The Change Group Family is any person or organization that we are able to influence in some way.

My Dream: That you would become friends more than clients.

The power of friendship is huge! Clients come and go, but true friendships last forever. Becoming a client is just a starting point for us.  Our goal is to move those relationships to friendships. We understand that we will never formally work with every church in America, but it is possible to be in The Change Group Family and never exchange any funds. Jesus didn’t command us to “Go into the world trying to pick up as many clients as we possibly can!” He called us to, “Love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” We want every member of our family (whether a client or not) to be treated like family – from the way we answer the phone to the way we respond to conflict.

Here are five ways we are proactive in helping church leaders become friends:

1. Access to our team and relationships

Want our cell phone numbers? Just ask! Want to meet with top church leaders that God has given us relationships with? Just ask! We want to help you and your team grow. We LOVE connecting with people!

2. Add more value than we receive in payment

We believe friends are formed more from giving and making others’ lives better than from taking for ourselves. We do consulting for free all the time. Just call the office.

3. Personalized communication

We want to know every person deeply. That is why for our clients we do a “Get to Know You” form. This allows us to get key information from them that allows us to bless them during the year.

4. Passionate about service

Nothing is too small to ask us. We want to serve you better than you’ve ever been served before.

5. Care about families

We are proactive in talking about more than finances. We want to know about the families we serve.

In sharing my heart with you, I hope it has benefited your life or ministry in some way.

1. My wife: She really is the love of my life. I love you, Kacie! (Yes, we have the same name.)

2. My daughter: Darby, you make my life so much better. Can’t wait for our next date!

3. My team: The Change Group team is amazing. You guys serve churches so well! I am proud of you.

4. The Change Group Family: This is all the churches we serve consistently! Thanks for being a part of the family.

5. Jesus: I once was lost, now I am found. Thank you!

6. Hot wings: I love you so much!  Why do you hurt my stomach so bad?

7. My friends: I have deep community with people, not just shallow friendships! Thanks guys.

8. My assistant: Renee, you really are the most humble servant I have worked with. The years keep flying by! Thanks.

9. Health: Thank you, Lord, for the health of my family and friends right now.

10. Mom and Dad: You guys never missed anything. That made the difference in my life! Thanks.

I was thinking about this the other day and wanted to get others’ thoughts on it.

Do you think it’s okay for churches to buy items (coffee, CD’s, resources, T-shirts, etc.) with the money received through tithes and then sell the items back to people for a “profit”?

Is this a good investment or double dipping?

As a leader I feel like I must continually stop doing stuff. I am tempted to want to do more and more, but I know that as I do less our organization can accomplish more. I have come up with a list of things that I must quit doing in order for our organization to go to the next level.

1. Eliminate the Twitter Distraction

I LOVE Twitter. I would say that I have become addicted to Twitter. I am still staying on Twitter and I will stay connected but I have taken the Twitter App off my phone and I have turned off the Tweet Deck notifications that pop up on my computer screen all day. The reason I am doing this is to provide more focus during the day. I will still be tweeting but not as much. I also do not want to be tempted to look at it while driving my car or hanging with friends and family. I believe this one decision will have positive ramifications in all areas of my life. It will also strengthen my relationship with God. I need my first words in the morning to be from him, not social media.

2. Quit Blogging the Day Of

I am going to get ahead on my blogging and plan the blogs verses just waking up and coming up with something. I believe this will provide you guys with better content and it will save me time by being strategic.

3. Reduce Consulting Travel By 80%

Because the bookkeeping service has done so well, I am about to start cutting out traveling consulting. I LOVE consulting on the road but I love my family more. Frankly, I could make a lot more money if I kept up consulting on the road but I feel like my highest and best use of time is at home with my family and in the home office of The Change Group leading our team. I will continue to work with a few new clients but it will be very limited. I have some GREAT friends in generosity coaching. If you ever want to know, just ask and I will hook you up with the top guys and gals!

4. Being the Lead Sales Guy for our Bookkeeping Service

I have enjoyed launching the service because I believe in it so much but I have got to find one high level person that can be on the phone with church leaders all day talking about our service and how it can add value to their church.

5. Leaving the Office After 5:05

I have been leaving around 5:20 – 5:30. I will be more proactive about leaving on time instead of cramming last minute things in.

6. Packing My Calendar So Much I Can’t Think

My assistant will have to help me manage my desires to want to help everyone all the time with the need to think about the future of how we can serve churches better.

