Illusion of Scarcity

Well, it has been a great month! The churches and organizations we get the opportunity to work with are all in the middle of accomplishing something significant. Each has their own challenge, but all are committed to the cause!

This is our fourth opportunity to share some of the "illusions" that leaders in churches and other non-profit organizations face every day. If you missed the intro and our first three entries, please feel free to check it out at http://cmi-blog.blogspot.com/.

The last few months we have written about Illusions of health, control and impact. It is now time to write about something near and dear to our hearts... the illusion of scarcity.

Over the past several years, I have had the opportunity to work with some of the best churches in North America. One of those is right here in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). I remember when we first got a call from the pastor of this church. They were looking to purchase some land so that, eventually, they could build a new facility in the GTA - and it was going to cost them A LOT of money. They had done some fund-raising through the years but had only been able to raise about $200K. When the pastor called, he said the church had a big vision, and they realized that in order to see their vision become reality, they couldn't continue to do things as they had always done - they needed something different. We've now had the opportunity to work with that church FOUR times, back to back! In their first campaign, they committed and raised over $1.1 million over a three year period. (Not bad, for a church of only 235 people). As we've been able to lead them through the same basic process 3 more times, they have now raised over $4 million "above and beyond" what they normally would have received through their tithes and offerings. As a result, they purchased their land, built a building, added a balcony to hold all the people and are now looking to start on a community centre and gymnasium - something sorely needed in the area. Their attendance has grown from that 235 to just over 600 plus they have birthed another 2 churches that are thriving!

That was then, and this is now. These days, we hear more and more from churches everywhere that money is extremely tight, and there just isn’t any more money around. It doesn't help when The Globe & Mail reports that charitable giving in 2010 was down more than $1 billion in Canada... But what is more disconcerting is that, instead of turning to biblical principles, the vast majority of churches in Canada - including evangelical churches - are turning to a variety of fund raising tactics as their primary way of addressing the shortfall - or even worse, cutting back on ministry! Cup of coffee funds, dinners, benefit concerts, etc. (need I name more?). All of these methods meet with only marginal success and are not sustainable. They become a tremendous burden on the backs of volunteers. Why is it that some can raise the needed resources and others cannot? What is the difference maker?

We recently came across a web service thesector.ca that provides all kinds of information about Canadian charities. There we found a the summary of 28,863 charities in the religion sector (missions organizations, religious colleges, media, social outreach - but predominantly churches) and were amazed to find that only 257 of these charities (less than 1%) had actually looked for any help in the area of addressing their financial challenges. Sadly, many of these have not been churches. However, the interesting fact is that the most popular way to raise money across all areas was to have dinners, concerts, sell candy or chocolate, wash cars, or a direct mail campaign...all business approaches!

As we have worked with church leaders on capital campaigns over the last 22 years, we've found 2 fundamental differences between churches that have access to resources when they are needed and those that do not. The better resourced churches are:
1) committed to their vision of the future and
2) purposefully engage their people in the conversation around their vision (for deep, not surface, ownership).

Seems simple, right? Everyone has a vision that is so compelling that their people automatically jump on-board, right?

Unfortunately, this is an illusion too! Most believe that they have a compelling vision, however, what they really have is a generic purpose statement that fits any local church. Most are loosely based on the Great Commission and what the church is currently doing to achieve it. On the other hand, a really compelling vision is a vivid picture of what your church needs to look like (or where you need to be / what you need to be doing at some point in the not to distant the future) in order to have a much greater impact on those around you, and to better achieve the Great Commission. Some examples include: doubling the number of Global Workers around the world or a church that is impacting 10,000 people! These visionary statements are a call to action! A rallying cry. They are specific, measurable and clear. Some churches may actually get to developing a clear and compelling vision; however, the real work begins AFTER the vision has been created! Not recognizing or failing to do the hard vision implementation work, including developing the over-and-above giving a compelling vision demands, may actually explain why even fewer churches see their vision ever become a reality!

The Bible outlines a process to engage everyone and raise the needed over-and-above resources to accomplish the vision. It's an approach that has been further confirmed by the host of research conducted on Transformational Leadership over the last 20 years! Yet it is surprising how many churches do not follow the Biblical process. It all starts with idealized information: providing information about what are you doing & especially why you are doing it in a way that doesn't just "tell" people about it, but that actually engages them in the conversation in making a difference. It is the conversation that allows individuals to start internalizing the Vision and what it means for themselves. The second part of the journey involves inspirational motivation: where leaders actively demonstrate and live the behaviours required to accomplish the church's vision. It's about modeling the way. Third, while the Transformational Leadership research speaks to the importance of "intellectual stimulation" to keep people engaged as they work, the Bible speaks to "fellowship" or what we describe as community stimulation: providing the opportunity for everyone to be stretched in their thinking about the vision, together with others who share the same passion, so they begin to see how they can and must be an integral part in accomplishing the vision. No "by-stander" syndrome here (i.e. "oh, there's lots of people here - someone else will look after it" or "that's the pastor's job"). Finally, the last component in the Biblical process involves individualized consideration and challenge: what is it that each and every individual needs in order to digest, internalize, and own the vision or challenge for themselves. How is each individual unique? What fires them up? What challenges them? In many ways, the church of the 21st century has forgotten how to both engage and challenge people...maybe it's fear.

The Biblical way is about the journey. It's a never-ending process that takes time, requiring continuous learning and a change in behaviour by both leaders and the people you are leading. Bottom line, it takes WORK. More and more these days I am realizing that people love what we do and they hate it. They love the process of leadership and how the journey invigorates them but, they hate the amount of work involved. We all know that it is easier to stay the same - to stay with what we know or with what worked in the past - than it is to change. What would it be like if we all chose to live by faith rather than by fear?

There ARE WAY MORE financial resources in ANY church - including yours! The churches have really engaged with us with have realized it! It is a fact that people who are most involved, give more. Those left on the outside will never give up their resources - no matter how much you plead! How are you choosing to be proactive? Remember: Hope is not a method!