Over your years of ministry experience, you’ve likely had your fair share of awkward conversations. Senior adults, loudly and with great detail, share the uncomfortable facts of their latest bodily issues. Young parents gushing about the ins and outs of little Darla’s latest medical diagnosis. Parents and teenagers spill the details of their dysfunctional relationships as you gain a glimpse inside the lives of people you thought you knew. But there is one topic of conversation that, at first blush, presents as the third rail of ministry: Money.

If you want to guarantee a low attendance Sunday, let the congregation know that you’ll be teaching on Biblical Stewardship of our God-Given Resources the following week. Regardless of how people feel about it, financial stewardship and its subsequent patterns are an additional character in the narrative of a congregation.

To borrow the illustrative model of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, in every congregation, some characters comprise the narrative of how the story of that congregation plays out. If the unity was portrayed as a weak older woman, you know that strife, division, and gossip will be firm friends gathered in the foyer. If truth is the primary protagonist, then you can be sure that deception will always be lingering in the shadows to assail any who dare to venture too far from the center. 

In the same way, stewardship is an actor that reveals much about the congregational characters as a whole. Remember that Jesus made it clear that “where your treasure is, there your heart will also be (Matthew 6:21).”

As a network leader, you can look at financial stewardship and the patterns it creates in two dimensions: What It reveals about the Church and what it reveals about the value of the Network to the church.

What it Reveals about the Church

The stewardship lens is one of the initial lenses that help us, consultants, quickly assess a church. When considering sitting down with a church to evaluate their possible next steps toward meaningful progress, the church’s giving trends over the last five years can, at times, provide perspective on the strengths and roadblocks the congregation may be encountering as they look to the future. As a denominational leader, you may already have access to this data from annual reporting mechanisms. But, even a few simple questions can be revealing, such as: Over the last five to seven years, has the financial giving of the congregation trended up, down, plateaued, or been sporadic? Why do you think that is? What does it reveal about the state of the church? These trends can function as smoke signals that, if followed through additional questions, can lead to a source of health that can fuel the future or challenges that may hinder future progress. 

Consider the information in Figure 1.1; what questions may it raise? For me, it would cause me to ask questions like do they have a clear sense of knowing what God has called them to accomplish together, is it apparent that there is unity among the church body, or are they filled with conflict that causes some people to hold back funds regularly until they get their way? 

The critical insight into the financial trends of the church is not a question of strategy and practice but rather a question of stewardship and surrender: Is this church surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus in all areas of their lives, including finances? As a caveat, there are sometimes unicorn financial situations within the context of a church, such as a bookkeeper’s error where the church was 10k short of what their reports indicated. Most of the time, though, as a network leader, you can discern at least three certain realities from a congregation’s financial faithfulness pattern: Vision Clarity, Collective Unity, and Spiritual Vitality. 

Vision Clarity

When a church has a clear vision of the future that God is pulling them, they align its resources to achieve that vision.  Such alignment can indicate that the congregation owns and embraces the trajectory of where God is taking them; therefore, there is a more significant reason for them to support that vision financially.  When a congregation feels like they are part of a vision that brings them closer to God, there is a greater likelihood that they will financially support that vision out of the joy of playing a part in what God is doing and the benefit it will be for others. 

However, if there is no clear vision of the future story God is writing amid a congregation, then people’s support will only extend as far as their perceived temporal needs are being met.  This creates a “get by giving” financial situation that may indicate the church is functioning in a  maintenance mode. This type of scenario is hard for any pastor or leader to navigate for long-term future viability and growth.

Collective Unity

If a congregation isn’t unified, the individual financial contributions become alms for rewarding or deserts for punishing. In the absence of unity, the individual parts that make up the whole congregation base their giving on their individual felt needs or preferences. Stewardship of resources isn’t about contributing to the health of the whole; instead, it can be focused on keeping the status quo of the content few.

A congregation who are collectively unified in their mission of what God has called them to do generously display that through their financial stewardship. The individuals who comprise the whole church body see that their financial investment into the work benefits those they serve and love. A people who are unified wholly give willingly for the benefit of the whole.. 

Spiritual Vitality 

An additional factor for a network leader to consider is that the financial trends of a congregation reveal the spiritual vitality of the disciples being developed in the context of the church. Suppose a congregation has a healthy programmatic emphasis, plenty of activities for various generations, and several staff to ensure that the church’s activities keep functioning. Still, the financial trajectory over the long term grows stagnant because spiritual maturity, dependence on God, and authentic sacrificial worship is absent. In that case, this likely reveals a breakdown in the church’s disciple-making effectiveness or spiritual vitality.

