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    The Church Money Manual: Best Practices for Finance and Stewardship
    The Church Money Manual: Best Practices for Finance and Stewardship
    The Church Money Manual: Best Practices for Finance and Stewardship
    Ebook119 pages2 hours

    The Church Money Manual: Best Practices for Finance and Stewardship

    By Dr. J. Clif Christopher

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    About this ebook

    The Church Money Manual is the most up-to-date and easy-to-use handbook for churches seeking better ways to manage finances. Brief and straightforward chapters each focus on a specific problem or issue. The book covers topics of day-to-day operation and the perennially critical themes related to church money management and stewardship.

    Some examples include:
    · Planned giving and endowment funds.
    · Strategies to increase end-of-year giving.
    · First steps for the newly-appointed pastor.
    · Pastors’ knowledge of donors and giving in their church.
    · Timing of building projects and capital campaigns.
    · Special offerings.
    · Selecting members for the finance committee.
    · What to do when giving is down.
    · Preaching about tithing.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateJul 15, 2014
    ISBN9781426796586
    The Church Money Manual: Best Practices for Finance and Stewardship
    Author

    Dr. J. Clif Christopher

    Christopher founded the Horizons Stewardship Company in 1992 following a challenging career in pastoral ministry. He serves as the company’s CEO to this day. In his twenty years as a pastor, he led numerous major building and capital campaigns. Since founding Horizons, he and his strategists have led consultations in over 2,000 churches, conferences, synods and diocese in all phases of building, finance, and church growth raising billions of dollars for ministry. Christopher is a certified church growth consultant and has earned the coveted title CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive). In 1995, he was given the National Circuit Rider Award by the United Methodist Church for outstanding leadership in developing vital congregations. He has personally worked in over 42 states and is a frequent speaker at stewardship seminars around the country. He is the co-author of the book Holy Smoke, the author of Not Your Parents’

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    • 5/5
      Very practical and insightful. I sure have a lot change about the financial system of our organization.

    Book preview

    The Church Money Manual - Dr. J. Clif Christopher

    9781426796579_cover.jpg

    Halftitle page

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    Other Abingdon Press Titles

    Other Abingdon Press Titles by J. Clif Christopher

    Not Your Parents’ Offering Plate: A New Vision for Financial Stewardship

    Whose Offering Plate Is It? New Strategies for Financial Stewardship

    Rich Church, Poor Church: Keys to Effective Financial Ministry

    Title Page

    16403.png

    Copyright

    THE CHURCH MONEY MANUAL:

    BEST PRACTICES FOR FINANCE AND STEWARDSHIP

    Copyright © 2014 by Abingdon Press

    All rights reserved.

    No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Permissions, Abingdon Press, P.O. Box 801, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202-0801 or permissions@umpublishing.org.

    This book is printed on acid-free paper.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Christopher, J. Clif.

      The church money manual : best practices for finances and stewardship / J. Clif Christopher.

          1 online resource.

      Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

      ISBN 978-1-4267-9658-6 (epub)—ISBN 978-1-4267-9657-9 (pbk., trade, binding; soft back : alk. paper) 1. Church finance. I. Title.

      BV770

      254´8.—dc23

    2014016959

    Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    Scripture quotations noted CEB are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by the Common English Bible. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.CommonEnglishBible.com.

    Disclaimer: All personal names in this book have been changed.

    14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

    MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

    Dedication

    To the Reverend Doctor Ed Robertson, LTC, USAF (retired), my father-in-law and one of the most amazing men I ever met. He flew over forty different aircraft during World War II, surviving two crashes and countless near misses. He was the only surviving member of his pilot training class. He retired to attend seminary, founding a church that grew to one of the strongest in his state because he went door-to-door sharing the gospel and inviting people to come. He officiated his last baptism at age ninety-one from his hospice bed. He raised four amazing children who carry on his incredible legacy today. He has risen to touch the face of God! Well done, Reverend Doctor Colonel Robertson. May I someday leave half the legacy upon this earth that you have left.

    Contents

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    Introduction

    The State of the Church and Finance

    It Is Not the Economy, Stupid!

    Capital Campaigns and Building Committees

    To Build It Now or Later

    Build It, Then Fund It?

