Stay Committed

“If your organization requires success before commitment, it will never have either.”

This quote is from Seth Godin’s book Tribes.

 

Christmas from the view point of the eye witness observers may not have looked very successful.  After all, how many kings are born in mangers.  Between the manger and the cross, the plan to change the world is not looking too successful.

Commitment comes before success!

Praise God for being committed to us.  And thank the Lord that the success is revealed in the empty tomb.  The victory has been won and for the followers of Christ we know the final victory is coming.  So we stay committed.

For those working for the Cause of Christ, stay the course.  People are not changed by our funds, our activities or by us.  They are changed by Jesus.  Successful fund-raising does not mean successful ministry.  We must continue to mobilize people for the cause not the dollar.

Dollars come and go as quickly as success.  Commitment changes the hearts of people.  Work to assist people in their level commitment not their level of giving.

Transformational LIVING

As I travel and teach Transformational Giving, either in the US or internationally, I continue to see the common theme in this teaching that rings true for every believer.  That theme is based on the activity that comes in living for Jesus when He has transformed the heart. When Christ has transformed the heart, the believer gets active.  This activity comes in a variety of ways based on the touch of the Spirit in the believer’s heart, but none the less, activity happens.

This is why Transformational Giving is about so much more than dollars.  Giving the dollars is a small part of living a life that reflects the transformational work done by Jesus in the heart of a person.  What God gives is the power to live a transformed life that becomes active for His Kingdom.  Giving of dollars is critical to God’s work, but it is only part of the story.

I recently read something in Andy Stanley’s’ new book Deep & Wide that helps clarify that ‘doing something’ is key to our spiritual walk.  He says,

“Jesus taught for a response. He taught for a life change.”

Life change…is this not another way to say Jesus taught for us to be TRANSFORMED.

Stanley goes on to say,

“He (Jesus) didn’t come to simply dispense information….Jesus was after active, living, do-the-right-thing faith.”

Jesus was after change in living not just change in thinking.  Jesus renews our mind, but if the renewing of the mind does not change the actions of the follower, has the mind really been renewed?

You can learn that God is a giving God.  You can learn that to give reflects Jesus.  But if you never become a giver yourself, how has this knowledge you’ve gained changed your heart?

I am not a fund-raiser.  But I called to assist others by helping them live transformed lives for Jesus Christ.  And I love seeing people reflect Christ.  Giving is a KEY part of reflecting Christ, so I am more than comfortable with teaching about giving.  This is far different from fund-raising. 

Basic fund-raising is about the dollars.  Too often it is about the dispensing of information and not about seeing change.  Transformational Giving is about the donor not the dollar.  It is about teaching activity, about teaching the “active, living, do-the-right-thing faith.”  So when all is said and done, TG is only a part of teaching others about Transformational Living.  If you want to call this fund-raising, I am fine with that. Because when lives are transformed TG happens, and this is the kind of ‘fund-raising ‘I can get behind.

Nobody wants to be irrelevant

A common thread in reading about the coming generation is their desire to be relevant.  You read this in more than one book regarding the coming generation.  But the thought struck me, “Who does not want to relevant?” I am sure my grandparents never set out to be irrelevant.

 As I read, relevance seems to be related to activity. But I am sure there has yet to be a generation who sees themselves as inactive.  I find it fascinating that today’s generation sees the Boomer’s as irrelevant or inactive.  I am a Buster and I do not have the nerve to tell the Boomer’s they were inactive.  (Have you seen news-clips from the late 60’s?)

 Could it be that perhaps we see others as irrelevant or inactive because their involvement is not about issues that concern me?  So if they are not active on the issues I care about I see them as irrelevant?   

 But too often perception is reality. So why is a large part of today’s North American Christianity viewed as irrelevant?  Is it because the activity is not producing change? And why is Todd talking about this in a transformation giving blog? All good questions.

 If the North American Church does not appear to be making a difference in our culture and if a coming generation sees it as irrelevant, then no wonder giving is slowing. So let’s be honest about our outreach and ask these hard questions.

• Is the outreach or cause that I am funding still needed? i.e. Still relevant
• Is the outreach or cause that I am funding making a difference?
• Is the outreach or cause that I am funding inclusive or exclusive?  Here is what I mean by this.  Is your ministry one that wants the activity of partners and you strongly desire for others to serve with you, i.e inclusive.  Or is it a ministry that you just want the funds so you can go to the work because others may not be able to help, i.e. exclusive. 

