Online Archives

BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMCONNECTION STAFF

In faith, money matters. The bottom line is that finances often play a crucial role in offering outstanding mission and ministry. Churches that struggle financially have a challenging time offering hope to the world.

The Lewis Center for Church Leadership addressed this fact at a conference in March that focused on equipping churches to build a hopeful financial future.

According to the Rev. Lovett H. Weems Jr., director of the Lewis Center, 20 percent of United Methodist congregations are doing pretty well financially. Most others find themselves struggling. In this depressed economic climate, it's easy to be anxious, Weems said. There's a tendency to reach for fads. However, it is the fundamental things that are required for fruitful leadership, including fruitful leadership related to money.

These fundamental foundations of leadership can be summed up in four elements: vision, team, culture and integrity, Weems told the more than 100 people who gathered for the conference at Wesley Seminary.

Vision is the single most common element found whenever there is fruitfulness in the future, said Weems, who defined vision as a preferred future, or a dream that there is a better way.

He cautioned against asking people to give to support an institution, or to help the church grow stronger. Rather, a more biblical vision is that humanity might come to know the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.

"When people are asked to connect their own vision of discipleship with what God is calling the church to do in a particular place and a particular time, they will give," Weems said.

The second essential element is team. When considering how to increase giving, leaders need to begin with the most committed people in their congregations and move outward.

"Think of it in terms of concentric circles, with the most generous people in the smallest, center ring. You begin with strength," said Weems. But don't stop with this circle, offer people the opportunity to grow in their giving.

The third essential element of leadership that leads to a hopeful financial future is creating and nurturing a culture that allows people to live out the vision.

Culture in a church is the ethos, the language, the story, the heroes, the daily routines - all those things we take for granted.

One example of a culture of generosity is one in which the leaders all tithe, and are "willing to wear" the vision they proclaim, said Weems.

The final element is integrity. This is not about ethics or good and bad. Rather, it centers on does a church live the things they profess? What do people experience?

"A church doesn't have to advertise on its sign: "First UMC in the heart of the city with the city on its heart." But if it does, people need to experience the church as being committed to the community. They need to see this claim in action.

Most important, Weems told those at the conference, "money follows mission.

"Be sure that your church is not going into the future as a 'pay-the-bills' kind of church, but as a serve-God kind of church," he said. "Recommit yourself to the basis of the Gospel, the basics of your tradition and the basics of working with people to discern God's vision for your next faithful step."