Join us, Katie Allred and Josh Taylor, as we talk about giving—it’s awkward to talk about but we need to talk about it. In this podcast, we discuss what would happen if people did or didn’t give and why you should discuss giving with your congregation and how.
Our friends at Kindrid are being crazy generous. If you Tweet @_Kindrid and tell them why you need a church app, they’ll make sure you get one of those too. Did you hear that? Online giving AND a church app—FREE. Just tweet @_Kindrid and tell them why you need a church app.
For more information, be sure to click here! http://bit.ly/2GIA1JH
Transcript
Katie Allred: Welcome to the Church Communications Podcast, a podcast that celebrates church communicators that are around the world. Our podcast offers practical advice for your church communication strategy needs. And this podcast is brought to you by Katie Allred and Josh Taylor of ChurchCommunications.com.
Katie Allred: Welcome to the Church Communications Podcast. Excited today to talk to you about giving. We’re actually going to start a whole series this season that we’re really excited to talk to you, to bring to you, via our sponsor Kindrid. Today, we are discussing why you shouldn’t be afraid to talk about giving in your church, which is always an awkward conversation, Josh.
Josh Taylor: Yes.
Katie Allred: And I’m excited today to be joined today by Josh Taylor. I’m Katie Allred. We’re going to go ahead and just jump into the conversations.
Josh Taylor: Let’s do it.
Katie Allred: All right. I think the first question that we always have when we’re talking about giving in general is, why are churches afraid to talk about giving? What is it about giving that makes it so awkward?
Josh Taylor: Like you said, it is awkward. Oftentimes, we’re afraid to talk about it because we don’t know how to talk about it, which often is the reason why it can be awkward. We’re afraid it might offend people. Sometimes it does offend people.
Josh Taylor: It’s one of those subjects where you’ve got to sort of be delicate about it. Some churches make no apologies, and they go right into it and talk about it, and do a great job with it. I was at a church where I was very careful in talking about it and how we talked about it. In fact, for years, we never talked about it. Then we started to realize how important it was to actually talk about it.
Katie Allred: Yeah, I think it really just… It is all about the setup and explaining the why behind the giving. I think if you just simply ask, you just have to set it up in the correct way in how you pitch it, I guess.
Katie Allred: I love the way that we did it at the church I was working at in Nashville. They would always just set up this great vision for why we are giving and who we were supporting and then do the ask, instead of just going directly into “Now it’s time for tithes and offerings.”
Josh Taylor: Yeah. The ask, and how you ask, is so important, like you said, laying out that vision, here’s the why, why we’re doing this, and being transparent about what you spend your money on. Especially when it comes to ministry and missions and what you’re doing in the community, what you’re doing around the world, a lot of us don’t talk about that enough. We assume a lot of times that people just know because they’re listening to our announcements or they’re watching our social media posts, but there’s a lot of people in our churches that don’t know how active we are in our communities, and it takes resources to do that. They would probably be more inclined to give if they really knew what the church was a part of and what the resources that were needed to do that.
Katie Allred: Yeah. Just a great resource for y’all is to check out Start With Why by Simon Sinek. I think that if you just start with the why, then people are more than game to join the vision and to give. I think you just have to explain why you’re doing it in the first place.
Katie Allred: I went to a church just last week, and it was really fun. At the end, they said, “We have a store. We have coffee cups and mugs and all this stuff.” And I was like-
Josh Taylor: Why?
Katie Allred: Why? Yeah. I was like, “What?” I felt like Jesus was about to come in there and turn over some tables. Then at the very end they said, “And all of the money goes to missions.” I’m like, “Why didn’t you start with that first?”
Katie Allred: They totally lost my friend. She did not even know, because she was so upset that they were pitching that they had a store for their swag, that she completely didn’t listen to the rest of the message that said this is for world missions, that she completely just tuned it out and then just left upset, when the the entire time… This was our first visit. It’s a big first impression.
Katie Allred: The entire time, she had been really okay, really enjoying this church, being a skeptical person of churches, and then at the very end to have “We have all this sweet swag,” she was like, “Oh my gosh.” She totally just looked at me like, “What?” and she just tuned out the rest of it. When we were walking to the parking lot, she was like, “I can’t believe that they were doing…” I was like, “It was for missions. They were giving the profits.” She was like, “Oh, well, why didn’t they say that?” I’m like, “You didn’t listen.”
