There’s got to be a better way to communicate the “why” behind giving at your church. In this podcast, we discuss different strategies and how to overcome the stigma of discussing giving at your church.
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. This podcast is brought to you by Katie Allred and Josh Taylor of churchcommunications.com.
Katie Allred: Welcome to the Church Communications Podcast. Today we are brought to you by Kindrid, so excited to be partnering with them. I have Josh here with me today.
Josh Taylor: Hey Katie.
Katie Allred: We’re excited to talk to you today about effective ways to communicate why people should give to your church.
Josh Taylor: This is fun.
Katie Allred: Yeah, this is so much fun. [crosstalk 00:00:45] Friday.
Josh Taylor: Because there’s ways not to do it and there’s really great ways to do it.
Katie Allred: Right. There’s got to be a better way to communicate the why behind giving at your church. We’re going to figure out the better way.
Josh Taylor: Yeah, let’s figure it out. You guys may have some great suggestions. Feel free to post them in the comments because we’re always up for really good ideas, but we’ve got a few here. One is stories. I think that’s the most impactful way to do it.
Katie Allred: Yeah, and Josh and I might know something about stories.
Josh Taylor: Yes we do.
Katie Allred: Because hopefully by the time this comes out, I will also be a story brand guide.
Josh Taylor: You’ll be a story brand certified guide, along with me and several other folks in this group.
Katie Allred: Right. Yeah. You’ve got a wealth of copyrighting information here in the group.
Josh Taylor: Absolutely.
Katie Allred: Story brand is really just all about gathering good stories, telling the story of your company or your organization, whatever it is. How do we gather good stories?
Josh Taylor: Yeah. What we need to realize is most people wake up every day, they care about their own story. The things that happen around them, they want to know how is this going to fit into my story? While this may be a little bit odd for ministry, and it may be a little bit odd when we talk about missions and things that we’re doing as a part of our churches, one of the ways we want to try to communicate that is why they should be a part of this, why folks in your church should be a part of this. How does this affect their story? We can read throughout scripture that as we’re a part of building God’s kingdom, that does affect our story. That makes a massive difference in our joy, in the joy that we experience in life and the gratefulness that we have for the things around us and the resources that God gives us, ultimately to serve His kingdom and not our own. That’s what stories are about.
Josh Taylor: We want to share stories that people can really relate to. If you’re doing missions, if you’re doing ministry around the world, share those stories. They don’t need to be long stories. In fact, most people don’t want to sit down and listen to really long story.
Katie Allred: Right.
Josh Taylor: But two or three minutes of… If you’re doing a mission trip in a part of the country where you’re in an urban area or something like this, what’s happening there? Why are we going there? What are the people experiencing there? What does the Gospel take? What is the hope that they have in the Gospel? We want to share their stories.
Katie Allred: Yeah. I guess practically speaking, how do we get those stories?
Josh Taylor: A good camera, an iPhone or the like.
Katie Allred: You know what, I don’t think you necessarily always have to… I don’t think you always have to have a good camera. I think you can just take your iPhone and record a short video. I don’t even think you have to always do a video. I think you can do it with a great image, take a good photo. It doesn’t have to be with a great… You can just use your iPhone again, but just record the story. You can record it in text. I think [Humes 00:03:37] of New York does a great job of just sharing stories, but how do you ask the question? What question are you asking? I think that is the better part of how you get a good story is about what question you ask and how you phrase it. You will have to think about that for your certain circumstance, but what story are you trying to tell?
Katie Allred: If you’re trying to pitch, you have a big giving initiative coming up, maybe it’s a capital campaign, right, you’re trying to build a new church building. Perhaps you have someone whose been in your congregation for years, right. You have maybe just a older members who maybe saw the church when it was planted, right, and they were part of the original building fund. How cool would it be to ask them, “Why did you give back in the ’60s to build this church?” Why do you think it’s important that we continue to build? Why do think this area is strategically positioned to share the Gospel with this community? I think figuring out ways and finding the right people to ask those questions to is a big part of it. It’s making the ask of the person, but also finding the right person.
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’s offering a totally free, zero dollar 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, 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 _K-I-N-D-R-I-D and 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 Es out, just the Is where you think there might be Es. Go to kindrid.com/churchcommunications to join.
Josh Taylor: Like Kindrid, we believe generosity is one of the most powerful ways to spread 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 so don’t wait. Tweet @_kindrid, _K-I-N-D-R-I-D or go to kindrid.com/churchcommunications to save thousands on your online giving.
Josh Taylor: With these stories, there’s often a framework that I use. There’s usually three questions that I ask that I want to get answered in these stories. If I’ve got a testimonial that I’m trying to get from somebody of… For example, my wife is from Port St. Joe, Florida. They got devastated by Hurricane Michael last year and there’s still a lot of rebuilding there. There have been a lot of churches going down and helping the churches there rebuild, helping the community rebuild. If I was going down there and I wanted to bring back to our church, here’s what we’re able to do and here’s the blessing that we are to the people in this community, I’m going to go the Pastor at my in-laws church and say, “What were you guys experiencing? What was on your hearts and your minds when all of this was happening, when you wake up the next morning and just everything is decimated? What were these churches able to come in and do and help you guys with? What are you experiencing now?”
