This past year we were able to play a small but strategic role in helping secure over $100 million dollars in between capital campaign commitments and increases in the weekly tithes and offerings in churches all around the country.
For years we evaluated the success of our ministry by the percentage increase in the number of people connected, the number of new leaders and the quality of our production. But that will forever be changed as a result of this year’s harvest.
Most of the churches we have worked with over the years are either gearing up for a capital campaign or winding one down. Growing churches require resources, and when I served on the staff at Willow Creek and then at Saddleback, I learned that if we could connect a person into a small group, their giving would increase exponentially–in some cases doubling and even tripling. In addition, small group leaders actually gave an additional 20% simply because they became “owners,” not just group attendees. So the goal of getting people into community became not just a spiritual initiative but a financial growth opportunity.
When I was first approached by Kenton Beshore, the senior pastor at Mariners Church in Southern California, to align a capital campaign with the launch of small groups, it felt like a mixed message, but I’ve come to realize this is a great way to help people grow spiritually, relationally, and help fulfill the financial goals of the church.
Mariners went from 1,500 to 6,000 people in groups that year, in part because Kenton and his staff were motivated to get people aligned with the mission, vision and values of the capital campaign, allowing it to be a spiritual adventure and not just a financial expectation.
Since that time, we have produced dozens of church campaigns and professionally published curriculum series that are designed from the ground up to renew the vision and values of a church AND seek to increase the annual giving levels of its members. We did one for Greg Surratt called “I See a Church” that connected over 10,000 people into groups, and another with Jim and Jen Cowart at Harvest Church called “Livingthe Five” that launched 300 groups, and yet another called “What Am I Here For?” with Josh Peigh at Heartland Church, best known for being the first multisite church in America, that launched 350 groups.
In a previous season, I met with J.D. Greear at The Summit Church in Raleigh, NC where we developed the first fully-integrated full-color curriculum and sermon alignment series for a capital campaign. We helped them not only develop the curriculum, but also launch groups during the capital campaign season. The results were far and above what they’d hoped for and attributed the alignment with the series as a critical role in its success. It was then that I began to realize a greater opportunity.
Then last fall, we worked with Miles McPherson at Rock Church in San Diego to help them develop a breakthrough town hall curriculum production that engaged a live conversation with 40 members of his congregation all captured on video to watch in home in the comforts of a living room. In addition, we produced a music video featuring their entire worship team in the new town hall format and an off campus video driven worship experience–you have to see it to believe it! Finally, we produced a full-color magazine style print curriculum that had hundreds of photos from their congregation. They had never imagined the first impression and momentum if would create. They went on to launch 400 new groups and connect 8,000 people. See the full All In case study here!
We also partnered with Dr. David Jeremiah at Shadow Mountain Church to kick off 2016 with a church-wide stewardship and generosity series titled Generosity for the Generations designed to keep these concepts “top of mind” for his congregation at the start of the new year. We loved producing his town hall video shoot and even shot companion editions for Spanish, Youth, and Children. Check out the Adult English print curriculum and companion
Spanish print curriculum.
Over the years we have partnered with most of the major capital campaign companies including RSI, John Maxwell’s group and, most recently, Generis and the Gage Group. Our process and resources work hand-in-hand with any capital campaign ministry or consulting service.
One of the other developments is to partner with a church to write and produce a financial video curriculum series based on a past or present sermon series by a pastor. This is like their own version of Financial Peace, Good Sense or Howard Dayton’s material taught by the pastor. The advantage here is that it is a timeless resource to bring back year after year as a core curriculum class at a church.
We also have a pre-written stewardship series which has become one of our leading semi-custom curriculum series used by churches for a basic stewardship emphasis. This four-week series on time, talent, treasure, and trust is guaranteed to raise the level of your regular giving. It can be a perfect companion to a four-week series anytime in the year, a fall kick-off series, a January stewardship initiative, or aligned with a capital campaign. Check out how we customized it for Dale Oquist’s series, “Crazy Generosity” . With this series, you can see weekend teaching sample sermons and small group scripts. All you need is a week window and you would be ready to roll.
We have Capital Campaign Packages that include not only the video-based sermon series but also daily video devotions captured from the senior staff and church leaders and a full-color study guide with hundreds of photographs from your ministry. We can shoot in a town hall formatand can even produce live worship from your worship team.
If you are interested in doing a capital campaign or stewardship series, contact us today!