7. Listening To Voicemail

I signed up for Jott Voicemail which transcribes your voicemail and will email it to you.  This will allow me to respond quicker to voicemails and be more efficient.

What do you need to quit doing?

One of the systems that we think is crucial in a church is the First-Time Giver system.  We recommend developing a very simple way to acknowledge the huge decision someone has made to give to the church for the first time.  It is overlooked too many times.  The letter below was sent to me by one of our clients.  They received it in response to the handwritten thank you note sent to her after she gave for the first time at their church. A little goes a long way!

Staff Member,

Thank you so much for the sweet thank you card.  I have never received a thank you card for making an offering before!  So it was a lovely surprise.

That was a special offering for me.  The Lord has been working with me on giving!  I am a visual artist, and one day sold a painting — God told me to give all the money away from that particular sell.  I didn’t know what to do, so I just prayed about it.  In the next couple of weeks I opened my first business account at the bank and knew that I should use my very first check to make that donation.  It was a special moment for me because I felt like I was obeying what God told me to do, and by using the first check it was symbolic of the foundation of my business —  to remember to always do everything for God.

Thank you again for the note, it means so much!
First Time Giver

If you didn’t hear about what Kanye did to Taylor Swift you are probably living under a rock The short version is Taylor Swift, a country superstar, won an award at an awards show and when she was going to give her acceptance speech Kanye stole the mic.  He basically made that moment more about him than anyone else in the room.

In working with churches I have learned that most pastors tell me they are “staff led” and can “make decisions”, but they really can’t do anything financial without the approval of a finance team.  Finance teams, boards, committees or whatever you want to call them are notorious for attracting the “Kanye West” of the church world.

I talk with so many pastors and leaders that are absolutely fed up with their financial team because the people in the room make it more about them than the church.  This post is about who to pick to be on a financial team, it might surprise you.

1.  Bankers, accountants, and bookkeepers oh my!!!

I think all of the above are great professions, but to build your team with people that are strictly financial is not wise.  Financially-minded people are usually people based on facts and figures.  They like order, good reporting, and solid reasoning for things.  While this is important to have, TOO MANY CHURCHES ARE LOADING THEIR TEAMS WITH THESE PEOPLE.  The problem comes when the “entrepreneur” in the group (usually the pastor) starts talking about faith and risk.

I have seen a lot of “Kanye West” moments when the facts and figures don’t work out and the “bean counters” of the group lash out against the vision.  I am absolutely for listening to all of these people, but you have to balance their perspective with faith and risk.  I would not suggest getting all of your so called financial people on your finance team.  Be careful, it will save you heartache.

2.  Pick Bean Creators

Your finance team should have people who know how to make money on the team.  They may not be in the financial services industry but they know how money works.  They are street smart and know how people think.  I would NOT have my whole team full of people like this but I would have a few.  The great thing about bean creators is that they aren’t always looking to CUT stuff out of the budget; they think increase!

The “Kanye West” of this group is that guy who started a business and made a lot of money and thinks he knows everything.  You need to listen to them but balance their opinions with the first group.  Don’t let their pile of cash sway your leadership.

3.  Feelers

I like to have people who aren’t financial at all on the finance team.  They add a middle ground and they understand how people feel, more than they know how to read a spreadsheet.  Feelers are great for perspective and balancing people out.

I guess the point is to be balanced.  Mix the people up and watch out for people who try to make the team about them and their power.

Who else should be on a financial team?

I had a meeting with Andy Stanley one time. I was at a student camp called Big Stuf and he was the speaker. I was a student intern at Mountain Lake Church and we took a lot of kids to camp: 4 kids and 3 counselors! We were in the EARLY days of Mountain Lake and I had just moved from Birmingham. I HAD ZERO idea who Andy Stanley was. I just thought he was a camp speaker so I asked my student pastor, Rodney, to get me a meeting with him. I wanted to share my dreams about the vision I had for college ministry in Birmingham, AL. I really believed that God had given me a vision to change Birmingham with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Rodney got the meeting set up for one night at camp! I wasn’t nervous because I didn’t even know who Andy was. I didn’t know it was a big deal to get on his calendar. I met him backstage before he spoke.

I walked back behind the curtain (like going into the Old Testament temple) and there he was. He was super nice and we did small chat for a few minutes and then he asked, “What did you want to talk to me about?”

I shared my heart, passion, and vision for what I believed God wanted to do in Birmingham. I kept sharing dreams of thousands of people coming to Christ. He then started asking me about my life and what I had going on. I was in school full time, playing baseball for my college, working at a church, etc…. After those questions, he looked at me and said something that changed my life forever.

