Live Blog From Reach Conference: 39 Facts About Effective Church Capital Campaigns

Chad Aukland’s Breakout Session

This weekend INJOY Stewardship Solutions dispatched me to St. Louis to attend the Reach 2016 Conference.  Followers of Christ are constantly shifting gears to meet the demands of family, work, school, relationships and ministry.  Reach 2016 is a time to reconnect and recharge the spiritual batteries of the attendees in preparation for all God has planned for them.

While there I attended a breakout session conducted by INJOY Stewardship’s Director of Consulting Chad Aukland (pictured above).  Chad taught on the necessary elements for a church to have a successful capital campaign.

Before getting to his comments, Injoy Stewardship Solutions also wants to invest in your leadership by offering a special gift to you, a FREE ebook Breaking The Next Growth Barrier: 10 Things Pastors Can Do To Break Down Growth Barriers.  Click HERE for your complimentary copy.

Now as promised, the following are 39 Facts About Effective Church Capital Campaigns from Chad’s breakout session.  These lessons will help you fully-fund your church’s vision.

1. Our mission as an organization is to resource the vision of the local church.
2. As leadership of a local church, you’re always wanting to go the next level but there’s always a gap.
3. Dollars is usually the biggest resource gap but what about people?
4. A capital campaign is about life change.
5. A win in a capital campaign is expanding the level of service the people are willing to give.
6. Everything we do is rooted in 1 Chronicles 28 and 29. This is the biblical blueprint of a capital campaign.
7. Before communicating the vision, David gathered his leaders together.
8. King David gave $5.2 billion in today’s dollars in gold and silver. The leaders gave $13 billion. It does not register what the crowd gave.
9. Our vision often doesn’t resonate in the hearts of people because it’s too long. 140 characters they can retain.
10. The campaign supports the overall mission and vision of the church.
11. Leaders go first. Leadership is influence.
12. You can’t spend a pledge card.
13. This is not collections. We are not knocking on doors. We are not sending Guido to houses.
14. You know your church better than we ever could because you’re there everyday. We want to learn from you.
15. No two churches are alike. Hence, no two capital campaigns are alike.
16. Vision clarity is much different than vision messaging.
17. The first stage of leadership development is recruiting.
18. The job of a senior pastor in a capital campaign is what David did in 1 Chronicles, cast vision. It is not the day-to-day work.
19. Jesus spoke 7X more to people about money than prayer, hope and love combined.
20. As leaders we might need to get a little more bold than we currently are.
21. If you don’t talk about money, you’re going to leave 40% of the funds on the table.
22. The message to financial leaders is, “Join me on the journey.”
23. Equal sacrifice not equal gifts.
24. The message series of a capital campaign is not a money message series. It is generosity, stewardship, and sacrifice. In the end, we will ask people to sacrifice by way of generosity.
25. This is a spiritual journey. This must be transformational and not transactional.
26. The hardest part is to obey.
27. Nothing great for God ever happened outside of sacrifice.
28. 60% of giving comes from your leaders. 40% comes from the people.
29. Do not ever underestimate the power of the giving of children and students.
30. You want to maximize initial commitments.
31. You want to develop a consistent line of communication for the two or three years of the campaign.
32. If you want a church decline strategy, communicate all you want is people’s money.
33. Your vision must be clear, crisp and compelling.
34. Is your project urgent?
35. When you reach 80% of your capacity in the service or parking lot you will start to decline. You need space.
36. Are our leaders unified? No one likes to follow leadership that isn’t unified.
37. People know quickly if there is a fracture in the leadership.
38. Do you have a trusting congregation?
39. The process works because it’s found in 1 Chronicles 28 & 29.

To learn more about how INJOY Stewardship Solutions could help your church with its capital campaign needs, reply to this email or click HERE.  It would be an honor to serve you.

As previously mentioned, INJOY Stewardship Solutions would like to offer you the FREE resource Breaking The Next Growth Barrier: 10 Things Pastors Can Do To Break Down Growth Barriers.  Click HERE or on the image to the left for your complimentary copy.