Josh Taylor: They did, as a P.S.
Katie Allred: Right. You just didn’t hear, yeah, the whole last part.
Josh Taylor: That’s so applicable, because we talk about things like this. We’ll do fundraisers and different things, even weekly fundraisers. One of the things that I tell my ministry leadership students is, if churches can afford it, give away free coffee on Sunday mornings because it’s a great icebreaker. It’s a lot easier to have a conversation with somebody when you have something in your hand. It makes people feel more comfortable.
Josh Taylor: Hey, do you want an online giving solution that inspires generosity without blowing your church budget?
Katie Allred: Of course I do.
Josh Taylor: Well, Kindrid is offering a totally free, $0 per month online giving account and a church app for all Church Communications listeners. This is an exclusive deal just for you. You get it online, an online giving portal plus a church app for free.
Katie Allred: This is a special offer, so you have to act fast. All right? So do it right now. Go get on your phone. Go get on your desktop. Do it right now. All you need to do is tweet @_Kindrid. That’s underscore K-I-N-D-R-I-D. Tell them why you want giving and a church app for free. Or you can go to kindrid.com. Again, that is K-I-N-D-R-I-D, not E-D. Throw all the E’s out. Just the I’s where you think there might be E’s. Go to kindrid.com/churchcommunications to join.
Josh Taylor: Like Kindrid, we believe generosity is one of the most powerful witnesses for the Gospel that we can have. It transforms communities. That’s why they created this deal. They make it affordable for you to equip 100% of your church to participate in your vision.
Katie Allred: Remember that this offer won’t last long. You have to act on it now. Don’t wait. Tweet @_Kindrid, underscore K-I-N-D-R-I-D, or go to kindrid.com/churchcommunications, to save thousands on your online giving.
Josh Taylor: My wife and I have been visiting a church that you have to pay a dollar for a cup of coffee, and that bugged me at first. I have some of the students that go to that church, and I asked them, “Does that money go somewhere?” They said, yeah, it all goes to missions. I was like, “They need to communicate that.”
Josh Taylor: I’m fine with churches charging for a cup of coffee or charging for whatever if the money’s going somewhere. I’m fine paying a dollar for a cup of coffee if I know the money’s going to missions or something like that. Otherwise, if it’s just going back into the coffee budget to pay for more coffee every Sunday, you can afford to give away 15-cent cups of coffee.
Katie Allred: It’s just explaining the why.
Josh Taylor: Yeah. Let people know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it. The reality is when you explain your why, and a lot of people don’t talk about this, but your why is here’s the problem we’re trying to solve. If your why is we’re building wells in Africa or something like that, here’s why. People are thirsty. There’s not clean water. If we’re going to do a mission trip in Bosnia, here’s why. People need to hear the Gospel in these places.
Josh Taylor: This is what we’re doing in these areas. This is why we’re doing it. This is why we’re raising money, because here’s the problem we’re trying to solve.
Katie Allred: Which I think is a good leeway into the question of, what’s at stake if people don’t give?
Josh Taylor: Yeah. And obviously, ministry, being able to do the things that-
Katie Allred: Your whole ministry-
Josh Taylor: … we’re trying to do.
Katie Allred: … is at stake if people don’t give.
Josh Taylor: Yeah. One of the things… We figured this out at the church I was on staff at recently. Our church had grown in, honestly, in just a few months. We had grown exponentially, like 76%. We had been in existence for just over 10 years, and then all of a sudden we just hit this growth spurt because of different marketing ideas that we did and getting out of our own way.
Josh Taylor: The point is we were growing so quickly, but our giving was not growing, just our attendance. What we realized is if we continue to grow numerically, but our giving doesn’t, we’re not going to be able to sustain this growth. And we never talked about giving because we wanted to be a church for skeptics, where skeptics were comfortable coming to. One of the number one things that skeptics don’t like about church is they’re always asking for money.
Josh Taylor: But we had to make a decision we’re going to talk about money and talk about giving. We were just very strategic in how we talked about it. But once we did it, everything changed and our giving started to go up, and we were able to sustain the growth that was happening.
