Mission Yearbook: In churches, stewardship doesn’t have to be hard or perfect

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Maggie Harmon spoke as part of Stewardship Kaleidoscope. (photo by Gregg Brekke)

Maggie Harmon began her workshop at Stewardship Kaleidoscope with a simple aim: to guide participants in creating a stewardship plan.

But the conversation quickly turned into something more. The audience leaned in with ideas, questions and stories of their own, so much so that the workshop became a shared exploration of what stewardship really means in congregational life. And Harmon, a ruling elder at First Presbyterian Church in Oakland, California, was happy to let it happen.

“The big thing I want you to take away,” Harmon told the group, “is that it doesn’t have to be that hard, and it doesn’t have to be perfect.”

Harmon reminded participants that many people immediately associate stewardship with money. “When you say we’re going to talk about stewardship, they grab their wallets,” she said with a smile. “They think you’re coming for their money.”

But Scripture paints a broader picture. Drawing from Genesis 2:15, she noted that stewardship is tending, caring and helping something grow.

“Generosity and offering aren’t the same thing,” she said. “Generosity is the readiness to give more than expected. An offering is a sacrifice ceremonially offered as part of worship. What if we asked people to take a moment, breathe and think about what we are asking them to do? What is the ritual around it — not the habit?”

Harmon spoke from the perspective of a small church. First Presbyterian Church in Oakland averages 60 in worship. Most churches in the PC(USA) are under 100 members, she pointed out, and the majority of stewardship teams are only one or two people. That makes planning both critical and doable.

For pledge campaigns, Harmon advised congregations to give themselves two to three months of preparation and keep the active campaign to four to six weeks. “Longer than that and people get tired. Shorter, and you risk missing folks,” she said.

Choosing a theme rooted in Scripture, writing clear letters and setting specific goals all help congregations focus their efforts.

“The compelling story is not ‘the electric company raised our rates,’” Harmon emphasized. “The message is we want to create a welcoming worship space everyone is comfortable in.”

Harmon then walked participants through the anatomy of an effective stewardship letter:

Start with Scripture. Ground the appeal in God’s Word.

Celebrate accomplishments. Highlight three to five ways the congregation’s gifts made a difference in the past year.

Cast vision. Name two or three aspirations for the coming year, with Scripture as the guide.

Be specific in the ask. Don’t shy away from inviting people to pledge their gifts of time, talent and treasure.

Give thanks. Repeat the ask and always close with gratitude.

“Pick three to five highlights,” Harmon said. “You’ll want to list 20, but don’t. Keep it clear, keep it simple.”

Beyond annual campaigns, Harmon encouraged congregations to weave stewardship into year-round communication. Monthly or biweekly notes in bulletins and newsletters, reflections on generosity, updates on ministry goals and reminders about legacy giving all keep the conversation alive.

“What I like to do is sit down and map it all out at once, so I know the rhythm of the year,” Harmon said. “Stewardship isn’t a season. It’s part of how we live as God’s people.”

The workshop was filled with engaged dialogue: A pastor asked how to handle snowbirds who split time between two churches, another leader shared how their stewardship planning began months before their new pastor arrived, and yet another cited Habakkuk 3:17–18 as a text for a campaign in uncertain times.

The energy in the room reflected Harmon’s central message, that stewardship is not simply about balancing a budget, but about grounding a congregation’s life in faith, generosity and trust in God’s provision.

Robyn Davis Sekula, Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Michael Fallon, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Finance, The Board of Pensions
Tina Finley, Accountant, General Ledger Office, Administrative Services Group            

Let us pray:

Help us to see beyond our own walls, O God, to the friendships we have yet to form — relationships that will help us to grow and to extend your faith in ways that bring light to all people. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Marketing can help with selling stewardship

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Carson Brown spoke last month during the opening day of Stewardship Kaleidoscope. (photo by Gregg Brekke)

Finding ways to link your congregation to stewardship requires a marketing lens to “sell” stewardship as an essential element of the Presbyterian experience, and that “support must be earned, it cannot be expected,” speaker Carson Brown said at Stewardship Kaleidoscope.

“How focused are we on selling what we’re doing to the people within our congregation?” Brown asked on the opening day of the Presbyterian Foundation’s Stewardship Kaleidoscope 2025 in New Orleans. The annual conference was presented by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Brown is a graduate of Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor’s degree in communication and is pursuing a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.  He serves as a pastoral resident at First Presbyterian Church in Bonita Springs, Florida.

