Cesie Delve Scheuermann of Inspiring Generosity and Julia Frisbie of Faith Foundation Northwest teamed up to teach an interactive class rich with real-world examples from our own episcopal area. 

If you could not make it or would like to watch it again, the recording is available now on demand at the following link: Click here to access this recording.

We often get asked which type of pledge campaign we recommend. There are a lot of options, and one size doesn’t fit all. The D-I-Y approach costs the least money but requires a huge investment of time and energy to be successful. Buying a book and following the program requires the least time and energy. Hiring an outside consultant comes with the highest price tag, but can produce excellent results if leadership devotes significant time and energy to following the recommendations. Read on our top resource picks for each of these three types of pledge campaigns.

December is one of the busiest seasons for church leaders, so it’s easy to put fundraising on the back burner. But the truth is, if you’re not making a year-end-appeal, you’re leaving money on the table.

December is one of the busiest seasons for church leaders, so it’s easy to put fundraising on the back burner. But the truth is, if you’re not making a year-end-appeal, you’re leaving money on the table.

As you plan ahead for stewardship season, we hope you’ll find time to be intentional about celebrating All Saints Day. This is an opportunity to provide pastoral care for families who have lost loved ones, and it’s also a time to lift up and celebrate the ways in which our ministry continues to be enriched by members who have gone on to glory. Done well, it becomes a gentle reminder about the opportunity for bequest giving.

Our friends and colleagues at the Mountain Sky United Methodist Foundation have developed a comprehensive resource for All Saints Day. This resource includes templates for letters to the families of the saints, worship elements, bulletin inserts, and more. You can download it in either PDF or Word:

No one has the pat answer on how to do stewardship in a time of pandemic. But one of the strengths of our church is our connection with each other. Leaning on that connection makes us stronger and wiser as leaders. Instead of listing the usual stewardship resources this year, we’d like to share some samples of what your colleagues have created as a resource for you in planning your church’s stewardship this year. We are thankful for our contributors: Rev. Cara Scriven at Puyallup, Rev. Jeremy Hajdu-Paulen at Tigard, Rev. Peter Perry at Olympia and Rev. Geoff Helton at Audubon Park. You’ll need to consider both your leadership strengths and your congregational culture to help shape your plans, but I hope these resources will be a helpful reference and inspiration. Perhaps an idea will spark that is relevant to your setting!

I recently got one of those emails that I love receiving: “I’m retiring soon and I’d like to set up the person who follows me for success. We still don’t have online giving. Can you help me figure out how to make it happen?”

Let me first say, BRAVO! Not only to tackling online giving, but for being so kind to the person who follows you. Again, BRAVO!

This person also indicated that some folks still weren’t sure that online giving was the way to go.

Here are a four things to remember about the importance and reality of online giving:

When we began this journey with the COVID pandemic late last winter, almost everyone thought we’d be through this by now. We are blessed to have pastors and laity in our churches who have led effectively and learned more about technology and video production than they could ever have imagined. Now, into September, we still, with good reason, are a virtual church and stewardship season is just around the corner. The pastors we’ve talked to are mostly going with a modified version of programs they’ve used in recent years. Some are using components of Herb Miller’s Consecration Sunday (see resources below). Others are using letter writing campaigns and lay testimony shared via letter and perhaps video. Most of the published stewardship curriculum is designed for in-person gatherings and small groups and most of this curriculum can be modified to work online. We list a few…

This month we are praying for pastors who are getting to know new congregations while social distancing. An appointment change can be stressful even without accounting for the physical and emotional strain of the pandemic. On top of everything else, if giving is down due to the lack of in-person worship, new pastors may be forced to address stewardship earlier and more seriously than they might have otherwise.

Cesie Delve-Scheuermann, author of the excellent blog, “Inspiring Generosity,” encourages pastors to “take the bull by the proverbial horns” and face the topic head-on.