A church concerned about the whole development of the body of Christ sets the model for the disciple as to how Jesus would live if he had our family, job, kids, spouse, neighbors, and finances. When a congregation embraces this idea of discipleship in its context, stewardship of our God-given resources becomes a non-negotiable. This type of church will see a steady increase in financial stability over the long term as long as it focuses on the biblical development of the whole person. 

Trends Spur Questions

The bottom line is that financial trends do not necessarily reveal the whole picture of a congregational circumstance. But they do unearth questions based on their overall trajectory. Use the following grid to consider the types of questions you could ask a church based on their financial trajectory. 

What It Reveals About the Value of the Network

While the financial patterns within a specific congregation communicate various narratives in its particular bubble, the financial patterns of the contributions to a network have a much broader story. When the individuals who make up the church contribute to the work of the ministry in their local congregation, they do so because they see a relatively immediate return on that financial investment: Services are weekly, the staff is active, programs are functioning, and the ministry is happening. 

However, when the network leader evaluates the financial contribution of individual churches to the network itself, that communicates something else entirely. It may indicate whether or not the church believes that the network can do something beyond what the church can accomplish on its own. Specifically, the second dimension of the giving analysis for the denominational leader can be an indicator of the perceived value of the network to the church and the level of confidence they may or may not have in whether the network will be able to help them get to where they are trying to go as a church.

Indicator of Value

One of the number one questions a network leader is asked in today’s religious culture is, “What value does the network bring to our church?” Suppose a church isn’t financially or is minimally contributing to the network. In that case, it is an indicator that either the church or the pastor doesn’t see the benefits of investing financially into the work of the local/regional network. There are a few reasons that they may have this perception. 

1. They believe that the network cannot provide something new or innovative to help them advance the mission in their context.

2. They possess a different perspective on how the network should deliver value to the local church/pastors. Therefore, the church puts its potential investment resources in other places of greater interest where they have agreement or alignment.

3. The church perceives the network as a resource center whose sole objective is to work with struggling or failing churches in their context.

Regardless, a lack of financial investment in the network indicates that the perceived value proposition of what the network does or offers is low.

However, a network that is capable of communicating the value that it brings to the missionally healthy churches, in particular, will, in most cases, see a steady or increased financial investment. This will likely occur because the local body of believers, through their pastor and leadership, see the benefits of their network’s engagement. 

Next Step Insights

It’s important to note that in some networks, the root cause of a decreased investment from the local church couple simply be a decreased giving within the bodies of believers. A reduced financial investment from the body will inevitably affect the other organizations dependent upon the local church further down the line. 

But this is why the network or denominational leader must have a healthy fundamental understanding of how to flash assess a church’s finances. As a reminder, the network or denomination exists to serve the churches in a way they cannot typically serve themselves. 

An individual pastor or church may be feeling the pressure of reduced financial provisions due to internal congregational pressures, there may be an economic depression in the region due to cultural and socioeconomic shifts, or there may be a combination of certain situations that are coming together in a single moment in time.

The network leader who can recognize these trends and tendencies can better assist churches in taking a next step. Some churches’ financial struggles reveal that they are in need of making meaningful progress by entering into a period of prayer. Others may reveal that a spiritual awakening needs to happen in their midst. Still, others may need a collective realignment of where God will lead them in their next season. 

In some cases, a pattern of increased financial contributions may reveal an opportunity for collective work among congregations that can take place in a community to alleviate financial pressures. The network leader may be able to connect an economically depressed region of churches with a financially stable congregation from another part of town to advance the gospel mission of them all.

The network or denominational leader that adds this giving lens to their bag of resources that they bring to a network of congregations is in a position to bring greater value to those whom they serve, thus potentially advancing the growth of the local church and raising the perceived value of the local network. 

Giving analysis is one of several lenses that we coach associations, denominations, and network leaders through in our Discovering Next Approach for consultants in the third phase of the Prism Process. 

If you’d like more information about the Prism Process or to discuss how The Reinolds Group can help strengthen your association or work with you to strengthen the churches in your association or network, let’s set up a conversation at 

ThePrismProcess.com/contact-us