This myth has always been one of my favourites. Firstly, because as a fundraiser I talk about money all the time and it is very natural for me to do so. But even more so because this is where my father’s passion and life’s mission for churches to be financially healthy come to life. This is where I saw his unwavering faith take precedence over all else in his life. To him, calling yourself a Christian was synonymous with giving back to the church the resources that God had bestowed upon you.

John VanDuzer in his book, Loonie: Crazy Talk About Faith and Finances, addresses talking about money in the church and notes that we call it anything but money. He says, “we call it an offering. A gift. A donation. Or a tithe, even. And when we talk about finances, we call it stewardship.” Anything but money.

The issue of context

This myth is about the context in which we talk about money in the church. Often, money is dealt with overtly in the church only in times of crisis, usually driven by budget deficits. When we deal with stewardship only in the context of crisis, it raises several serious problems.

The first problem framing this conversation in crisis is the perception that it’s not right to talk about money in the church, but we have to do it, so here goes! The precursor to this is usually the announcement of an expected budget shortfall. At the end of October, the church treasurer is finalizing the year’s budget report and informs the board there is a looming deficit expected for year end. The minister is then asked to “lay on the annual stewardship sermon” in hopes of fending off the deficit.  

The deficit is usually met, and in the end, the budget balances out, or at least comes close. Likely, one or a few of the 20 percent bails the church out to maintain the budget and business as usual. But what really reinforces this myth, however, is when the minister introduces the sermon by saying, “… the board has asked me to … I normally wouldn’t!” Such a perceived obligation militates against seeing discussions of stewardship and money as a natural part of church life.

Stewardship is only a financial issue/problem

The second problem is that stewardship is reduced to nothing more than a financial problem that occasionally needs to be dealt with. When stewardship is reduced to such a lowly state and is not dealt with proactively, it is little wonder the church is struggling financially. Christian giving is not based on need; it’s based on character.

The flip side of saying that is, even if our churches didn’t need a dime, we need to give as Christians, because giving is at the heart of our discipleship.

Stewardship is also a learned behaviour

We learn it through a process of teaching, and we learn it through leadership modeling. But someonemust do the teaching, and people need to see giving being modeled by people we know and respect. In many churches, stewardship teaching has come off the formal preaching agenda for at least a generation now, perhaps two for some congregations, and sadly ministers are often the most challenging group to work with when it comes to this issue.  

Kerry Alys Robinson, in her book, Imagining Abundance: Fundraising, Philanthropy and a Spiritual Call to Service, talks about fundraising as ministry and recognizes the challenges that some fundraisers in faith-based circles have faced. Specifically, she mentions theological ambivalence towards money, the fact that very few faith leaders receive training in any operational items or development skills. She also found that many of these same people commented that they, “did not discern a vocation to the priesthood or religious life to make people feel uncomfortable by bringing up the unpleasant subject of money.” When this is the prevailing view, development activities become relegated to the margins, releasing the ministry leadership from having to become involved, and the development director is seen to be primarily focused on money and transactions as opposed to people and ministry.  

One of the first campaigns I worked on was a large church with a goal of $2.5 million. We were doing the Steering Committee orientation meeting, and we came to the minister’s section, where it is expected that the minister will do a four-sermon series on stewardship themes. We were talking about the sermons and the need for creative holistic teaching when the minister suddenly lifted his hand and said, “I will not preach on stewardship in my church; never have and I don’t intend to start now.” The board chair was sitting to his right and we could see the colour drain slowly from his face … because he understood the consequences of that statement.

In the end, not only did the minister not do the sermon series, but he had a fellow minister come in and do it for him. 

The resident minister’s response (or rather non-response) illustrates the issue and the importance of not only dealing with stewardship in the context of discipleship but also re-focusing stewardship teaching holistically and creatively onto the church agenda.

Fear of failure

Robinson also identifies a fear of failure or rejection as a challenge to get leadership involved in development activities. This is of course true for most people, not just ministers. But it stems from not being properly prepared and feeling confident in your role of asking. Other leaders, she states, see the process of asking for money as asking for a favour, or as being related to guilt or obligation. Unfortunately, giving out of guilt or obligation is an unmistakable sign of a poorly focused development process.

Lastly, Robinson points out that ministry leaders are aware of the special treatment major donors sometimes receive in the secular world of development and see it as contrary to the principles of Christian giving. This perception, however, is flawed — at least to a certain degree. It’s not so much that major donors receive special treatment, but rather that they are often more invested at that level of giving. They want to see the impact their giving is having, and feel that they have a right, so to speak, to that information. And of course, in the church these ‘major donors’ are often your leadership volunteers, staff and regular attendees.  

When we make stewardship programs in the church simply need-, money- or crisis driven, we almost never maximize our potential, because the focus is wrong. The need approach tends to raise the minimum required dollars in the short term but does not produce holistic giving patterns long-term.  

Church goers today often need help understanding the biblical principles that speak to stewardship as a discipleship issue, and it is the responsibility of our church leaders to teach them. The reality is that the minister is probably one of the very few who has a voice that speaks to everyone with the authority they respect. In larger churches, as you add more staff and people to your leadership team this will not always be the case. 

But someone at some point needs to be responsible to answer the question, “What do you want me to give?” Being prepared and feeling confident in the ability to answer that question well will significantly help the creation of a culture of giving.

The Seven Myths of Church Fundraising

This is a series of seven articles based on the book originally written by my father, Ben Harder, and recently re-written by myself. We came up with what we referred to as the Seven Myths of Church Fundraising. I suppose they could just as easily have been called pitfalls, or misguided beliefs, but the point is, these myths are widely-held assumptions people in the church had and still have surrounding church finances and fundraising. For many churches, these assumptions became part of the church operations and more importantly, an informal narrative of things the church should not do. 

It will be helpful to learn how to recognize and identify these pitfalls and why it’s important to move past them, because if anything is holding you back from financial success, it is one of these myths. 

If you would like to watch my video on The Seven Myths of Church Fundraising, you can do so on my youtube channel or on the about us page of my website.