 If the outreach you fund is still needed, and it is making a difference and it is open to the activities of other, then go for it!!!  But no matter how much your ministry may be needed, if you have to convince others it is making a difference even though you do it without their involvement then you have an uphill battle for the giving to happen.  Find a way for the donor to be active in more than just check writing.  (That goes for any generation.)

 If all your ministry needs are checks, then perhaps checking your relevance is in order.

Who Moved My Culture?

We know culture is a moving target.  Some shifts we see, others are not so noticeable.  One shift that has happened subtly is a result of the manufacturing shift of the U.S.  To get my thought across you have to endure a small history lesson.  (I love history, but for those who do not….sorry.)

Since the industrial revolution until recently, the U.S. was primarily a manufacturing nation.  Factories and assembly lines ran the country and our culture. We were a nation of manufacturers.  One of the many impacts of this environment was a culture dominated by left-brain work habits.  The work was logical, sequential and it looked at the parts more than the whole. Assembly lines tend to be just that, lines.  Work was linear and that impacted our thinking.  During the peak of the industrial revolution the linear way of thinking shaped western culture. 

Many corporations and organizations in turn created structures very ‘left-brain’ oriented.  Even the U.S. church set itself up this way.  Sunday school curriculum, board meetings and etc. were mainly set up the same way.  Funding was even all done by and large the same way.  In order for these systems to work well they needed to be interchangeable, so similarity in function was key.  US automakers perfected this. Once something succeeded we mass produced it.  The US church even tried this by attempting to mass produce church growth strategies.

Then things changed.  In the past several years we have seen the shift from the US being a manufacturing country to a service based country.  We sell and fix items manufactured in other regions. This shift has subtly changed the work environment from the sequential and linear focus on parts to a more synthesizing and cyclical view of the whole. In other words, we have experienced a shift from a left-brain culture to what is becoming a right-brain culture. One is not better than the other, but they are different.  We need to see the difference and not be naïve to the impact it has.

Transformational Giving has principles based in age old truths that transcend culture.  However, the strategies of implantation may vary based on culture. So what about TG can be maximized in the upcoming right-brain culture? 

• TG emphasizes the role of the champion over the role of the organization.  This links well with synthesized thinking versus sequential thinking.

• TG emphasizes the role of the champion as a part of the whole.  This links well with the right-brain desire to be holistic and not simply think that when my part is done the project is finished for me.

• TG emphasizes the role of the champion to influence others for the cause.  This links well with cyclical thinking as opposed to linear thinking.

• TG emphasizes the responsibility of the champion to use their gifts.  This links well in the move from assembly line and cookie cutter thinking to being creative and using personal giftedness for the cause.

There are several more ways TG can be maximized in this cultural shift.  What are some you can think of? Are some of our communication and fund-raising styles no longer suited to the current culture?

Community

In Henri Nouwen’s short book, The Spirituality of Fund-Raising, he raises the idea that giving creates communion.  I don’t know about you, but growing up protestant, the first thing I think of when I hear the word ‘communion’ is Holy Communion at church.  You know the Eucharist.

Webster defines communion as ‘an act of instant sharing’.  This is a good way to describe the sacrament. It is also a good way to describe giving.  It indeed is an act of instant sharing.  Nouwen says,

“When we ask people for money to expand the work of the Kingdom, we are also inviting them into a new spiritual communion.” 
 

Giving is an act of sharing and participating in community.  Something about sharing grows a community.

Ever been in a local gas station and noticed a jar on the counter with a homemade photo of a sick child from the community who needs help?  Usually some member of the community is in need of help and neighbors and friends distribute these jars to collect money to help the family afford a lifesaving surgery. This small act of setting out a jar does far more than help a needy family; it builds the community.  The community helps the family know they are not alone in their struggle.  That jar not only raises a few dollars; it moves people together for a common vision.

We all need communion.  We need it with God and with each other.  Giving helps build community.  Sometimes it is giving a hand to a new neighbor by unloading the moving van, sometimes it is supporting the Little League fund drive, or making a meal for a sick friend.  All these acts require giving and each builds community.

