I hear it all the time from pastors and church leaders, “If we just had someone who could give us $1 million, wouldn’t that be great?” You have heard these words as well. Perhaps you are the one who has said them.
God wants all churches to be financially blessed. So why does one church get large gifts and another doesn’t? Why does financial resources and relief seem to flow to certain ministries and not others? There are many great churches and pastors who seem to do everything right but just do not seem to catch a break. Why? I had to find out the answer.
Recently, the wonderful North Metro Church in Marietta, GA received a $3.4 million matching gift to help pay off its $7.6 million debt. This church is very close to my heart as I was part of the group who initially planted it.
I recently sat down with North Metro’s Lead Pastor Rob McDowell and Operations Pastor John Maggard to learn what they did to receive such a generous gift. They were kind enough to share their thoughts as we collectively have a desire to help all churches become fully-funded. Our prayer is this post will help equip and encourage thousands of churches.
The following are the leadership principles I gleaned from Rob and John. I want to personally thank them for the transparency and servant’s heart. You will never meet two more kind and Godly leaders than Rob and John.
Their story will be counter-intuitive to what many have been taught but will enable you to receive a large gifts as well. Let’s get started.
Large Gifts Are Often Received During Times Of Great Uncertainty
I have always believed healthy churches with clear vision, unified leadership and congregational trust are fertile ground for large gifts. Honestly, I still believe this but North Metro Church is an outlier.
Like much of American society in 2010, the church had made interest-only payments on its debt for the previous two years. Worse yet, the church was involved in a divisive leadership transition. Several staff members resigned and planted their own church a few miles down the road taking approximately 1/3 (700 people) of the congregation with them.
There was fear and confusion amongst many in the church. Several elders resigned or rotated off. The loan was maturing. As Rob and John said, “It was a rough 18 months.”
Large Gifts Are Often Received During Times Of Renewed Commitment
Shortly after North Metro was planted in the late 1990’s, its senior pastor resigned on Christmas Eve because of a moral failure. But the core leadership was strong and believed God had His hand on them. Over the next decade, the church would go on to reach thousands for Christ but now their mettle would be tested again.
Rob came on staff as the College Pastor in 2005. Under his leadership, the church had a thriving college ministry and was making a significant impact in the lives of over 800 students on a weekly basis. He stepped into a temporary senior role to fill the leadership vacuum. John noted how Rob’s presence was assuring and unifying during this time of uncertainty.
Rob said, “Even the Titanic needed a captain of the crew.” Many of the church’s strong core remained and locked arms while in the trenches together.” They concluded, “We would depend on the Lord. We would pray our guts out.”
Large Gifts Are Often Received By Reluctant Leaders
I meet a lot of alpha males. They are a challenge. But sitting down with Rob and John was absolutely refreshing. I was extremely impressed and challenged by how humble and dependent on Jesus they were. I left our time together knowing I had just sat down with true servant leaders. It is no wonder God has since replaced and even added to the numbers the church lost during the split.
Rob was the classic reluctant leader. The Lord was very kind to their college ministry and he was very happy. Rob had no desire to lead the overall church. But God was in the process of telling a greater story.
Large Gifts Are Often Received By Churches With Repentant Leaders
Prior to becoming Lead Pastor, Rob preached a several messages from the book of Nehemiah in 2011. During the series, God awoke Rob in the middle of night and told him, “You can’t teach Nehemiah without teaching Nehemiah repents.” This holy moment literally brought Rob to tears.
Rob then stood before the church and confessed, “The past months have been difficult. People who you used to sit beside are no longer there.” Then he said the two most important words any leader can say, “We’re sorry.” He added, “We will not cover up sin. We’re not going to whitewash anything.”
The people responded by saying, “Thank you for talking about the elephant in the room.”
If you have ever taught Nehemiah, you know the significance of building the wall in 52 days. Completely unplanned and totally of God, 52 days after starting the series, the church’s Elders called Rob to be Lead Pastor.
God had stirred something in his heart which was confirmed by his wife. Rob was officially named Lead Pastor in 2011 and the Lord planted a vision in him.
Large Gifts Are Often Received By Churches Making A Significant Impact In Their Community
In the Fall of 2012 the church did a series entitled “B Missed”. With the financial climate of the church still in dire straights, they asked the congregation a series of tough questions.
- What would it look like if North Metro Church did not exist?
- Does our community really even need another church?
Rob said God gave them their answer. “Let’s be a church that would be missed…Let’s be a church the community and schools would send out a rescue party for if we weren’t here.”