“Why is marketing important? Why do we need to sell stewardship? Many of us come from generations where it’s just an expectation that people are going to give — not just on Sunday mornings but when their pledge envelopes roll around,” he said.

“We’ve always been able to reliably count on people to come into church and feel a sense of obligation to contribute to the mission of that church through their time, talent and especially their treasures,” Brown said.

The reality, though, is that churches compete for donations with dozens or hundreds of other organizations, many of which use comprehensive marketing tools to reach their audiences. Calls by the church for financial support faces challenges from families’ schools, nonprofit clubs such as the local theater or symphony, and other groups.

The youngest generations, teens and young adults, have a strong distrust of organizations, research shows. Gen Z tends to see society as becoming less generous. Their own levels of giving support that — but they also outshine all other generations in terms of volunteering their time to organizations.

Further, post-Covid, as more and more people decide to stay away from attending church services, why would you not expect giving to decrease as well?

Brown’s tips for selling stewardship apply equally to “selling” the church experience in general:

All marketing is communicating

Identify and clearly understand campaign principles, goals and objectives.

Develop a strategy for plainly and meaningfully communicating these things

Never assume knowledge!

Never expect even what’s plainly obvious — try to inform the congregation about church needs and how they’ll be addressed, instead of expecting people to know.

For the Boomer generation, Facebook is an excellent tool to share church news. For social media campaigns, use a good mix of cellphone videos, testimonials, info-graphics and simple calls-to-action to keep the page active.

Interestingly, people under age 45 might prefer to receive church news and stewardship promotions through the mail — because they grew up not receiving a lot of handwritten notes, letters and cards, Brown said. For printed materials, there are several easy-to-use graphic programs such as Canva that help design flyers, information cards and other marketing materials.

Still, face-to-face visits typically are most effective when it comes to sharing the church’s needs and stewardship opportunities. For smaller churches with perhaps 500 or fewer active members, in-person visits can be a great tool — but might be impractical for larger churches, he said.

Finally, when communicating with church members and the community about what’s going on, including stewardship opportunities, Brown recommends going back to the basics of logos, ethos, pathos: Use logic and what makes sense; appeal to people’s sense of what’s right; and appeal to feelings and passion.

John C. Williams for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Amanda Craft, Manager, Immigration Advocacy, Mid Council Ministries, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Octavia Craig, Treasury Assistant, Treasury Office & Central Receiving Services, Administrative Services Group 

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, thank you for inviting all of us to participate in your mission. Guide our congregations as we disciple giving them opportunities to see your work in and through them in the world. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Stewardship leaders are urged to reframe giving conversations amid changing faith patterns

How congregations weather changing faith and giving patterns may depend on how leaders engage and talk about stewardship, said Dr. David P. King.

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Dr. David P. King of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving delivered the opening plenary last month at Stewardship Kaleidoscope. (Photo by Gregg Brekke)

King, who is Karen Lake Buttrey Director of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving and associate professor of Philanthropic Studies within the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, recently spoke at the first plenary gathering at Stewardship Kaleidoscope  in New Orleans. The annual conference is presented by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

In “Engaging the Shifting Landscape of Faith and Giving,” King plunged into numbers that tell a nuanced story. Church membership among U.S. adults is now below 50%, with 56% reporting they seldom or never attend church.

“Even engaged members might be there just half the month,” he said.

History shows a change, particularly after World War II, from “the age of association to the age of authenticity.” Emerging generations feel less need to affiliate with an organization such as a congregation to find meaning and purpose, preferring a more personalized journey.

While 22% of Americans describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” 88% of these engage in a spiritual or religious activity weekly or more often.

“These people are inclined to be givers,” King said, encouraging church leaders to consider how to encourage congregational participation in conjunction with this generosity.

Almost a quarter of all charitable giving goes to religious organizations. The majority of these are congregations, King said. However, as a share of total giving, donations to religion have declined since the 1980s.

Also decreased is the number of households giving to charity in general. “Fewer folks are giving more, particularly the biggest donors,” he noted.

King cited declines in both individual disposable income and institutional trust. Another factor is a marked decline in giving to churches among adults younger than 30.