The invitation to give is also an invitation to join a community. The gift brings the giver into a community of common vision and a sense of communion with those who share the vision.  This communion and shared vision is part of transformational giving. Transformational giving opens us up to community.  Bringing people into community is a gift the organization or church has for the giver.  But this never happens if we only see the gift and not the giver.  People make community, not dollars.  So we serve the one who gives by opening our community and welcoming them into the vision. We then share the vision and the fruit of the vision with the community. This can be part the power of giving.

Why is asking so hard?

In the last post we pulled some lessons from Nouwen’s TheSpirituality of Fund-Raising.  We are going to continue looking at this short book in this post as well.

Nouwen touches on possible reasons talking about money in our culture are so taboo.  He notices that we often talk about religion and sex more freely than we do money matters.  Speaking about debt issues feels as secret as talking about one’s sex life.  Nouwen investigates why taking about money is so taboo, especially when it comes to asking for it. 

Working for a missionary organization I travel to several different cultures around the world.  Many of these cultures have no hesitation to ask for funds.  I am not talking about the beggars, but church and university executives regularly seek funds.  Many from the U.S. who travel to these ministries feel awkward and sometimes offended when asked.  Some look down on these cultures because they ask “so often.”

Let me ask this question…How come those who have resources feel so uneasy when those who do not have resources ask them to share?  Is it because the ‘haves’ see the ‘have nots’ as lazy?  Perhaps they see them as uneducated or unprepared to use resources effectively? 

This is not a post regarding if you should give to every request and thus create unhealthy dependency, which is a real and legitimate concern but best saved for another time. For this post I want to investigate if our cultural view of being dependent influences our dislike for raising funds.  As Americans we fear dependency. We want to be independent nationally and financially. We train each other for financial independence. Nothing wrong with this.  However have we taken the idea of financial independence too far by making it a measuring stick of moral character?  Thus subconsciously making us feel that fund-raising is beneath us because we do not want to be seen as a ‘have-not’.

There is a level of security in being on the side of the ‘haves’. So if we have what we need and do not have to ask others for help we feel more secure.  Nouwen says, “We fear being dependent on others because of the idea that dependence is a threat to our security.” This is true. So we need to ask if this way of thinking is supported by the Bible.  No!  Our security is not in the things we have, but Who we have. And because of who we are, we are always dependent.  Every living thing is dependent not only on God but others. 

Perhaps our struggle in asking for money is because we have a misguided relationship with money.  We see money as the measuring stick for independence and security.  Perhaps maybe even subconsciously we see it as a measuring stick for character?  Go back to the lesson at Zarephath, the issue of Elijah asking the widow for a meal was based on security and character; the security and character of GOD not the widow or the prophet.  The request was not based on the what, but on the Who.

Read the chapter titled, OUR SECURITY BASE in The Spirituality of Fund-Raising.

Set Free to Be Stronger

Do you ever feel that fund raising is draining?  Stupid question, right?   Maybe the better question is: Is it possible to do fund-raising without it draining the life out of me?  The answer: YES!

The next few posts are draw from a great article you can download for free by Henri Nouwen called The Spirituality of Fund-Raising.

The foundation of his teaching is in the love of God.  In the love of God we find what we need, and what we can give to those in need.  The nature of love is to give. Nouwen shows the common ground for the one who receives gifts and the one who gives gifts is God’s love.

Early in the article he addresses the idea of asking without fear.  This can be done because of the common ground is God’s love.  We can ask without fear is rooted in the fact that giving is a God-thing, not a people-thing.  People only give to others as a result of the image of God in them.  Without the image of God we would all be selfish (more selfish than we already are). But as His creation, made in His image, we love because of Him and giving comes from loving.  So, ask without fear!

Nouwen goes on to say,

“When we have gained the freedom to ask without fear, to love fund-raising as a form of ministry, then fund-raising will be good for our spiritual life.”
 

Wow, there is a lot to unpack from that statement.

• One: We can gain a freedom from Christ to ask without fear.  How liberating!!
• Two: Did he really say LOVE fund-raising??  He did!  We must see it as ministry.  If I love to be included in the ministry of God, then I can love fund-raising as part of His ministry.
• Three: It will be good for me!  The ‘good for me’ part is not because I get funds, but because my own spirituality needs it.  He said, “good for our spiritual life.”  My spirit grows in Christ as I minister for Christ.  Fund-raising is ministry. Therefore, I can do it in freedom, knowing it is ministry to Christ and to others. This liberating outreach then makes me stronger in Christ.

