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February 26, 2008
Are all church capital campaign programs the same?
You may laugh at this: LifeWay is such a big place that I just recently met the John Burke who leads the Capital Stewardship area at LifeWay.
So, like any "normal" individual would do, I googled him to see what I could find out. John recently wrote an article about 5 Common Pitfalls in Church Campaigns that was published in the September/October 2007 issue of Preaching.
I really enjoyed reading pitfall #3: "All capital campaign programs are Biblically-based." This is not true. Jesus taught us that it was just as important how we got where we are as it is arriving to present moment. In other words, it's not OK to steal--even if you give all the money to the church.
Building buildings, debt retirement or even rennovation decisions that lead a church to invest in a capital stewardship program, is as much of a spiritual decision as it is a business decision.
Unfortunately, Richard Foster is often right in his assessment that, "Money has usurped the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer."
It's important that we remember that anything a church does should first be a spiritual decision and second a business decision. This is the balance we try to maintain at LifeWay. I like to call it balancing heaven and earth.
We should build buildings and conduct capital campaigns because God is leading us to expand our ministry, not to errect empires for ourselves. In the same spirit, we should choose tools that reflect the spiritual emphasis of a captial campaign program.
No, all church capital campaign programs are NOT the same. And yes, that does matter.
Posted by bstroup at February 26, 2008 1:19 AM
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Comments
To the question on whether all church capital campaigns are the same, I would have to say, "yes" and "no".
Yes, in that if you talk to 4-5 successful capital campaign consultants, you will find that we all are basically singing from the same hymn book. The best practices of a successful church capital campaign are pretty well established.
And no, because, as pointed out in this post, the focus on the spiritual aspect can vary greatly. A church capital campaign is not really about raising money; its about understanding a Kingdom need, and the Kingdom provision to meet that need through God's people. If you do that well, the money will take care of itself.
Posted by: Stephen Anderson at April 27, 2009 4:07 PM
Stephen,
I think you are right on. Keep the focus the Kingdom and the money will take care of itself. Those of us who live in the non-profit development world know that clearly communicating the need and the intended end result yeilds the highlest level of funding and generosity among our donor base.
People give to causes and organizations that help them achieve something they couldn't do on their own.
Thanks for reading, Ben.
Posted by: Ben Stroup 
at May 5, 2009 12:55 PM