Fifty-five percent of Americans say religious or spiritual values motivate their giving, King said.

“One question is: How are they giving?” King said.

He pointed to four giving types: impulsive, selective, habitual and planned. “Impulsive givers (42%) are about half of all Americans,” he said. Selective givers came in at 17%, while planned givers make up about 16% and habitual are only 6%.

“This isn’t to say any of these are right or wrong,” King said, “but messaging is important.”

Also consider “pay the bills” vs. “share the vision” messaging, he suggested. The former frames money in mostly unspiritual terms: “Money is scarce.” “We have bills to pay if we’re going to survive.” The latter, by contrast, may say: “We may not be rich, but we have more than enough.” or “Partner with us in God’s mission to …”

The word “stewardship” itself gets used so much it can become vague or even empty, King said.

“We could either rehab stewardship language or retire it,” he said. “I think we could revivify it. We can give it new life.”

Nancy Crowe for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Olivia Cacchione, Outreach Specialist, Presbyterian Historical Society, Interim Unified Agency
Carl Cadet, Lead Cook, Stony Point Center, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

Generous God, all that we have comes from you, and you invite us to share your work in the world. Help us to share a vision that inspires faith and joyful participation in your mission. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Presbyterian Foundation speaker calls for shift in stewardship approach

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The Rev. Ellie Johns-Kelley spoke on "Stewardship as Story" during the Presbyterian Foundation's Day of Learning June 26.

What does the word “stewardship” bring up for you?

For many, the word evokes joy — a chance to reflect on God’s generosity and all we have and the ways we are invited to participate in ministry. For others, it carries the weight of obligation, a once-a-year sermon about money that is often dreaded.

At the Presbyterian Foundation’s Day of Learning on June 26, the Rev. Ellie Johns-Kelley offered both tools and inspiration in her presentation, “Stewardship as Story: How to Transform Giving Through the Love of Story.” She challenged church leaders to reframe stewardship not as a fundraising campaign but as a joyful, year-round act of storytelling.

Johns-Kelley is a Ministry Relations Officer with the Presbyterian Foundation, and as part of that, she works with congregations on financial and ministry matters, including stewardship and legacy giving.

“Whenever I talk about stewardship I think of my dad growing up,” Johns-Kelley said. “He was an only child and he and his parents never missed church, except for one Sunday a year when they would drive to see the leaves at their peak.”

This one Sunday per year was the day of the church’s annual stewardship sermon. When Johns-Kelley’s father grew up to become a pastor himself, for most of his ministry, he dreaded giving the annual stewardship sermon. It felt like an appeal focused solely on money. He feared it would burden those on the margins, forcing them to choose between giving to the church and feeding their families.

“My dad was always telling the story of Jesus and his love,” Johns-Kelley said. “The Bible is made up of stories. He was a great preacher and teacher, but for him, stewardship was isolated. It wasn’t part of that.”

This disconnect, she said, is where many churches miss the mark. “If only I could have gotten to him earlier to share that stewardship shouldn’t be a once-a-year event,” Johns-Kelley said. “It shouldn’t be a burden. When we reframe stewardship to be about storytelling, it is not an obligation but about living into what we are doing.”

This approach is rooted in a deep human need. Theologian Harvey Cox said all humans have an innate need to hear and tell stories and to have a story to live by.

The need for powerful storytelling in churches is more urgent than ever. In 2024, giving to religion accounted for 23% of all charitable dollars in the United States, down from 50% in 1995, according to the recently released Giving USA report. With more than 1.5 million charities competing for support, churches must articulate a clear and compelling reason for people to give.

“We want people to give because they believe in what we are doing, not out of guilt,” Johns-Kelley said. Research shows the top factors that influence a donor’s contribution are making an impact, the organization’s financial stability and a belief in its leadership.

A powerful story addresses all three. To tell that story effectively, a church must have a clear mission and vision that is owned by the congregation. Your mission statement articulates your purpose, while your vision answers the question, “How will the future look if our mission is achieved?” This clarity becomes the foundation for every decision, every sermon, and every appeal.

Johns-Kelley offered a wealth of practical advice for putting this into practice.

Tell your story year-round: Stewardship isn’t a season; it’s a constant conversation. Weave stories of your church’s impact into all your communications. She listed the following ways to share those stories.