You do not have to be drained by fund-raising!!  Due to the common ground of God’s love being a giving love, you and your champion can be stronger at the end of the funding because when God is at the heart of our ministry all involved get TRANSFORMED.

Giving is for the Birds?

If ravens can feed the prophet, ( 1 Kings 17), and Jesus can makes the rocks sing His praises (Luke 19), is it possible we do not think of ourselves in proper perspective as to what we offer God?  After we give our offerings we feel good because we helped a need.  Truth is God could send birds to do it.  After we leave church and we have sung our hearts out we feel good about ourselves, when in fact rocks could have done it. (Please keep reading, this is not going to be as cynical as it sounds.)

Don’t get me wrong, God blesses the giver and the worshipper, but perhaps not for the reasons we think.  Many think we are blessed because of what WE did.  But God says our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64).  So our blessing is not because of who we are or what we do.  Our blessing is because of who He is and what He does.

The blessing is a result of participating with God in His work and becoming like Christ through His grace.  So the blessing is not based on the action but the heart.  Many at church sing God’s praises with a heart like a rock.  Others give to the needy with a heart no more bent toward God than the ravens.

The blessing is a result of pursuing God, not the pursuit of the blessing.  So when we pursue God “all these things shall be added unto you.”  I had a New Testament professor in college who was famous for repeating his favorite phrase to every class.  He always taught us to “reach for the Hand not the gift in the Hand.”

TG is not about what I am up to and not about what the charity or organization is up to.  It is about what God is up to.  In Eric Foley’s blog he makes a refreshing observation about what God’s focus is.  Even the title of the entry from May 13 speaks loudly.  The title is What Troubles God is not What We Do but ourAstonishing Lack of Interest in What He Does. Eric has this helpful insight at the start of this post:

Our contemporary spiritual myopia is most clearly revealed in our obsessive and endless debates about whether God is more focused on our actions or our beliefs.

Answer: Neither. Instead, God focuses on whether we are focused on ourselves or on him. He delights in those who are focused on him…

 

Giving, serving, living, are all to be focused on Him.  This fact from God’s word is so freeing.  I do not have to ask myself if I can afford to give, or if I should serve.  I simply have to ask God what He is up to and then dive in head first.

If God is giving through the birds, then I would rather get in line with the birds than be in a line where God is not.

Looking up

An old hymn celebrates that when we turn our eyes upon Jesus the things of this world grow ‘strangely dim’.  I often think of this line in times of trouble.  But reality is: this truth needs to be lived regularly not just in hard times.  Think how life on a daily basis changes for the believer when the day is spent looking up to Christ.

There is a small book on giving called Plastic Donuts.  Jeff Anderson is the author and he tells of the joy he and his toddler had one day when she gave him the plastic donuts from her play kitchen. Watching the joy she had as she looked in his face as she gave him these toys donuts changed his view on giving to God.  One quote from his book says,

“After the plastic donut encounter I had with my daughter, my views on giving changed. I saw more clearly why the joys of giving seem so elusive. It is hard to experience it without looking up to the Father. Often instead of looking up with my gift I was looking down.”

That’s when the word to the old hymn hit me.  Turn my eyes upon Jesus in all I do, and the things of this earth will dim. In other words LOOK UP into the Father’s face.

Teaching TG and living it can help people look up to whom they give, not down to what they give from.  Look up to Christ not down at the check book.

Maybe look at it this way…in finances we always look at the bottom line.  That’s ok we need to see the bottom line (I am a bottom line kind of thinker myself). But to see the bottom you always have to look down, that’s why it is called the bottom.  May God help our giving to be turned upside down and we look up first before we look down at the bottom line. 

You know Jesus already taught us to turn our thinking upside down in the Sermon on the Mount.  Let’s do some upside down thinking in giving as well.  Rather than the bottom line determining our giving, allow God to determine our giving.  Look up first! Instead of a bottom line giver become a topline giver. Turning our eyes to Jesus will dim the things of earth, even the bottom line.  So when you give, look up.

