After the Impact Story. In the next two minutes include the following:
Say thank you to the people whose collective generosity made this story possible. The grateful hearts of your people led them to financially support the ministry being highlighted. Be sure to express gratitude for those who made the fruitful result in the story possible.
Connect growth in personal generosity to something specific in your theology of stewardship and/or your discipleship pathway. You have 52 opportunities a year to highlight these points, so don’t try to talk about them all each week. Just weave in a point or two. For example, to highlight recurring giving, the speaker might say after pointing out the other giving options, or you can use recurring giving because it helps the church better plan for its great ministries like this student event.
Explain the many ways you receive gifts and always promote automatically recurring/scheduled giving. When describing the different giving options, you can communicate more with fewer words by having the options displayed on the screen, on a card in the seatback, or in the bulletin. Unless you continue to pass offering plates, you will need to mention where people can leave a check or cash.
Conclusion (optional). In the last two minutes, provide a time of music during which people are invited to offer their gifts electronically using the information on the screens, seatback cards, or bulletins.
3. Design and Implement a Better Offering
Plan your stories of ministry impact at least 30 days in advance. The offering story will need to be included in the same planning cycle with the sermon, music, communication, and other elements of worship. Doing so will provide the time to identify and develop quality stories with supporting pictures and/or video.
Create a calendar of the theology/discipleship elements to be emphasized after the impact story is told. One of the best planning strategies is to create an annual calendar that calls out the specific theology/discipleship points to be emphasized each week. Doing so ensures that what you are communicating is well balanced and fresh. Not making a plan often results in speaking too much on some topics and not enough on others. Feel free to adjust these points, as needed, once the offering story is known and the sermon title is finalized.
Review the effectiveness of the offering experience each week. A common discipline in thriving churches is learning to measure the effectiveness of investments of time and energy in achieving their desired purpose. A recommended practice is for the offering experience to be evaluated by the worship planning teach or staff each week as part of a review of the entire Sunday/Weekend experience (hospitality, worship, discipleship, communications, etc.)
Ask church leaders to share their impressions of the offering experience. Be sure to receive input from your key leaders regarding their experience and identify if your offering time is having the impact you desire. Invite them to share their personal impact stories to add to your collection.
Taken from Giving 365
If you would like to discuss these ideas further, please contact the Foundation at (205) 226-7937.
Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash