Three Ingredients to a Stronger Church Budget

Growing Givers Through Discipleship: The Key to Effective Ministry and Financial Stability in Your Church

When you're leading a church through a revitalization, there are all kinds of challenges that you're going to encounter along the way. There might be issues with your building, historical challenges, interpersonal conflicts, or the church's reputation in the community. However, if you're trying to revitalize a church, it’s because you've got a heart for the local church. You believe in its potential impact in the community, and you want to be a disciple-maker. You want to lead a church that helps people who are far from God come to faith in Jesus Christ and have their lives completely changed by knowing and following Him.

One of the common challenges in churches that are working through a renewal or revitalization is related to finances. Some churches are financially stable, with enough money to keep the doors open, pay utilities, and provide a modest salary for their pastor. However, there tends to be less excess and certainly not much money designated towards evangelism, outreach, or facility improvements. Sometimes, the money dedicated for the facility is just enough to maintain what's already there, with no room for modernization or updates.

Other churches going through a season of revitalization have had a significant decrease in giving due to a decline in attendance. Fewer people means less financial support. Additionally, congregations with an aging demographic may have members who were once able to tithe generously during their peak earning years but are now on fixed incomes and unable to give as they once did.

When strategizing with pastors about effectively reaching their communities, finances are always a topic of discussion. Many churches simply don't have a budget that allows them to dream about their future or imagine ministry efforts that would require additional funding..

Most often, when pastors focus on the budget, their weekly income, and the annual fund they're managing, their focus is to increase giving and grow the budget. However, I challenge you to stop thinking about growing your giving and think about how you can grow the giver. The bottom line here is not to look at the financial bottom line but to look at the discipleship opportunity you have with the people God has given to your church - and the people He is going to bring to your church through your efforts and desire to make new disciples.

If your church is growing because you're making new disciples, your giving is not going to grow at the same pace that your weekend attendance is likely to grow. As you're making new disciples, those new believers are not necessarily going to be giving in a significant or consequential way. However, if your church is missional and you have a lot of great things happening, with people coming to faith in Jesus and you're making an impact in the community with your ministries, you're likely to attract some missional-minded people who are already growing in their relationship with Jesus and may have already established some patterns of generous or sacrificial giving. That will certainly help your budget.

I want us to think about growing our givers as a discipleship issue. This really should be built into your discipleship pathway. I'm going to give you three key points to think through as you implement a strategy for growing the givers in your church as part of your discipleship pathway.

1. Competency: Equipping Your Members with Financial Skills

According to Dave Ramsey, 78% of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. He asserts that although people likely look like they’re doing well, there’s a good chance that they are in “over their heads” with the mortgage payments and vehicle loans. That means that if you have 25 families in your church, you likely only have 5 who are in a sound financial situation with the ability to make their giving towards ministry a significant priority. It doesn’t mean that they’re bad people. It doesn’t mean that they don’t love Jesus. In most cases, it’s simply a case that they’ve never been effectively mentored and discipled in this area of their lives. Let’s be honest, most churches don’t do a very good (or at least intentional) job at discipling people in the areas of personal finances. Why not be different?

The first point I want you to think about is financial competency. People in your church need to be competent when it comes to money. More people can relate to those having financial struggles and challenges in their life, and if Dave is correct, the majority of people in our churches fall into that category. Certainly, there are going to be some who are good managers and stewards with their money, but there will be more in your church who are struggling or at least not where they should be.

As we equip disciples of Jesus to become better reflections of Him in our community, one of the things we really need to help them do is gain competence in their money management. There are many off-the-shelf programs available, such as Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, Good Sense and Crown Financial that you can implement into your discipleship pathway to help people learn how to make a budget, live on a budget, get rid of their debt, and live more freely and abundantly, as Jesus offers, because they're not living with the stress of daily financial struggles.

Sometimes, some of the stewardship or discipleship responsibility we have is to help people evaluate their career choices and pathway, and maybe even help them to write better resumes, do better interviews, and think about how they can improve the course of their career so that they can improve their income potential.

"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender" (Proverbs 22:7).

If we are leading a church full of people who are slaves to lenders, we'll never be able to help them grow in their stewardship and generosity. We've got to help them with finance 101 and help them overcome their financial debt and challenges.

2. Inspiration: Casting a Vision for Generosity and Giving

The second thing I want to highlight is inspiration. The people in your church, if you want them to sacrificially give towards the mission and the ministry, need to be inspired to give. This means they need to hear stories of generosity and see clearly what the money they're giving to the ministry is going towards. You need to highlight it on a regular basis as part of your vision casting and ministry discussion.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21).

I think we've taken this passage to use it as a way of judging people and what they do with their money.

“Oh, look at that guy. You can tell what his priorities are by the way he spends his money.”

Yes, there is some truth to that. However, I believe Jesus actually meant it the other way around: our heart is what leads our money. If people's hearts are tied to, attached to, and inspired by the mission, vision, values, and ministry impact you're making in your church, their money will follow. Where their heart is, is where they're going to give their money, bring their resources—not just financial, but also their time and talents.

In addition to people being competent with their money, they need to be inspired by your ministry in order to do something with their money.

3. Confidence: Building Trust through Financial Transparency

The third thing I want to highlight is confidence. They need to be competent, they need to be inspired, and then they need to have confidence in your ministry. This means you need to have very solid, sound financial practices in your church that are above board.

You, as a church, need to be competent with your money. You need to be transparent with your money so that people have confidence that what they're giving to is being well-managed. Sometimes this may require that you make constitutional changes with the way money is managed in your church. You need to consider how people perceive the management of money in your church and determine a course of action that strengthens their confidence.

One issue that often undermines a church’s ability to be trusted with money is when there are too many members of one family involved in the management and decision-making related to finances. Seriously. No joke. This can often be a difficult obstacles to overcome, especially if you are a pastor who has inherited a financial system and a long-time council or board who oversees it. But it’s just not a good practice to have multiple members of one family with their hands in the pot.

Consider joining organizations like the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), which provides a level of visible accountability so that people will have more trust in your church going forward. Not only will they guide you through audits and planning to be great stewards as a church, but they’ll guide you in some best-practices for transparency and good management.

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much" (Luke 16:10).

When people have competence with their money, they're managing their own money well, they understand how it works, they're inspired by the ministry and the work that you're doing in the community to reach more people for Jesus, and they have confidence in your ability to manage and steward the resources they're giving to the church, you are now growing the givers. If you grow the givers, then your gifts will grow. I'm certain of that.

Growing Givers = Growing Ministry

As a church leader, if you want to grow your financial base and expand your ministry impact, you need to prioritize discipleship in the area of financial stewardship. This involves equipping members with the competency to manage their money well, inspiring them with a vision for generosity, and building their confidence through financial transparency and accountability.

"And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).

By focusing on growing givers rather than just growing giving, you are investing in the discipleship of your congregation and cultivating a culture of generosity that will ultimately lead to increased financial stability for your church.

When your members are competent in managing their money, inspired by the impact of your ministry, and confident in your financial stewardship, they will be more likely to give generously and consistently. As you grow your givers, your gifts will grow, enabling your church to expand its reach and make an even greater impact for the Kingdom of God.

Remember, as a church leader, your role is to steward the resources God has entrusted to you faithfully and to lead your congregation in experiencing the joy and blessing of giving generously to support the work of the gospel in your community and beyond.

As you navigate the challenges of revitalization, keep your focus on discipleship and trust that God will provide for your church's needs as you seek to honor Him and advance His Kingdom.

"And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8).