A church was facing a mid-year $10,000 budget shortfall. This was not because the church had not been doing missional ministries. In fact, they were serving the neighborhood with many innovative projects. During the coffee hour that Sunday, the pastor asked those gathered to bring out their phones, look through their directories and select 5 friends who were not members of the church. The church members were invited to call the 5 people right there, describe the wonderful ministries that the church was doing in the community – how they spoke the truth, built leadership and created wellness.Then, they were to ask them for a donation between $50 and $500. Lets do some math here. If 25 church members got 4 out of 5 people they called to give an average of $100, they would have raised $10,000. And indeed, within half an hour, they accomplished their goal.
Instead of asking how much money they had which then determined what ministries they could do or could not do, they asked how many relationships they have first. Since they were doing ministries that created wellness, spoke the truth and developed leadership in the community, the people with whom they had real relationships gladly contributed financially to support the ministries of the church even though they were not members.
So, money is not the primary issue in most unsustainable churches. When a church is struggling with financial issues and does not seem to be able to solve it, it usually means that their relationship currency is deficient. In the cycle of blessings I proposed in the last article I wrote for TENS, amongst the 6 currencies, I would identify the currency of relationship as the most important to explore and understand if the church is to move toward missional sustainability. If your church has a stewardship program for building relationships, not only will you not have any financial trouble, the network of relationships can become a platform for other essential currencies such as wellness, truth, and leadership.
Currency of relationship is the internal and external networks of mutually respectful connections that leaders and members of the church have. Internal connections include constructive relationships among members, area churches of the same affiliation, area denominational organization and national and international denominational structures. External connections include constructive relationships with non-members, people with resources and people in needs in the community, civic community leaders, ecumenical and interfaith partners, community and civic organizations, and local businesses.
So take an inventory of the relationships you and the members of your church have –internally and externally. You will discover where you are deficient in your relational currency. Develop a stewardship plan to establish new mutually respectful relationships outward in places where you are lacking. Also, develop a stewardship plan to develop your internal relational currency by strengthening existing relationships within your church so that your church community can work together toward creating wellness and speaking the truth inside and outside your church.
Here is an exercise you can do to explore your currency of relationship:
- Invite church members to consciously build respectful relationships with 3 peoplein the community this week – for example, get to know the gas station attendant, head librarian, postage worker, school superintendent, fire chief, police chief, corner grocery store owner, janitor at the school, homeless person at your free-lunch program, head of a major corporation in your community, teacher in the local college, etc.
- Gather the community to share experiences of attempting to start relationships in the community. Share the community concerns and issues they heard.
- Instead of offering just money during church worship, church members are invited to write the names of the people with whom they had established relationships on a piece of paper and put that in the offering plate as well. During prayer time, the community is invited to pray for each one of the persons named.
Our next 5-day intensive training institute on Holy Currencies is August 13-17, 2012 in the Seattle, WA area. Click http://www.kscopeinstitute.org/northwest.html to get more information.
The Rev. Eric H. F. Law is the founder and executive director of the Kaleidoscope Institute (www.kscopeinstitute.org), which offers resources and training for intercultural competency, congregational development and stewardship. He also writes a weekly blog called The Sustainist – http://ehflaw.typepad.com/blog/