Teach "First Fruits"

I had the privilege of attending a leadership conference this month.  Good stuff.  There were a lot of seminars on fund raising.  I was encouraged to actually hear the word “transformation’ used frequently.  There were many seminars with good principles on TG.  It was great to get affirmation that TG is the right track. Several presenters were helping others to see the TG is not about the agency or the project but about the giver.  So I was encouraged as I learned more.

 

Unfortunately there were also some discouraging seminars as well.  For example one had a lot of TG talk, but no TG action.  The data they encouraged you to gather from the giver was being done in the name of relationship building, but the purpose was to just get more money.  But there are lessons to be learned even in the ‘transactional’ seminar.

 

I learned that the purpose is the key!! I learned that we must walk-the-talk and not just talk-the-talk.  The talk of TG cannot be artificial.  The goal must remain focused on ministry to the giver, and trust in God to give the increase.  This focus helps us not be phony.  This purpose must be revisited daily to keep it genuine.

I also learned the need to keep the focus on the ministry not the money.  Focusing on ministry means I help the giver stay focused on the depth of God’s work, not the depth of their pockets. One presenter mentioned our biggest competition is the rising cost of gas and milk.  I humbly and whole heartedly disagree.  If the focus is on God’s ministry and the champion’s role in ministry, we need not panic when gas prices go up. The Bible teaches that giving comes from our first fruits.  I was discouraged with the talk on disposal income and how the rising cost of living eats away at disposal income which means less money for ministry.  If the ministry of God is based on what is left over, we are all in trouble.  But I believe that the ministry of God is done with the first fruits.  And God honors the champions who give their best.  Since when is God’s work restricted by the price of oil and milk?

 

Since TG is based on the theology of God’s abundance and not a God of scarcity, the champion’s disposable income is not the issue.  Focusing on disposable income reduces giving to a choice between the movies or giving. The champion does not have to decide between giving or going to the movies.  The reason:  when giving is done out of obedience it is an issue of stewardship, giving from our first fruits.  So when all bills are paid and the champion has $10 left in her pocket she is not torn between the movies and the ministry, because the ministry was already  ‘paid’ with the first fruits, not the left overs. Transformational living frees giving from being disposable.

Restore the Joy

Scott Rodin has written a short novel called, The Third Conversion.  It is a quick easy read based on the move from being transactional to transformational in giving.  He shows how this shift in the life of the giver impacts the needed shift in the life of the fund raiser.

The book is an enjoyable story reflecting the principles of Transformational Giving.  It is a helpful example of how you may be able to change your conversations with those who give.  He shows both good and bad encounters.

Following a bad encounter, Rodin has one of the characters of the story dissect what went wrong.  He observes that the reason the encounter went wrong was opportunity was missed.  Not the opportunity for the gift but an opportunity for ministry.  Here is what he says, “We had the opportunity to help them recover the real joy of giving in a God-pleasing way, to develop hearts that are rich toward God and blessed in their giving.”

What I love about this quote, is the focus on the “joy of giving”.  Do you believe God’s Word when He says it is more blessed to give than receive?  Every Christian worker I work with says yes to this question. Do you believe there is joy in giving? Again the room says yes. However, a good number of those who need to raise support back off the money question when talking to champions.  So if you back off the money issue, but you believe it is more blessed to give, then is it fair to say you may be in a position of robbing the champion of a blessing by not addressing the opportunity to give.

Maybe we do this because we do not see giving as a joyful event.  Perhaps we have approached giving as a “tax” not as a gift.  It is April and it is tax time.  Those who owe wait until April 15 to send in their forms.  I have been in churches who approach the offering time like a tax payer approaches April 15.  Let’s stop this attitude.  Giving is a joy. 

Two things can happen to change this way of thinking. 

• First, start with yourself.  You become the cheerful giver.  Experience the joy of giving personally.

• Second, pass the joy on to others. (You cannot pass on what you do not possess.)  Teach others about the joy in giving.  Help them recover the joy of giving in a God-pleasing way.

What to Measure - Part 2

I want to follow up from the previous post by joining Covey’s’ lead measures’ in 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) to Moore’s ‘scattering matrix’ in Seize the Vuja De .  Let’s see how these concepts reflect each other in what we measure.