Katie Allred: Which I think, too, just coming at it from a point of stewardship, right? This is just good stewardship. This is what God requires of us and asks of us. And the more we do it, the more we know that God will continue to see us through. I don’t think blessing us is the right means. I think that when people say, “Well, I gave $100 to my church, and I got a $200 back,” I don’t think that’s the right mindset because I don’t know if that’s necessarily how God will continue to support you, if it was financial. But I think that God does see it, and He will continue to bless you. It’s just figuring out ways to communicate that so that people understand what stewardship really means.
Josh Taylor: Well, and the reality is your church has been called to to serve in a unique way in your community, wherever you are. It’s not just the staff that have been called to do that. It’s not just the pastor that’s been called to do that. It’s your church body. And in order to do that, you need the resources to do it.
Josh Taylor: One of the things that we would always say at our church, because we just decided at the very beginning we were never going to go into debt, that we believed if God was going to call us to do something, He would give us the resources to do it. And that would be through the obedience of the people in the church to catch onto that vision and realize that this is something we’re all called to do, not just the paid staff or the elders or whoever it might be. So we need to challenge our churches, in order to do the mission that God has put in front of us, it’s going to take resources, and God gives us those resources so that we can be on mission for His kingdom.
Katie Allred: I guess our challenge to other churches, just to think about giving in a more holistic way. How can we set up the vision? How can we set up the pitch from the pulpit on Sunday morning? How can we see it through through the rest of the week, through giving through the rest of the week? Then just what can we challenge people believe about what would happen if more people did give?
Josh Taylor: Yeah. What I would do, the first thing is figure out, as a staff, as your pastoral team and your staff, what is the best way to talk about giving as it fits to our personality of the church? Then what I always like to do is, really, what you talked about earlier, is saying to people, “Here’s what we’re doing. Here’s the ministry that we’re doing. Here’s how we’re using these resources to take the Gospel to different places in our community and around the world.”
Josh Taylor: Highlight those stories. Talk about those stories. Talk about the life change that’s happening. Talk about the problems that you’re able to solve because of the ministry you’re able to do. Then speak to people as if they’re already giving, and just thank them for being a part of that.
Josh Taylor: That’s worked for us, one, because it helps us be a little bit more genuine and show more gratitude, because I don’t think it’s very becoming for us to get up there and either beg people to give or try to make people guilty. There may be a time where we need to have a harsh message message about giving, because Malachi held nothing back when he was talking about that. But when you can have this attitude of… I hate to say attitude of gratitude.
Katie Allred: The attitude of gratitude.
Josh Taylor: There’s no other way to say it. If you can have the attitude of gratitude and just thank people for being a part of this, I truly believe that if you talk to people as if they’re already giving, a lot of people are going to rise to the challenge, because a lot of them just either haven’t been challenged or it just hasn’t been a discipline that they’ve put into practice yet.
Katie Allred: Right. We do know the Pareto law, that I think goes into place here, that 20% of people in the church give, and 80%.
Josh Taylor: On a good day.
Katie Allred: Yeah, and that 80% do not, so 20% is really carrying the 80. So how can we just challenge them, challenge the 80%, to become givers, I think, is what we’re going to explore during the season.
Josh Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. We’re going to talk about how you can share stories, how you can put the vision and the message of what you’re doing in the community in front of your folks and encourage them to be a part of what you’re doing. It’s going to be a good season.
Katie Allred: Yeah. Well, thanks for joining us today for the Church Communications Podcast. You can find us at churchcommunications.com. You can find us in iTunes. You can leave us a nice five-star review if you feel like it. You can also find us as Church Communications Facebook Group. Thanks for joining us today.
Josh Taylor: Bye.
Katie Allred: Our friends at Kindrid are being crazy generous. If you tweet @_Kindrid, again that is @ underscore K-I-N-D-R-I-D, underscore Kindrid, and tell them why you need a church app, they’ll make sure you get one of those two for free. Okay? Did you hear that? Online giving and a church app for free. Just tweet @_Kindrid and tell them why you need a church app. Go and do it now. What are you waiting for?
Josh Taylor: Hey, thanks for listening to the Church Communications Podcast with Katie Allred and myself, Josh Taylor. If you like our show and want to know more about us, check out our website, churchcommunications.com. You can also join us on our Facebook group; just search for Church Communications on Facebook. And we would love for you to leave a five-star review on iTunes.
