Olanda Carr, Jr., Ministry Relations Officer for the Presbyterian Foundation, presented the workshop “Drafting a winning stewardship and generosity team” at the Stewardship Kaleidoscope conference Sept. 26 in St. Louis.

Calling on the metaphor of a winning football team – which he recognized as incomplete, but memorable and valuable – Carr outlined a plan to assemble and activate church members for year-round stewardship.

Acknowledging there are gifted people in each church who may be very talented, and who could complete stewardship tasks and campaigns alone, he still encouraged a team approach.

“If you have a team approach, you get a more varied perspective on what it means to view stewardship,” Carr said.

First down

First, Carr believes a better understanding of stewardship is needed. “If you don’t understand the game, you can’t put a team around it,” he said.

Describing stewardship is a journey, he encouraged workshop attendees to start with prayer and an understanding of what the Bible says about being a steward. That understanding, when shared with others is the beginning of a theology of stewardship that goes beyond concepts of money, budgets and paying bills.

“Stewardship is the church’s theological antidote to the chief idols of our age; consumerism, materialism, and acquisition,” Carr said. “It is about the joyous discipline of thanking God with the way we live our lives and spend and share our money.”

He suggested looking at stewardship as more than merely the means of collecting money for the needs of the church and exploring how “gratitude, spiritual growth, making choices, caring for all that God has given us, disciple-making along with our time, talent and treasure.”

Field goal

With this theological grounding and understanding of generosity, it’s possible to assemble a winning team that can go beyond raising money for “cleaning the carpet, lawn service and keeping the lights on.” Effective organizations, he said, weave these into their generosity program by explaining how staff positions and facilities help to fulfill the mission of the church, often using narrative budgets to tell their story.

“It’s not a once-a-year event and it isn’t about money,” Carr said. “It’s not fundraising – though there are things to learn from effective fundraising principles. It isn’t meeting a budget or about us as individuals or the church.”

Carr suggested three areas of recruitment: The Squad (Generosity Team), The Offense (Session or Church Council), and a Quarterback (the Pastor).

As in sports where “you may not remember each individual player,” the Squad is a well-rounded team with representatives from each program area and expertise in facilities, communication and management.

“We’re not looking for a star, we need great overall players,” he said, adding this group should have the year-round task of coordinating storytelling, financial asks and planning opportunities to say thank you to givers.

The Offense (Session or Church Council) charters the Generosity Team and is on the forefront of giving, offering their pledges first as an example to the congregation and providing support to the Generosity Team for their activities.

The Quarterback (Pastor) builds relationships, relays their own giving experience and preaches regularly about giving – at least once a month. As the most visible member in most congregations, the pastor helps to energize giving and say thank you corporately and on an individual level.

“This takes a team, all working together and united with the goal of changing the stewardship culture of the congregation,” Carr concluded. “Utilizing the talents of many people in the congregation brings the energy level up, challenges the congregation and invites people to be part of funding the ministry God has called you to do instead of just raising money.”

Olanda Carr Jr. is a Ministry Relations Officer for the Presbyterian Foundation. If you would like to speak to Carr or find the Ministry Relations Officer that serves your region, visit the Foundation web site’s MRO page, which you can find here. If you’d like to see a video of Carr’s 2017 presentation on the same topic, you can watch that here.