Joe Sangl is one of my favorite people in the world, because he’s always fired up! But I also love the ministry that Joe brings to churches all around the country. Joe’s financial learning experience is one of the best things you could do in your church, especially if it’s tied to a teaching series on money. Here’s why I believe this works.

1. It’s practical

The seminar talks about spending, saving and insurance – not just theoretical stuff. You can tell your people that this seminar isn’t going to teach them how to give more money to the church, but really help them in the nitty-gritty, everyday kind of stuff.

2. It’s short

A twelve-week study is great, but let’s face it…that’s going to keep a lot of people away because it’s too big of a step. The FLE happens in one night, and people walk away with stuff they can immediately do. If you follow up with one-on-one coaching or some other form of personal financial ministry, you’ll see even better results.

3. It offers hope

Joe’s story is incredible, and it will encourage your people, as well as challenge and teach them. People need to know that they CAN DO SOMETHING. Joe does a great job teaching people what the BIble says, and you’ll hear his heart for the local church in his message, but people won’t leave feeling hopeless.

The best place to start is with THIS RESOURCE! Joe is amazing and is best in the world!

OR

Have Joe come to your church by starting HERE!

1.   Leadership development of your staff. It’s often one of the first things to get cut when money gets tight, but it’s one of the most important things you can do to ensure a healthy staff.  Spend money to bring people in to talk to your team and send people to conferences – you will not regret the long-term benefits.

2.   Spiritual development of your staff. Leadership development is one thing, but make sure that you are taking care of your staff team spiritually.  Get away for spiritual retreats and spend money on soul-care, not just idea generating conferences.  The same thing applies to your volunteers and leaders by the way.

3.   Giving kiosks. So many churches avoid these tools because of the up-front cost or the fear of what people will think, but the bottom line is that a $3,000 investment could result in increased money for ministry.

4.   Children and students. People who say the next generation is the future of the church are wrong – children and students are the PRESENT.  I know you feel like you’re sinking money into a ministry that doesn’t produce money (after all, kids don’t give that much money), but you’re being a good steward with people.  And when you meet the needs of children and students, their parents will take notice.

5.   Missions and church planting. Sadly, this is another thing that gets cut when money gets tight, but don’t do it!  When you invest in missions and church planting, you’re investing in the Kingdom of God.  God will honor and bless that faithfulness.

I work with a lot of amazing churches who leverage God’s resources to reach their communities and spread the Gospel.  But here’s three things I think churches should NOT spend money on:

1.  Stuff that other churches have. Conferences are great, but they can also be a great source of temptation.  Don’t spend money trying to be like some other church – set a budget based on what God wants you to do in your community.

2. Cool toys. I’m sure it would be cool for your staff to have the latest iPad or that a few more intelligent lights would make the tech team happy, but the bottom line is that these expenses probably don’t get more people to church or help them follow Jesus.

3.  Subsidizing Bible studies. A lot of churches kill the budgets by absorbing the cost of a $10 Bible Study book, but the bottom line is that a Christian who wants to do a Bible Study can probably come up with $10.  Reserve some money to help people who cannot afford the fees, but don’t feel the need to pay for everyone’s spiritual growth.

What would you add to this list?  Leave a comment.

My friend and mentor Billy Hornsby passed away last night.  He fought cancer as hard as you can, but last night his journey on earth ended.  For the past few years Billy took me under his wing and gave me great advice on family, life, church, fishing, hunting, and especially eating!  That man knew how to cook well and eat well!

Billy gave me many tips, but today I’m going to share what he taught me about funding a vision.

Billy’s Big 3:

1. Live for their cause and they will live for yours

Billy taught me the principle of just helping people accomplish their vision and you will get yours accomplished.  Most pastors I work with are, frankly, just trying to get everyone to accomplish their “vision from God”.  The churches I know that don’t struggle with money spend their time empowering their people to accomplish what they want to accomplish rather than establishing what will happen and trying to talk people into doing it.

As a pastor are you living for your staff or making them live for you?  Do you serve your people or do you plan how they can serve you?

2. Be a friend and you will get the funds

Billy was  a friend to people and people wanted to give him money.  Sure he had to ask, but it wasn’t hard because he had so much relational equity with people.  Just be a friend to people and love them well!  It makes the ask so much easier.

3. You can finesse people for funding and then they will hate you

Billy called me out in our first meeting.  He told me I was about “finesse”.  Then he told me that he believed in me and was going to show me a new way.  I didn’t know that I was a “finesse” person at the time, but I was.  People that finesse and manipulate other people RARELY know they do it.  Billy helped me understand that I could get stuff out of people one time by finessing them, but if I was a friend to them and really loved them, you will never lack for anything.

I’m just telling you, it works.  Since meeting Billy, I have had my second “salvation” on how to treat people.  You can do a campaign and finesse people.  You can think short term and get what you want now.  But reality is you will look up one day and lack for resources and relationships.  Be careful how you treat people!

We love Billy!  Listen to his counsel and see that it works.

I have had a lot of stuff happen over the last few days.  Probably dealt with more stuff than I have dealt with in my life.  Watching life happen in the lives of those around me has been crazy.  One of my best friends is fighting cancer and not doing well. A few other friends are going through crazy pain.  The crazy part of all of this is that I have been praying a prayer that my friend David Putman challenged me to pray – “Jesus, show me your way.”

