Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Ownership

In the PEO spectrum of Transformational Giving, most ministries choke a little in thinking of the ownership. Some hate to think of the champion owning. We equate ownership with decision making and control and so we squirm at the idea.

First of all we need to get our need for control under control. God needs to be THE Owner, so perhaps we exercise too much control and the 'non-professional' feels devalued in our ministry. If control equals ownership then we need some redefining.

Transformational Giving does not go well for control freaks (whether the control freak is the ministry leadership or the champion.) You see transformation worries little about who gets credit or who wins the debate. So the word, 'ownership' in a transformational setting need not make us nervous. Rather it can open us up to be more collaborative with our champion base while at the same time not giving everyone who gives a vote on what this year's budget should look like.

Rather ownership can be the guide for our transformational giving and lifestyle. Ever watch a football game? See all the fans with the same color shirt on when the stadium looks all red, or blue or whatever color. The fans all dressed in the same color and dyed hair and painted faces are owners. Ever hear these fans talk about their favorite team. The say things like, "our guys" and "my players". Do the owners get worried about control when 'Joe fan' says, "MY team". Not at all. That is what they want. They want that fan involved and not just a spectator. They want them yelling and making noise and being an influence.

The owners are excited about the ministry. They influence others to get on ‘our team’. They get others excited to part of something big. Give us owners of The Cause!!!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Help Get a Champion Started

Getting started can sometimes be the hardest part. After all once an object is in motion is it easier to keep it going. A big question for funding today is getting the ‘bodies at rest’ in motion. How do we get the person who is not even at the Participation level to get going?

With all the fears today about money and budgets, small steps can become a helpful way for new givers to see that their faith in God is not misplaced. However the small step in giving must be linked to relationship or discipleship if it is to help the champion move from getting involved to staying involved.

The other day I met with three young men who have a burden to be part of the solution. One mentioned he has always had a burden for missions and has supported missions. However he is not at a point that he can give funds regularly. (Unfortunately many ministries make the champion feel if they cannot give regularly they are not ‘on board’. This is unintentional but it tends to happen.) So he did what we want every champion to do…he found others ways than just dollars to give. He created a website with a vision to help others like him to start a pattern of giving.

Here is a part of his story… A missionary was visiting him once and mentioned that one of his methods of evangelizing was buying guys coffee and talking faith. So the champion said, I could help pay for one of these coffee meetings. The missionary said this would be a huge help and from this small idea the champion was being part of evangelism on the other side of the world. Then this got him thinking, what about the others from my generation who could help in similar fashion. So a website was born.

http://www.forafriend.com/ is a website for the champion to get started. They can pledge a gift, like a cup of coffee, a DVD, a Bible etc. Then from this site the champion hears back from the ministry telling them when the gift was used. Also the site gives the champion opportunity to drop the ministry emails and encouragement. It has the tools built in it for transformational giving. In other words, the gift can become an opening for discipling the champion to greater things in the Cause.