He said, “It’s easy to think big; it is hard to act small.”

He went on to redirect my vision to make it happen in the current church I was already in. He gave me step by step advice on how to plug in and just be a servant before being a “superstar”.

Here is what I learned:

1. Acting small is necessary for leadership

2. My dream was focused around what I wanted, not what God wanted

3. If someone has a dream that you can tell is off-base a little, you can coach them into a correct path instead of shooting them down

4. Small things lead to big things

5. Our lives can count if we aren’t making a HUGE splash

6. Andy Stanley is a stud!

Let’s just be honest, finances can make or break a church.  I read a lot of things on how to make your church better financially, but let’s talk about some common mistakes that can really kill your church’s finances.

1. Build a Building

Okay, I AM NOT AGAINST BUILDING CHURCH BUILDINGS! However, I have seen too many churches attempt to build something HOPING they will fill it up and it will pay for itself.  Strapping your church with outrageous facility debt can really put a strangle on all of your other church ministries and staff positions.  I see too many church leaders think their answer is MORE space when in reality what they need is the RIGHT space.  There is a big difference in building what an architect draws and thinking through the ramification of too much space with too little people.  If you are going to exceed 25% of your income for ALL your building and facility expenses watch out!  Don’t squeeze the life out of your church so you can have a big building.

2.  Have a Moral Failure

The reason churches struggle financially after a moral failure is lack of trust in the church leadership.  Trusting leadership is a HUGE reason people give what they do financially.  If any moral failure happens to a public figure be prepared for the financial ramifications.

3.  Developing a Vision of the Month

I see this happen with church plants all the time.  We keep changing what we care about, are passionate about, and what we feel “called” to do so we can reach more people.  We think if we can find that right vision niche the church will explode.  Asking people to give to different things and not following through on them will create a trust gap that will ultimately kill your church’s effectiveness.  You aren’t Perry Noble, Steven Furtick, Rick Warren, Andy Stanley, or the cool new cataylst speaker!  You are you!  Do what my pastor Shawn Lovejoy taught me: “No plan is perfect, work your plan.”

It is very hard to budget correctly as a church planter.  Just because it is hard, doesn’t mean you don’t need to do it.  We are going to take a look at the top 5 tips for budgeting in a church plant. I personally believe it is not God honoring stewardship to  live off of a church budget! Most planters we talk to do not have any budget!  Most just spend out of what is left in the checking account.

1.  Budget quarterly

In a church plant everything is changing so quickly it is hard to do a correct forecast.  We suggest working off of 90 day budgets so you can adjust based on the realities of what is going on.  A three month budget can help you be more successful than an annual budget.  You can even do bi-annual budgets as you get a little more stable as a church plant.

2.  Project income based on reality

Take your last three months of income and find the average weekly amount people give.  I would use about 85% of that as the weekly budget for the future.  It is not perfect but it will keep you in reality!  Too many planters bank on crazy attendance growth to provide the funds needed.  Most planters don’t realize that just because attendance grows, doesn’t mean the income will grow.

3.  Be simple

Complexity in budgeting kills the process.  If you create a complex budget, your staff will probably not live off of it!  Easier to understand the better.

4.  Decide on a spending system

You have to make a decision on the front end about how you and your staff will spend money.  I would suggest NOT using credit cards to spend as a church plant.  Requesting a check or debit cards work a lot better for accountability.  I am not against staffs having credit cards but I have just seen so many planters get into debt and not even know it is happening!

5.  Pick a point person

You have to have someone who wakes up in the morning thinking about your budget and your spending.  Who is that person going to be on your team?  You can’t SHARE this responsibility.  At least one person has to own it and hold everyone (including the senior pastor) accountability to the budget!  The budget is boss!

This post is a very real issue that I need your help with.

Meeting with church leaders, I get to see the real motivations about people and money.  I know a lot of church pastors that are constantly calculating that if we grow by “this many” people, we can hire this staff position.  I see churches developing building plans and create projections to see if the new people will pay for the building.

There is a real tension between seeing people’s lives changed and paying the church bills.  The motivations really come out when it gets tight.  So, what is the balance?  Can we have two motivations of seeing lives changed and paying the bills?  When does it become an issue of the church becoming more of a business than a body?

Should we be hoping people get baptized so they then can give to the church?  How do you know if your motives are right or wrong on this whole issue of people and money?