It’s best to use more than one approach to increase engagement (i.e. attend a class)
Define 3-4 top-giving metrics to watch
Giving frequency and consistency
Gift Amount
Overall total
Increase household giving participation (not just gift amounts)
4. Developing a communication strategy from the survey data and feedback.
Education was the top response for both groups.
52% of smaller church and 41% of larger church survey respondents described their messaging as “random throughout the year.” (Unclear if “random” refers to the messages themselves or the timing)
Either way, communication strategy must be intentional, not random.
Not “give us money” but “here’s what we're trying to do this year” (ministry impact AND disciple members.)
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
An annual approach is more likely to grow stewardship and provide the engagement that inspires your members to give without conveying a message of obligation:
Start communications at the beginning of the year.
Promote some seasonal opportunities. (i.e., Giving Tuesday)
What is the consistent message for the rest of the year?
Talk about the church’s goals for ministry and the impacts from it throughout the year.
When you’re assimilating new members, stewardship should be part of it – but incrementally. (ex: Central asks first-time givers to give to the foodbank: Impact, no pressure to support a church they don’t know)
Year-end evaluation
Compile all your giving and stewardship data and share results with your leadership team as you plan for next year’s strategy.
If participation was low, how can you better communicate the benefits and impact of the education? Always remember to focus messaging around impact, perhaps with testimonials of those who did participate.
If participation was encouraging, consider the next level of education to begin implementing.
Poll your members: “How well do you think the church is doing in stewarding the resources we are given?” It’s easier to talk about and better than just measuring the money. It reveals how well you are discipling and moving people in their journey.
5. What makes financial curriculum good/acceptable, and how to evaluate its effectiveness for my church?
The challenge of finding the right curriculum was a top write-in concern of our survey respondents and webinar attendees.
Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet or perfect approach. We can become polarized and reject what’s out there because of what’s missing. (i.e., financial education isn’t spiritual enough; discipleship education isn’t practical enough.)
People get polarized and reject resources because of what they don’t have. (i.e., FPU “not spiritual enough,” Compass Small Group Study “not practical enough”) - Don’t allow bias to cloud your judgment on whether a curriculum will work or not.
Part of your strategy will be to find the curriculum that best fits your stewardship approach. You may have to combine programs or tie a practical program to biblical principles yourself.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
Existing or Create Your Own Content
It’s better to use existing resources than create your own because it is so much work to build your own .
Get something off the shelf. It may not be perfect, but you can figure out how to make it effective for your church.
If I had to pick an average program vs. building my own, I would be better off buying vs. starting from scratch.
How to evaluate what resources/content to use?
Focus on discipleship.
Know it will never be perfect because people are at different stages of the journey.
It’s not the curriculum’s job to tie into the Bible. We need to think about how to wrap the curriculum around the church (stewardship role) and how to bring members along in the curriculum.
It all can be effective in some way. The challenge is members are at different points in their steward journey, so you have to figure out how to best equip members to go further on the journey.
Let go of the idea of the “perfect curriculum.”
6. What are the most important metrics to track?
Nearly 25% of both groups have no reporting or insights on generosity trends. Whether large or small, that is like trying to steer a ship without a compass. Result:
Lack of insight into the health of the church and individuals.
Lack of planning for the impact of economic downturns.
Lack of planning for growth.
How can you budget and plan when you don’t know what has happened and what is coming?
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
This is what you should be measuring:
Always look at Household vs. individual measures.
Frequency first, then total giving – Frequency is a better measure of trends.
Be careful about weekly reporting, as recurring means weekly numbers go down. Weekly is important but not as effective as it used to be. (It’s more “anecdotal”)
Monthly is best for insight.
Use Recurring for forecasting.
3 metrics to measure the effectiveness of your stewardship strategy:
How many people have gone through training?
How many attending households are giving?
What is the frequency of their giving? (irregular, regular, recurring, etc.)
7. Why track major gifts and how to use that info?
How do we engage and acknowledge the most generous?
You must acknowledge their generosity, or they will stop giving.
They require a more personal touch (i.e., conversations with Sr. Pastor, lunch with the Stewardship Pastor, etc.)
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS:
Always connect their gifts to impact.
Common missed opportunities with top donors include:
Getting them involved before the kick-off of a large campaign. Their buy-in will help others buy-in.
Discipling them because giving is not just about their money. They need spiritual growth (overcoming pride, ego, control, etc.), and this is often the avenue that can be used to help them grow.
Capturing testimonies - Generous Giving and Gospel Patrons are two ministries that have consistently proven that generosity stories inspire and motivate people to trust God more and give more.
8. A digital-first approach - How do we educate, resource, and build community among those who don’t or can’t visit the church in person?
Overnight, the pandemic made digital church a reality for more churches than ever. Our survey indicated that ~90% of large churches and ~84% of smaller churches have implemented live streaming. However, the majority of respondents reported little to no tracking of views.
With post-COVID attendance hovering at 50% for many churches, we must create a strategy that includes those who don’t, won’t, or can’t attend worship or educational opportunities in person.
We must think about ways to build community among digital-first attendees.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
Whatever strategies are implemented for stewardship education must include an investment in a digital-first approach, including:
Communication (content, channels, and frequency) .
Giving opportunities (incl. during live stream).
Reporting.
Online education.
5 Key Takeaways
Healthy stewardship in a congregation won’t happen by accident. The foundation of a strong culture of stewardship and generosity is established through leadership's strategy, resources, and intent.
1.Leaders must understand the difference between stewardship and generosity.
Defining these different but related biblical concepts is critical to effectively motivating leaders and members to take steps to grow both individually and as a body in these areas.
2. Churches of all sizes can benefit from an intentional stewardship and communication strategy.
Stewardship and generosity can be taught and nurtured through education, consistent messaging across leadership, and some level of staffing focus dedicated to this ministry (full or part-time).
3. Strategy intent matters.
To be effective, stewardship goals must prioritize the biblical intention of stewardship (a growing trust and commitment toward God), not simply the church's financial/budgetary concerns.
4. Data can be an essential guide to effectively growing stewardship.
Actionable insights and personalized communication (possible at scale only through data analytics) enable leadership to engage with and minister to members.
5. The times call for both an in-person and online approach to engaging your members.
Economic shifts and demographic changes demand a more diverse approach to engagement.
Conclusion
As we continue building out this exploration, we would love to hear from churches that have made intentional changes or put a deeper focus on their stewardship strategy and what the outcome was.
Call to Action:
Access to the Stewardship Survey and Resource Page
Please send your success stories or additional questions to: info@christianstewardshipnetwork.com
Vision2 is a giving solution that facilitates generosity and supports stewardship efforts.
CSN helps churches to not only understand how generosity and stewardship intersect but also provide resources for growing stewardship as God intended.