Cultivating faithful generosity in your church or ministry begins with good stewardship of the resources God has provided. Many churches see the holidays as a time when people tend to be extra generous, but inspiring that generosity year-round can take some work. During this webinar, we will discuss how you can encourage generosity in your congregation all year long. We’ll look at what you can do as a church staff and how to start communicating more effectively with your people. We will also provide ways to evaluate the financial health of your church, practical tools to implement a year-round stewardship strategy, and best practices for overseeing your finances.

In under an hour, you will learn:

Principles of stewardship
How to implement a stewardship plan in your church or ministry
How to demonstrate accountability for managing your funds
To use reports and fund accounting to make strong financial choices
How to monitor giving trends within your congregation to gauge financial health

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To create a culture of generosity in your church, having a stewardship focus for only two to three weeks in the fall isn’t enough. It will require an intentional, ongoing conversation about generosity and giving with your congregation. This webinar will help you cultivate faithful generosity that will lead to generous giving all year long.

In under an hour, you will learn how to:

Understand the Principles of Stewardship
Part of being a pastor is being a good steward of the resources God has provided for your church. When it comes to stewardship, Bill Cox, a Christian businessman, suggests: prayer and planning go together, visions need resources, the budgeting process is your friend, and your emphasis on money should be balanced. Read more about Cox’s “Seven Financial Stewardship Principles for Churches.”
Implement a Stewardship Plan in Your Church or Ministry
Make a plan to keep the value of generosity in front of your congregation throughout the entire year, not just during the holiday season. Try telling stories about the work God is doing in and through your church. Encourage people to be generous with their time and talents as well as their finances. You may also want to take steps to ensure your church accounting is above board.
Demonstrate Accountability for Managing Church Funds
Transparency is essential for trust, which leads to generosity. Some ways to build trust include handling your money with integrity, establishing a budget and living within it, practicing good discipline, and communicating openly about your finances to your congregation.
Use Reports and Fund Accounting to Make Strong Financial Choices
Does your church budget line up with your actual expenses? Fund accounting will help you know where your budget is at any moment and if the money you have is allocated for the proper purposes.
Monitor Giving Trends to Gauge the Financial Health of Your Church
When you look at the current giving trends inside and outside the church, is your church on the positive end of the spectrum? Is it different during the holiday season than throughout the rest of the year? Some indicators of financial health are the percentage of people who give, the overall number of contributions your church received in a set amount of time, and how many people are recurring givers. Member management software has been proven to connect giver information with the needed insights to provide a more complete picture of your church’s overall financial health.

If you’re interested in seeing how true church accounting software can help you better track your funds, try Aplos for free.