A goal in fund raising is the income.  So this is the lag measure: what you measure when you are done. It is also a gathering matrix because it is what you take in. But we said “A goal in fund raising is income”, not THE goal. In TG the goal is greater than the dollar amount; it is lives transformed through giving.  Hitting the dollar amount is a portion of the goal and the easiest to measure.  But in order to measure transformed lives we have to have lead measurements that help us see if we are scattering the message not just gathering the money. 

In the 4DX book one example is a lady who is a top seller in a shoe store.  The statement made about her is, “The manager knew what she did differently.  She would get lost in the customer’s world.”  This lady would notice what the customer was wearing, offer options to fit their style, ask what they did for a living, etc.  In other words it became about the customer’s need for shoes not the stores need to make sales.  Sound familiar. 

TG is based on the need of the champion not the need of the agency.  If this principle is key in the selling something as temporal as shoes, just think of the importance this principle can play in helping someone in their discipleship journey of giving.  TG happens when it is about the champion’s bottom line not ours.  The beauty is, God then adds fruit to the agency’s bottom line when the champion is transformed. 

So you have a budget to raise.  Your board or someone is monitoring the bottom line.  But what should you monitor.  In TG with a scattering matrix let me suggest a few items you and your leaders can be measuring:

-        Did my encounter with that champion leave them richer than they were before, i.e. Did it add value?

-        Did I give the champion what they need to get involved?

-        How many have I equip to tell others about the outreach?

-        How many of my champions testified that they shared the outreach with someone else?

-        Are people passing on what they learn?

-        How many champions are moving forward in their discipleship journey, i.e. How many are migrating from Participation to Engagement, Engagement to Owner?

Granted, this list is harder to measure than the bottom line.  But remember the bottom line is not just to get funded.  Part of the bottom line is to grow champions for the Cause. So we also need to keep in mind, how many we bring with us on the journey, not how many report back to about the journey.

I would love to discuss these measurements.  Drop a note if you have a comment or question.

What to Measure - Part 1

In Transformational Giving the question of what to measure always comes up.  One thing we know is we will always measure income in fund raising.  But since TG is about moving champions deeper in their journey and commitment to the cause, should measuring the journey be as important as measuring the income?  And if so how do you measure it?

There are two different resources I have come across that have helped me learn about measuring.  Each resource points to the need to measure BOTH.  Income measurements are important, but so are activity measurements

One teaching about measurement comes from Steve Moore in his book, Seize the Vuja De. Moore discusses a ‘gathering’ matrix as opposed to a ‘scattering’ matrix.  The gathering matrix is what we take in, i.e. gather.  It measures things such as: How many people attend church?  How much money did we collect?  How many souls were saved?  Etc.

 The scattering matrix is different.  It does not focus on what comes in but what goes out, i.e. what we scatter.  It may measure activities such as: How many people from our church shared their faith this month?  How did we invest our income to impact the Great Commission?  How many believers did we training in evangelism? So we shift our focus to what is coming in to what is going out.

The beauty is, if we are effective in scattering it impacts what we gather.  This may sound familiar since the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9 that those who sow generously reap generously.

Another resource that mirrors Moore’s ‘scattering’ matrix comes from the 4 Disciplines of Execution.  The authors of this book mention lag measurements as opposed to lead measurements.  Lag measurement measures what has already happened. It is called lag because it is after the fact and can no longer be influenced. This is a similar concept to the ‘gathering’ way to measure.  Lead measurements are different.  They are fluid and can be influenced because they are measurements of activity during the process not the results at the end. 

An example from the book is airline safety records.   The lag measurement is 100% of the planes landed safely.  But how do you get these lag measure results.  Well you have a pre-flight check list that you can control.  This checklist is measured while it happens.  And when done properly it produces the desired result.  So the ‘scattering’ matrix you measure is not the number of planes landed safely, it is how many pilots are properly doing their preflight check list.

So for a church, ‘scattering’ measurements may look like this:  Not just how many pastoral visits the church staff made, but how many church members are being equipped for visitation and doing visitation. 

This entry is the ground work.  The next entry we will look at how all this can impact measurements in TG.