Josh Taylor: They’ll probably say things like, “We’ve just been so encouraged by the people that have coming. We have seen so much progress in rebuilding our communities. Folks are being feed and getting the resources they need to rebuilt their houses and feed their children,” whatever it might be. Those are the three that I want to figure out. What was the problem you had? What did we help you do? What are you experiencing now?
Katie Allred: Right. Yeah.
Josh Taylor: It doesn’t have to be those exact questions, but that context. I think we’re really-
Katie Allred: Yeah, that’s super practical. I think that’s really easy and something that you can definitely apply to your church right now.
Josh Taylor: Yeah. That’s the framework that I use. These are, like Katie said, sharing images on especially Instagram, using an image and just giving a quick story of that person.
Katie Allred: Yeah, figure out ways to share it on social media so that can send it throughout the week. I would even a special time on a Sunday morning from the pulpit, if you get them to share live, I think is also just as special as making a video about it. But figuring out ways that you can extend it throughout the week, of taking photos, of sharing video, just reminding people about why we’re giving and who we’re giving to, I think just really encourages people to live a life of stewardship.
Josh Taylor: Yeah. One of the things that we have here is like a ministry mission’s fair. One of the things that we did at the church I was at, we supported a lot of parachurch organizations in the community. We would have them come one night. They would set up like a fair, like a job fair. They would have their tables and displays. One of the things that it would do is it would allow them to recruit volunteers from our church, which is always great, but it would also… We would give them an opportunity to talk about their ministry in front of everyone. They would have maybe five minutes to talk about what they were doing in the community. It would get other people either really excited what they were doing or first time hearing about, “Wow, I didn’t even know this organization existed.”
Katie Allred: Right. Right. Because giving isn’t just about money, it’s also about time.
Josh Taylor: Yes.
Katie Allred: Right.
Josh Taylor: And honestly, I think if you can get people to volunteer, you’re more likely to get them to give.
Katie Allred: Yeah. If you can get them to give their time, then they’ll be more likely to give their resources.
Josh Taylor: Yeah and that’s where I would start. If you’re trying to edge people into giving and being good stewards of their resources, teach them to be good stewards of their time first because I promise you, people that are not volunteering most likely are not giving financially. A lot of your volunteers are probably more wiling to give financially if they were more aware of the needs and were challenged to do that.
Katie Allred: So what shouldn’t we do when we’re trying to effectively communicate giving at our church?
Josh Taylor: Make sure-
Katie Allred: This is always my favorite.
Josh Taylor: If you’re going to ask for something… If you’re going to have a project, maybe it’s a building project, maybe it’s we need a bus or we need a van, make sure your why resonates with people.
Katie Allred: Right.
Josh Taylor: Here’s an example. We all know about this. We see it going around. We’ve got the 60 million or 160 million dollar jets that people are asking for-
Katie Allred: Pastors might buy or preachers with [inaudible 00:10:19].
Josh Taylor: They think they have a very practical and very spiritual why and here’s their why, they don’t want to get in this long tube full of demons.
Katie Allred: Right.
Josh Taylor: How can they do ministry that way to travel all across the world? Well, that resonates with about zero percent of people in our churches. That’s not a very good why so make sure your why is… If you need a bus, what are you using that bus for? We are bringing disabled people. We’re going around and picking them up. We’re going around and picking children whose parents don’t come to church. We’re going to pick them up. We’re getting people to the church and getting involved. You may have some really great whys. Make sure that whatever your why is resonates with the people and it makes sense.
Katie Allred: Or the bus helps us save money. I mean, ultimately over time, it makes us… I mean, it makes financial sense.
Josh Taylor: It could be… Those are very practical. They can be very practical whys or they can be very good spiritual whys-
Katie Allred: But you need to explain it.
Josh Taylor: Just make sure they make sense and let people know why. We’re not just buying a bus because we want to have a cool bus wrapped with our name all over it. It helps us save money or it helps us do ministry, whatever it might be, but don’t just say, “Hey guys, we need a new bus,” because most of the people in there are like, “Why?”
Katie Allred: Yeah. I just want to take to take a moment to shout out to Kenny, who gave us a practical tip of sharing an infographic with your church via an email, just talking about your giving and where it goes and who it affects. I think we don’t use enough infographics in the church. You could print it and put it on the bulletin, stuff it into the bulletin or something. Just making an infographic just talking about your giving and where it’s going, some pie charts. People love some graphs and stuff every once in a while.
Josh Taylor: Canva’s a great place to do that [crosstalk 00:11:58].
Katie Allred: Yeah, it’s so easy. It’s free for non-profits. You can sign up.
Josh Taylor: Yeah, I would totally agree with that great input Kenny.
Katie Allred: Yeah well, I think that’s everything.
Josh Taylor: No, that’s good. If you got other ideas on how you’ve helped people invest in your ministry and shared their stories, we’d love to hear them.
Katie Allred: Yeah. Leave us a comment, shoot us a Tweet, Tweet us, and just let us know if there’s any other ways that you have effectively communicated about giving in your church because we’d love to just learn more. You can join us on churchcommunications.com. You can find us on the Church Communications Facebook group. Thanks for hanging out with us today.
Josh Taylor: Bye.
Katie Allred: Our friends at Kindrid are being crazy generous. If you Tweet @_kindrid, again that is @_K-I-N-D-R-I-D, _kindrid, and tell them why you need a church app, they’ll make sure you get one of those too 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. We would love for you to leave a five star review on iTunes.