I would suggest you not pray this prayer unless you want complete clarity in your life.  As I prayed it, everything started breaking loose around me.  This past Monday night at 6:15PM Central God spoke to me as clearly as I have ever been spoken to.  He said, “Carry Their Mat”.

I knew what it meant.  It meant, “I haven’t called you to be a leader, communicator, giving guy, blogger, owner, founder, motivator, or anything else that has to do with what you do for a living.  I have called you to be a friend, period.”  The scripture of the 4 guys carrying a man to Jesus is the vision he placed in my head.

In scripture we see that Jesus was a friend as much, if not more than anything.  He was a friend of sinners and deeply loved the lost, the least, and the lonely.

God helped me care for the least last week when I held the poor children of Ecuador in my arms.  God helps me care for a group of 6th grade boys that I lead every week that are lost in many areas of life.  God has given me a front row seat to the lonely and broken recently.

The reason I do what I do is because it is an excuse for relationships with people.   I believe God has called me to be a friend to my wife, my kids, my inner circle, my team, ministry leaders & business owners.  All of this chaos in my life caused me to ask, “What is life all about?”  For me, it is about friendship.  It is about carrying the mat for paralyzed people.

Are you paralyzed by fear, finances, family, addiction, taking a risk, being yourself, being honest, being found out, lack of friends, or anything else?  If so, email me casey@givingrocket.com and know you will have a friend praying for you today.

When I die there is going to be a lot of things that could be said, but I’m shooting for my tombstone to say,  ”A Faithful Friend To The Lost, The Least & The Lonely.”

What do you want to be on your tombstone?

I have the cure for your weak offerings today.  The problem is we only have a limited number of vaccinations! (64 To Be Exact)

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Financial increase isn’t as hard as you think it is.  If you will simply invest a few minutes of time and energy each week and let us do the rest for you, you will win financially.

Check out this story that was not solicited by us, but was just posted on the blog two weeks ago:

“In the 3 months that we’ve been doing the giving talks, we’ve seen a 50% increase in our weekly offering. And that’s the only thing we changed. We didn’t really start doing any kind of follow-up (yet). We just started doing the 2-4 minute talks before offering and that’s been huge for us. God’s really working through it and it really is simple to get started.”

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I will admit, our team has been WAY behind the curve with leveraging Facebook to help your church with funding.  That is changing! 

We are about to leverage it as much as we can to help churches create conversations about funding their vision!

Scroll down a little and on the right side of this page you can LIKE my page.  We are about to ramp it up big time and have personalized interaction with you guys there!

Give it a LIKE!

My client list spans from Pre-Launch churches to mega churches and the one common denominator in all of the churches we work with is the willingness of the leader to invest in their education.

Many church leaders I talk with think they want to learn about increasing giving in their church, but they don’t want to invest any money or time into their education.  The biggest reason we see church leaders not invest in their education is the belief that “My Church Is Different”.

We agree that your heart, philosophy, vision, mission, and strategies are different, but after working thousands of hours and with hundreds of churches we know for an absolute fact that our strategies will work in any church.  It doesn’t matter if your church is 50 people or 10,000 people; they work.  Don’t believe me?  Just ask these guys…

1. Revolution Church – San Antonio, TX (Attendance 270)

When we started working with Pastor Zak White, they were pre-launch.  He recently told me after attending our giving intensive that their giving has increased by 100% in 2 quarters.  Two quarters ago, their giving was around 30k.  This first quarter of the year they already have taken in 60k and have the rest of March to go!  The key to their success is Zak’s bold faith and ability to make the ask from early on in his church plant.

Zak is a member of GivingRocket.com.  The bottom line, he is the hero because he can take everything we teach and contextualize it.  They are Gold Level Members and have seen these type of results.

2. Word Alive – Oxford, AL (Attendance 2,100)

Working with Pastor Kent Maddox has probably been the most fun I’ve had this year.  That guy is an amazing guy!  They have seen a 938% increase in net income from last January & February to this one.  Their major transformation has been in the area of just talking about money from the stage on the weekends.  For 10 years, they have been silent.  Now they have a balanced teaching approach and people are responding very well.

They are a Diamond Member of GivingRocket.com, which is our most hands on relationship.

3. The Journey Church – Murray, KY (Attendance 275)

Pastor Matt Johnson is the Founding and Lead Pastor at The Journey.  Being in a college area, 50% of their attenders are college students.  This creates an interesting dynamic when it comes to the church’s finances since college students typically do not have any money.  Even with this, Matt has been bold in his challenge in the area of generosity and they have seen a 66% increase in their weekend offering ($3,200 to $4,800 in weekend giving).

They are Platinum level members of GivingRocket.com and have been through our Giving Intensive process.

In closing, I honestly want to work with your church and I believe that the best place for you to start is with a Gold Membership. Sign up today!!

Here is the formula to Be Broke as a church:

1. Don’t have a written spending plan that is RIGOROUSLY followed

2. Build too much to fast

3. Don’t budget in margin

4. Think you will always be broke

5. Don’t invest in your education in this area

6. Don’t have a financial dashboard

7. ____________________________________________

You fill in the blank! What are some ways for churches to remain broke?

This is why I am SO passionate about as many of you as possible joining GivingRocket.com Membership Program. I will try to bribe you to join because we are getting stories back of churches with MASSIVE financial increase quickly.

Join Now with NO risk… We will pay you back if you don’t get the benefit we promise.