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Nov 05 2020

10 Counterintuitive practices that will improve your stewardship (even during a pandemic)

By Ken Howard

In my more than 25 years in starting new congregations and redeveloping existing ones, I have gained a number of hard-won insights into what makes stewardship successful. These insights are the results of much congregational experimentation and reviewing giving research, and most of them go against the grain of our stewardship traditions. I offer this list ten DOs and DON’Ts below:

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Ken Howard · Tagged: cellphone giving, checks, COVID, economic uncertainty, giving estimate, giving estimates, national public radio, online giving, pandemic, paradoxy, phone giving, pledge, pledges, prayerful discernment, sacrificial giving, stewardship, talent, time, treasure

Jul 02 2020

Upcoming FaithX Webinars (and a discounted offer for attendees)

As we all navigate our way through the perfect storm of the COVID crisis, the systemic racism crisis, and the economic crisis, FaithX has been working on low-cost ways to help faith leaders and their congregations respond nimbly in the present, while preparing effectively for the future. One of the ways we are doing this is through our new monthly webinar series.

These 60-90 minute webinars are designed to provide you the necessary knowledge and practical resources to ground your discernment and ministry planning in data. The following is a list of our upcoming webinars, along with a special discount offer for attendees on FaithX services.

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: COVID-19, FaithX Blog, FaithX News · Tagged: Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, COVID19, economic crisis, economic uncertainty, GIS Technology, Keeping Congregations Connected, MapDash for COVID-19, neighborhood missional assessment, systemic racism, Webinar, webinar series

Feb 13 2020

Acting Outside the Box: Stewardship – Part 2

We are trying out a new occasional blog series in which people doing ministry can talk about outside the box wild ideas for ministry that they have tried and what they learned from them (whether or not the ideas work). We are calling this new series Acting Outside The Box, because just thinking about what’s outside the box is waaaay too passive. Ken Howard kicks off this series with some counter-intuitively productive stewardship strategies he’s run into (stumbled into, really) over the years.


The Power of Paradox
(part 2 in a series)

In last week’s post I talked about the awkwardness of stewardship season and how the use of religiously-loaded language sometimes backfires. I told the story of a formerly unchurched member family taking out a second mortgage to fulfill their pledge after the husband lost his job in the recession because they took the language of “pledge” so seriously.

Speaking of recessions, two of the largest increases in pledging (or should I say “Estimated Giving”) in two different churches I served took place during two rather large recessions.

What accounts for the difference? 

On both occasions, realizing that if we were in their shoes, we would have a lot of hesitation in making financial commitments in uncertain times, we decided that we would talk about the reasons for their potential hesitancy.  

We figured, “in for a penny, in for a pound,” as it were. And so we put all of our cards on the table. 

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Ken Howard · Tagged: Acting Outside the Box, economic uncertainty, giving estimate, Great Recession, Paradox, pledge, pledging, recession, religiously-loaded language, stewardship, Stewardship Dinners, tithe, tithing

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