Michael Reeves, Senior Associate Pastor at St. Andrew UMC, Plano Texas is the author of several books about stewardship and teaches a class in Faith & Money at Perkins School of Theology. Rev. Reeves was the presenter at the sixth annual Northern Illinois Conference Stewardship Conference sponsored by the NIC Foundation. Rev. Reeves acknowledged that “everyone is now affected by the economy,” and he offered a plan of action for a church stewardship in tough economic times which includes:

Defining and communicating the reality of the financial situation of the church.
Resetting expectations for an environment in which church programs may be decreased.
Seizing the moment because “it is time of adversity that we ought to draw together, not break apart in depression.

Reeves also suggested a cultural shift; instead of thinking about budgets and stewardship campaigns only in terms of finance, the goal of the Church Stewardship Committee (a committee beyond finance) needs to be “education, communication and inspiration.” Part of education is to create “ministry moments” which communicate about what people’s investments have afforded. Another goal is to get people to think about their spiritual priorities. “What is the effect of junk we buy and don’t need?” asked Reeves. Finally, it is important to get people to understand their responsibility in stewardship – “that stewardship is holy discipleship.”

“People hear 75,000 commercial messages a year – advertising for cars, underwear and ziploc bags but they usually get just one letter from church and hear one sermon a year on the topic of giving back to God,” Reeves said. He offered these suggestions for a four week stewardship campaign: first week, have congregation members write down something they love about the church and bring it with them on Sunday, second week, have members write about someone who had made a difference in their spiritual journey at the church, third week, have members write about their greatest dream for the church. The last step, involves framing what has just happened – reminding members that they have just celebrated what they love, who they love, and what they hope for – now let’s celebrate how we are going to make this happen.