Can the Sales Pitch

I am on an email list that sends me very helpful teachings called McKaughan Musing.  I wish I could provide the link, but after days of trying, I am having technical difficulty.  So I will cut and paste.  These musings are from http://www.missionexus.org/, but I cannot get you to the direct link to the article I am quoting.

For the February 2013 edition the focus is Marketing vs. Sales.  McKaughan says this,

 I was re-reading a book on Peter Drucker, who was my generation’s leadership and management Guru. (A Class with Drucker by William Cohen) I came to a chapter on Marketing and Sales and it got me thinking.

   For Drucker, marketing was central to strategically leading any organization. Sales, on the other hand, was merely a second or third tier tactical issue

   To Drucker, the clear distinction between marketing and sales was that in marketing you found out what your customer wanted and then you built that into your product. Since what you produced was what was wanted or needed, a well- designed and carefully manufactured product hardly needed to be sold. What you produced met the customer’s needs and desires. Sales on the other hand had to do with pushing things on people where there was little intrinsic need or desire. Selling had to do with the creating or manipulating need or desire. According to Drucker, sales dealt with tactics, not strategy. Strategy always trumps tactics. If your strategy is wrong, your tactics will never lead to success.

Transformational Giving is about principles that guide our strategy, which in turn will guide our ‘tactics’.  Wrong strategy leads to wrong tactics. 

Could it be that the reason the listener often hears our fund raising presentation as ‘begging’ is because we are using tactics built on poor strategy?

McKaughan strikes on a truth Drucker taught that is core to TG.  "To Drucker, the clear distinction between marketing and sales was that in marketing you found out what your customer wanted and then you built that into your product."  The teaching we give in the migration of the champion (donor) is to find out what God is doing in their life.  This strategy is built on principle #4 in the 10 principles of TG.  Principle 4: A champion connects with an organization for the purpose of enhancing their mutual impact on the cause, not only to support the organization’s impact on the cause.

It is about the champion’s impact not ours.  So it is about the champion and what she needs, not my need for their funds.  Then as Drucker said, “Since what you produced was what was wanted or needed, a well- designed and carefully manufactured product hardly needed to be sold.”  So if your ministry is designed to fill the gap God has placed in someone’s life (i.e. their need) then God will go before you and the need you present meets the champion’s need not just yours.  In this case it will hardly need to be “sold”.

Let’s take helping orphans as an example.  You are trying to raise money for your orphanage. So the tactics could be to show starving, lonely children.  The tactic being, show the kids and the funds will come.  I talked with a group that even flew the kids from a Majority World Culture to the states and paraded them to churches to raise money.  It worked, short-term. The problem was, in two years they had lost momentum.  They could not sustain the sympathy.  So they were trying to find a new group of kids to fly to the states for another ‘tour’.

But if raising money for orphans is not just about you or the kids, but also the giver and his need, how would this change the tactic?  Does the Bible not tell us to take care of the orphan?  Is this need being meet by the local church or the members sitting in the church that day?  The ministry to orphans is not just about the kids, it is also about the listener’s need to answer the call of God to serve children.  So now the strategy changes to reflect the biblical need of the believer to get involved in the lives of orphans.  It moves to an all-encompassing need.  The children have needs, the agency designed to reach them has needs, and the listener has a need to obey the command of God to serve. 

Now giving is fulfilling the champion’s need to obey and be a part of ministry.  The strategy moves from closing the deal to get the sale, to meeting the need of all involved.  We have moved from a transactional exchange to lives being transformed. The giver is now as blessed as the receiver. 

The Great Compassion

In a post on July 6, 2011, I wrote about a new equation.  The basis of this equation is that a transformed life (T) is a result of following the Great Commandment (to love God and your neighbor) and then to practice the Great Commandment one must fulfill the Great Commission (go make disciples).  So the equation is T=GC²

I would like to add to the equation of T=GC².  It is another GC.  Paul Borthwick in his book Western Christians in Global Missions has another GC he calls the Great Compassion.  Matthew 25: 34-40 is the famous passage that Jesus tells us how to perform ministry.  It’s pretty simple really, we serve each other. (To refresh your memory, Matt. 25 is where Jesus tells the help we give the least of these, is serving Him.) 

So the math is simple.

First we must love God and our neighbor.  (If you wonder who your neighbor is, Jesus answered that with the telling of the Good Samaritan.)