The church’s leaders bought in to the vision quickly as did the congregation. But the debt still needed to be addressed.
Large Gifts Are Often Received By Churches Who Ask For Large Gifts But Fully Depend On The Lord
Rob told the congregation there were two options for addressing their debt situation.
- Option A was someone give a $7.6M gift.
- Option B was pray our guts out and fully depend on the Lord.
Rob said, “We decided to pray our guts out and fully depend on the Lord.”
Large Gifts Are Often Received By Churches With Big Vision
He then began to cast the vision of “What must we do? What should we do? What could we do?”
They hosted a series of deserts to answer questions and further cast the vision. Rob’s wife even made the deserts. He told the church they must share the Gospel, payoff the debt, and dream of what they could do when they are freed up financially. Some of the things North Metro could then potentially do were impact the 10/40 window, launch a multi-site in a neighboring city, support a homeless or crisis pregnancy center, and many other items as well.
As the campaign progressed, there was “a sense of anything we get from the Lord is His kindness towards us.” It was “refining who we were as a church.”
Large Gifts Are Often Received From Unlikely Sources
Rob and John were subsequently contacted by an individual who had been at the church less than a year asking to discuss the church’s financial needs. While at lunch, he said the eight words which changed everything, “I might can help you with Option A (the $7.6M one-time gift).”
Large Gifts Are Often Received From Churches Who Place A High Value On People
Rob and John began to listen to his story. He enjoyed the worship and Rob’s teaching. But it was the church’s tender and compassionate atmosphere, particularly towards his children and grandchildren, which really blessed him. In retrospect, the church had placed a high value on that which he valued most – his family. Now, he was going to place a high value on what the church.
Large Gifts Are Often Received By Ministries Committed To Excellence
This financial leader went on the explain to Rob and John he ran his business debt free and with a similar high-level of excellence. He also appreciated the simplistic nature of the appeal. John said, “Churches always (seem to) hit you up with the next big idea. Take care of first things first.”
Large Gifts Are Often Received By Grateful Leaders
After receiving the $3.4M matching gift, I asked how has ministry changed?
John said, “Nothing has changed since the gift. There has been an attitude shift – The Lord is with us.”
Large Gifts Accelerate The Generosity Of Others
Rob added, “So many have caught on.” John added some additional thoughts on how positive momentum becomes a catalyst for more people to get on board and be part of what God is doing.
As a result, unpledged gifts began to accelerate. So much so 50% of all their receipts are now unpledged. If the current trend of generosity continues, North Metro Church will pay off its remaining $1.6 million by June 30th of this year.
There is a dark side which Rob, John and the leaders of North Metro are guarding against. They “don’t want to act like lottery winners” and be broke in a couple of years. So financial accountability has been implemented.
North Metro Church now budgets and lives off 90% of the previous year’s income. Their prayer is to “leverage celebration” and “transfer accountability” by seeing the church’s individual families live with the same financial accountability in their personal lives.
Large Gifts Are Often Received By Churches Who Are Positioned To Receive Large Gifts
I concluded our time together by asking Rob and John what advice they would give to any pastor hoping and praying for million dollar gifts. Their answers were insightful:
- John – “Put yourself in position to accept a million dollar gift. Be ready to receive the gift. Begin to ‘act as if’ you have already been given the funds.”
- Rob – “There is a great difference between faith and presuming up on the future.” He added, “They trimmed the budget. They learned what things they didn’t truly need. It gets to your ‘why’.”
Once again, I was humbled and challenged by my time with Rob and John. They are great leaders who would truly B Missed by our community if they were not here.
In conclusion, if your ministry is praying for large gifts, the following are 15 things you should do:
- Be faithful during the difficult times.
- Be fully-devoted to your mission and vision.
- Already be making a significant impact in the community God has placed you.
- Be a leader who is marked by brokenness and is dependent on God for every single thing in your ministry.
- “Pray your guts out.”
- Be humble. God can’t entrust $1+ million gifts to prideful leaders.
- Teach Biblical truth.
- Ask your core leadership to multiply your mission and vision.
- Ask for large gifts
- Treat everyone like $1 million. Some people or their family members can actually return it in kind.
- Deliver ministry with excellence. This is attractive to financial leaders.
- Practice good financial stewardship. Be faithful with the little things.
- Teach those in your church Biblical financial principles.
- Learn what you can live without.
- Upon receiving the gift, be grateful and willing to invite others into journey.
Your thoughts?
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