    Building Committee Mistakes

    Debt

    Debt Ratios

    Debt and Capital Campaigns

    Pastors’ Knowledge of Donors and Money

    Pastors, Know Your Numbers

    The Secrecy Sham

    More Knowledge = Better Decisions

    Large Gifts, Endowments, and Planned Giving

    Planned Giving and Endowment Basics

    Endowment Policy and Documents

    Avoiding Competition between Planned and Regular Giving

    Planning (and Asking) for Legacy Gifts

    Why the Church Must Make Its Case

    The Church’s Expectations of Its Members

    The Motivation to Give

    Why (and How) to Expect More of Members

    Last-Quarter Planning

    Financial Basics for the Next Year

    New Year’s Resolutions for Every Year

    A Strategy to Increase Year-End Giving

    Doom-Saying

    Why Doom-Saying Does Not Work

    Helpful Alternatives to Doom and Gloom

    The Power of Purpose

    Be Impactful

    Why Cool Doesn’t Rule

    Easter as an Opportunity for Purpose-Based Giving

    Why Are We Here?

    Untapped Potential for Positive Change

    Setting the Budget on Purpose

    Tithing and How to Lead It

    The Ninety-Day Tithing Challenge

    Your Tithe and Your Heart

    Help for the Hard Times

    What to Do If First-Quarter Giving Is Down

    Times of Trial

    Other Topics

    First Steps for the Newly Appointed Pastor

    What Pastors Learn from Members

    Best Practices for Money Handling in the Twenty-First Century

    Bonds: The Basics and the Problems

    Your Members and Their Taxes

    Before You Fix, Examine Your Foundation

    The Power of Saying Thanks

    When Members Threaten to Withhold

    Two Things I See in Churches with Great Giving

    Selecting Members and Leaders for Your Finance Team

    How to Begin Your Yearly Budget

    Special Offerings on Christmas Eve

    Postscript on a New Perspective

    Recommended Reading

    Introduction

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    The Church Money Manual is a book unlike any I have ever written. Generally my writing style is to sit down and just write. I go at it frantically day and night for several weeks, roll it all together, and send it to the editor to finalize, bind, and put on shelves. This book came together over a period of years. Some pieces were written over a few days and then nothing would be written for months. I just wrote as I felt a need to communicate something important about finances to the churches I serve. The vast majority of these articles were initially mailed out as newsletter articles to several thousand subscribers who asked Horizons Stewardship, the company I founded, to send it to them. Then we graduated to blog posts on our website.

    Regardless of how the articles were distributed, they were practically all done in response to something that had happened to me in the course of speaking to or working with churches. As I heard the question or experienced the issue, it would occur to me that many others might profit from hearing how I responded. So I would return to the office and write about it in a short, to-the-point kind of format. There is very little research data quoted here and only a couple of instances do I reference a book or speaker for an opinion. These pieces are, in most instances, just my answers or ideas on particular issues that I have experienced.

    This is real stuff. In these pages you will find comments on debt and the evil that it can be for way too many churches. I’ll explore what happens when pastors don’t know who the church’s donors are and why running around saying that the church is about to die will only expedite said death. You will see pages on why people give and my experiences of what happens when a church ignores those realities. There are stories about capital campaigns, annual campaigns, and planned giving efforts. What does a new pastor do first and second and third upon arriving at a congregation? We’ll discuss ways churches can use Easter and Christmas Eve services more effectively, boosting the power and significance of those offering. We’ll even examine how to respond to a member who threatens to withhold money from the church unless his or her particular agenda is served or some particular action is taken. The aim here is to cover a wide range of subjects related to money in the church. You may find it quite useful to share particular chapters with members of your leadership team. If you’re having trouble shifting a congregant’s mind on an issue, maybe I can help. There are no pretend articles in here. Just real stuff!

    One preface is necessary. I frequently mention conversations with pastors and tell about something a pastor said or did, and then tell about how I offered a correction. As I read over these articles I am struck by how it appears I am always critical of pastors, always correcting them! Nothing could be further from the truth. I have and always will have enormous admiration for the men and women who serve as spiritual leaders in the 300,000 plus churches in America and many more around the world. Their job is nearly impossible, and yet they keep at it day after day after day. Most of these articles were inspired by a mistake or an issue that was shared with me by the pastor. Since I most often work directly with pastors, it is their stories of both triumph and failure that I draw from here. I have worked with thousands of pastors, and what you will see here is the experiences of only a dozen or so whose stories I believe are instructive for all.

    The Church Money Manual, then, is an attempt to help pastors quickly solve some of the common problems that tend to entangle, frustrate, and drain the ministries of the church. It is meant to be accessible, easy to use, and

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