Second if you love God and your neighbor then you are to obey the Great Commission.  So loving your neighbor is taking the Gospel to them and making disciples.

Third, we implement the Great Commission.  But how?  Isn’t the Great Commission just for teachers, missionaries and preachers?  And if the Great Commission is for the teachers, missionaries and preachers then the rest get to stop at step one?  No that is fuzzy math. 

 

Everyone who claims the Great Commandment is to do the Great Commission and the Great Compassion tells us how.  We disciple the world by giving.  Not just giving dollars but giving ourselves as Christ did.  We give to others through our service.  When we serve we transform.  So the new formula is a Transformed Life (T) equals all three Great C’s…T=GC³.

Growing

Transformational Giving can pop up anywhere.  In the last post I mentioned Paul Borthwick’s book, Western Christians in Global Missions. As I read this book I see Transformational Giving principles popping up all the time.  But this is only because Transformational Giving has far more to do with our spiritual walk than just giving our money.  As believers we are to live transformational lives (some call it The WholeLife Offering).  So TG is one key component of Transformational Living.

 

Borthwick reflects this truth in a chapter of his book called “Sacrifice-Not Just Generosity”.  He touches on the old truth that is “it is often easier to be financially generous than personally sacrifice.” (page 143. Western Christians in Global Missions). This truth is a big reason I am an advocate of our giving being transformational and not simply a transaction between parties. 

 

Borthwick goes on to say that issues facing the world today are not solved by generous checks.  They are solved by long-term work and sometimes sacrifice for the endeavor God has laid on our hearts. To illustrate this teaching Borthwick uses examples that are straight out of a ‘Participate-Engage-Owner’ type thinking.  Let me give you a few quotes he gives as examples in his book.

In our world long-term sacrifice grows as we get involved.  It can progress

·        From dedicating thirty minutes a day to pray for the nations of the world, to building cross-cultural friendships, to going to serve in a multicultural organization

·        From going on a short-term mission trip to reach children in a poor barrio, to supporting a child for forty dollars a month, to becoming a social worker dedicated to serving children.

 

You can see how these examples reflect the teachings that TG gives in regards to moving our champions from participants, to a level of engagement, to being owners of the cause.

 

A key word for our spiritual journey and in TG that Borthwick uses above is GROW.  Growth is a long-term venture.  One-time shots at it do not make it happen.  I do not plant new grass seed and expect to mow my lawn the next morning.  Our activity in God’s work must grow.  And what is planted today does not bloom by morning.  However, with work, progress and maybe even sacrifice we see fruit in the long-term.  So don’t bail out early.  Stick with your champions and be the example for them that long-term activity in their cause is where the growth is.  Help them Own it.

Walking Together

In the book Western Christians in Global Missions, I have found a lot of good teaching.  In these next few posts I will pass some of these thoughts along.  However a better way for you to get this info may be to just get the book yourself.

The author, Paul Borthwick in one chapter asks a Ugandan pastor what the role of the North American is in missions.  The pastor’s answer, for me went far deeper than our role in missions.  The pastor said we should be like to two men on the road to Emmaus. We should travel together.  “What need to seek out are those whom the Lord may want to travel with.”  Borthwick ask the question. “Are we walking together?” (page 159)

Great question for missions.  Great question for being a witness. Great question for your church.  Great question for fund raising.

In Transformational Giving our giving and our receiving ought to be a journey.  And it should not be done alone.  You see transactional giving is very independent.  I gain what I need and then I go on my way to do my thing and you can go your way and do your thing.  However if giving is transforming, going my own way alone is not an option.  We take the journey together.

With this thinking in mind the request to be funded is far more than money. It is a request to take the journey together.  (This means for those who give a onetime gift we are done.  It is just the first step in what should become a journey.) The destination of the journey is not to get my ministry funded or to feed the poor, or even to save the lost.  The destination is Christ.  We are to walk together in following Christ.  If we follow Christ together we will see the lost brought to Christ, we will see the hungry fed, the sick will meet the Healer, and we will see ministry budgets met.

As you raise funds, perhaps it will change your thinking and the thinking of the listener, to approach the need as a journey.  Help them see who you are following.  Communicate that he journey is not designed for you or them to walk alone.  Seek for those whom the Lord calls to walk with you.