Mission Driven Budget Podcast

Building a Culture of Generosity - Jamey Santo

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Mission Driven Budget Podcast!

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Connect with Jamey Santo

Email: [email protected]
Pick up Pastor Jamey's book, Still in the Storm here!
Visit LifeMission Church in Olathe, Kansas

Notes From This Episode:
Pastor Jamey laid out several practical strategies around executive pastor leadership and generosity. Instead of a summary, the steps for each strategy are listed below.

1. Learn your leader. Avoid familiarity by having regular conversations with your leader. Learn their plans and vision for your area. Learn what drives them. Learn how they think. That way, you can accurately represent their vision when you are leading your own team.
   
2. Creating a strategic plan around your leader's vision
   • Ask, "Why?"
   • Establish a timeline.
   • Get expectations from your leader and determine the win (end goal).
   • Break the win into small steps (phases) and execute the plan.
3. Elements of a successful capital campaign
   • Spend time in prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit for vision for the campaign.
   • Define what success looks like (the end goal, the metric).
   • Clearly communicate the vision to your church.
   • Make people the priority of the campaign.
4. Talking to someone who disagrees with your church's strategy
   • Lead with humility.
   • Disagree, but don't dishonor.
   • Speak the truth.
   • Hear them out.
5. Building a culture of generosity.
   • Start by modeling generosity yourself.
   • Get a revelation of true generosity from the Holy Spirit.
   • Share the vision with people.
   • Teach about generosity regularly (sermon series, etc...)
   • Share stories about the impact your church's generosity has had.
   • Be transparent with church finances.

How to Engage High Wealth Donors - Jack Clark III
Welcome to Episode 1 of the the Mission Driven Budget Podcast!
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Connect with Jack Clark III
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-clark-iii-4521a920/Check out the Buggie Huggie: https://buggiehuggie.com/
Notes From This Episode:

1. The road to fundraising is not glamorous. Meeting face-to-face is the most effective way to engage high wealth donors.
   
2. A great cause generates interest in your organization, but great character makes your organization worth the investment.
   
3. If their heart is right, high-wealth individuals in your church probably won't voluntarily voice every financial inefficiency they see. Make sure to ask trusted business leaders and high-wealth individuals in your congregation about areas that they see need improvement.
   
4. Building for the sake of building is wasteful. Make sure your reasons for building are directed toward your mission.
   
5. As any organization grows, it may outgrow the people you started out with in their current roles. For the sake of the mission, work to move those who have been loyal in the early stages of growth to roles that better fit their skillset. Offer the opportunity to learn new skills and prepare them for a new role.

Join our conversation with Kenny Jang, founder and CEO of the Big Click Syndicate and CEO and editor-in-chief of Church Tech Today, as we explore what it takes to cultivate and sustain a generous church. Kenny shares his personal journey from almost becoming a pastor to leveraging digital communication to help churches accomplish their mission and become more generous.
Kenny shares his three-part framework on cultivating generosity, practical advice on normalizing money discussions, building effective donor relationships, and identifying different levels of donors in your church. He underscores the importance of engaging volunteers and building meaningful connections, offering stories from his own experiences that beautifully illustrate these concepts. We also tackle the often-neglected topic of external funding and dive deep into ways to build trust and respect between the church and its donors.
By embracing technology, churches can create more impactful services and further their reach. Kenny walks us through the potential of AI in the church space, making the case for the power of technology in spreading the Gospel. He shares his experiences in the Facebook community, AI for Church Leaders, where hundreds are learning and exchanging notes on leveraging AI in ministry. As we wrap up our conversation, Kenny leaves us with ideas on maximizing the impact of year-end giving campaigns and where to find him online. Don't miss this conversation that will leave you with practical generosity strategies you can implement in your church right away.

The Power of Reinvesting into Your Church - Solomon Adair

Welcome to Episode 5 of the Mission Driven Budget Podcast!

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Connect with Pastor Solomon Adair & Inspired to Live Church

Inspired to Live Church
Instagram: @inspiredtlcTwitter: @inspiredtlc
Facebook: @inspiredtlcYouTube: ITLMinistries

Reciprocity Message Link: Principles Series - Reciprocity

Notes From This Episode:

1. If you are currently bi-vocational and looking to work full-time for your church or nonprofit in the future, start planning now. The worst move you can make is suddenly taking a full-time salary from a budget that isn't ready for the added weight. If your organization's budget isn't ready, start by introducing a slowly growing stipend for a few years and set a target date in place to go full-time. That way, your budget won't have a heart attack when the time comes!
   
2. Don't let the fear of perception stop you from teaching about sensitive topics like money in your church. Pastor Solomon came to his own realization about this, "Why am I allowing voices that don't matter dictate what's happening inside the authenticity of our church?" Withholding biblical wisdom because of your own insecurities is selfish and ultimately hurts the people you are called to serve.
   
3. The principle of reciprocity, or sowing and reaping, is at work in every area of our lives. In particular, money is directly impacted by this principle. Reciprocity is a cycle. It doesn't just stop once the "harvest" is collected. That harvest is reinvested so it can produce even more next time. When teaching about money, it's important to emphasize the motivation behind generosity and good money management. Pastor Solomon says, "Sometimes we come to church wanting to be a minimal giver and then we ask God for maximum blessing." Generosity is about being a blessing to someone else, not blessing ourselves.
   
4. Reciprocity is also the link between an organization's leadership and the organization's financial health. If a leader has an unhealthy relationship with money, there's a good chance their organization's finances aren't healthy either. This is especially true in small organizations where there isn't a large board or leadership team to maintain accountability. Are your organization's finances unhealthy? Start by looking at your own money habits first.
   
5. Numerical growth in a church does not guarantee a healthy finances. Healthy finances stem from good decision making and being disciplined with what you already have. Learning to invest in people, educating them financially, and teaching about generosity are highly effective ways of generating financial health without a surge in membership. If steady numerical growth comes, it will come as a result of investing in the people you have now, not by a flashy advertisement or publicity stunt.

How to Manage Small Church Finances - Mirna Pena

Welcome to Episode 3 of the Mission Driven Budget Podcast!

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Connect with Mirna Pena

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @mirna__pena

Hill City Church

Notes From This Episode:

1. Finance management doesn't have to be complicated. Stick to the basics. You need a way to track income and expenses, a process for building and maintaining your budget, and access to a profit and loss report. Software like QuickBooks Online is cheap, easy to use, and includes everything you need.
   
2. A healthy relationship between the Senior Pastor and financial decision makers, whether the board or a finance director, is critical to maintaining healthy finances. Each must learn how the other thinks and operates to balance the church's overall approach to financial management. The Senior Pastor brings vision to the table, and the financial director ensures the vision is funded in the most effective way possible.
   
3. Accountability and communication are the foundation of great finance systems. Relational trust with other department leaders allows the finance director to balance needs and wants. Tough financial conversations can be held without animosity because both people are focused on the good of the organization, not just their own desires.
   
4. If your church is new in town, don't try to start a brand new movement. Instead, start by connecting with city leadership and get involved in what's already happening in your city. Residents and city leadership will notice, and, as they get to know you, will start reaching out. Like Hill City Church, your city's leadership might even connect you with people they already know need help, saving you and your team valuable time.
   
5. DO NOT make financial decisions by yourself. The best decisions are made with input from multiple trusted individuals. Lean on your team for their input, and don't be afraid to ask for it. Are you a small church pastor and don't have a team to lean on yet? Find someone inside or outside of your church that you can trust, and run decisions by them first.