• Preach on generosity at least once a month.
• Share brief, powerful stories during worship as part of a Minute for Mission.
• Tell stories online. Use social media, newsletters and video testimonials to share small, consistent narratives.
• Consider segmented appeals. When it’s time for the annual appeal, replace the “one-size-fits-all” letter with targeted messages for different groups within your congregation.

By embracing stewardship as an act of storytelling, Johns-Kelley says we can move beyond obligation and guilt and invite our congregations into a joyful, generous partnership in the mission God has given us.

The Presbyterian Foundation offers a wealth of free resources to help your church, including the Stewardship Navigator and the Church Financial Leadership Academy.

Erin Dunigan, for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Carla Dobson, VP, Director of Philanthropic Services, Trust Services, The Presbyterian Foundation
Susan Jackson Dowd, Executive Director, Presbyterian Women         

Let us pray:

Most gracious God, protect and strengthen your children, especially in times of crisis, that they might see your face and be living examples of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Stewardship in a pandemic

Valuable lessons learned on being the church

August 5, 2020

William Iven/Unsplash

By mid-March, COVID-19 began changing the way the world interacts, and the church was not immune to those changes. Amid social distancing and shelter-in-place orders, many churches either canceled worship or moved to a virtual form of worship. Pastors and sessions looked for creative ways to worship and to care for the most vulnerable church members in a quickly changing landscape. But what about financial stewardship during such a time as a pandemic – or any other event that would interrupt traditional modes of being the church?

Many churches operate on a very thin margin and have little to no reserves. Most churches are still heavily dependent on gifts that are made in an offering plate when people are physically in church. According to the National Study of Congregations’ Economic Practices, 78% of gifts are given during a worship service. Churches living on thin margins are not going to be able to operate if they lose 78% of their revenue during a crisis that shuts them down for traditional Sunday worship services.

So, what can churches do to maintain giving revenue when people are not in church?

Be the church — Churches should continue to serve the Lord and love neighbors. Pastors and sessions are correct in focusing on worship and taking care of people. So, keep being the best church you can be during any trying time.

Communicate and tell your story — Use all the tools available to you (email, texting, social media, phone calls, etc.) to make sure your flock knows you are still there and what you are doing. Organize your deacons to call and check on people. Share daily prayer practices on social media. Ask church members if they need help.

Model justice in employment — Churches are just like every other small business, with staff such as preschool teachers, janitors and hourly employees. Churches should do their best to continue paying all staff and honoring contracts with small businesses. As an employer, your church should be a model for this practice by taking care of everyone who relies on the church for their livelihood.

Online giving — If your church is not offering online giving, you need to start offering it immediately. This is the best way to allow people to give when they cannot physically be in church to drop a check into the offering plate. Even if people are using online bill pay, or mailing checks to the church, these ways of giving still require someone to come to the church, count the checks, go to the bank and make a deposit. Online giving will be directly deposited into the church’s account and doesn’t require anyone to go to the church or to the bank. If you need help with this, visit the Presbyterian Foundation at presbyterianfoundation.org/onlinegiving.

Set up an assistance fund — Many individuals and families in your church and community are financially impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Set up a special fund and authorize your pastor or session to use this fund to provide assistance to those in need. Encourage people to give to the church as they normally do and to give to the assistance fund, in addition to their normal giving. Recognize that many in your church will need help, but also recognize that others will still have the capacity to give.

Just ask — We often don’t do a very good job of asking for money in the church, but during a crisis, it is important to ask. Don’t assume that church members will realize the financial impacts to the church on their own. They need to be reminded that the church cannot continue to support people in a crisis unless they — as the body of Christ — continue to give above and beyond their weekly tithes and offerings. Send a weekly email asking members to give with the online giving option as a link.

Keep being the church — The most important thing a church can do in a time of crisis — and always — is to glorify God and love its neighbors. Keep doing this, be in communication with your flock, offer online giving and ask people to give — and people will respond.

 Robert Hay Jr., Presbyterian Foundation’s Senior Ministry Relations Officer for the Southeast

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Jessica Kelley, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Sherry Kenney, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Creator God, we thank you for the gift of your Son and the creation you have entrusted to us. We thank you for the witness of Zacchaeus and his generosity and enthusiasm in the presence of Jesus. As we are asked to make decisions about sharing possessions, continue to give us good examples and help us to be generous so we are examples to others. Our prayer is in the name of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.