Few subjects challenge us more than giving, especially in our abundance-driven culture. How do we, as pastors and stewardship leaders, guide and disciple our people in this vital area? In this episode of Stewardship Leader, we talk with Todd McMichen, Director of Generosity at Lifeway Christian Resources, to learn their strategy and the resources they've developed to help pastors disciple in generosity.

KNUCKLEHEADS IN ISOLATION, DRINKING BLACK COFFEE is a daily (Monday through Thursday) chat over coffee where Kyle and Matt welcome pastors and SBC leaders from all over the country to offer some laughs and encouragement as we face the Coronavirus Pandemic––together. This edition features the audio from our chats with Bart Barber and Todd McMichen, which we recorded on Wednesday and Thursday, March 25 & 26. Check out Generosity by LifeWay: https://lifewaygenerosity.com Follow Bart Barber on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bartbarber Follow Todd McMichen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ToddMcMichen

On the latest episode of The Church Leadership Podcast, Mark and Andy have a powerful conversation with Todd McMichen about stewardship, generosity, and leading a church to be generous. Todd serves as the Director of LifeWay Generosity. He owned his own capital campaign company for over ten years, and served on staff  in various roles, including as a generosity pastor. If you or your church need some encouragement or direction on joy-filled giving and investing in the Kingdom, this conversation is a wonderful help. As a bonus, when you listen to this episode there will be a great resource Todd mentions that you and your church can access for free!

To take advantage of the free resource Todd mentions in the Podcast, contact Generosity by Lifeway at https://lifewaygenerosity.com and mention you heard about it on the Church Leadership Podcast!

Get your copy of Todd’s book, Leading a Generous Church today!

Quotables

“You really can grow generosity without preaching more on money. Preaching more on money is not your solution.” “So, you just take those three things: God is a generous God. We are created in His image. And giving feels awesome for everybody. However, when we get to the church on Sunday morning, none of those things seem to matter.”

“So, you just take those three things: God is a generous God. We are created in His image. And giving feels awesome for everybody. However, when we get to the church on Sunday morning, none of those things seem to matter.” –Todd McMichen on Episode…
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“…We measure our success on how much money comes in, and it feels very transactional, as opposed to leading with transformation.” “The very first story in the entire bible, about the very first family doing their very first activity together, is a generosity activity.” “The Church has just fallen behind in what’s very normal out there in the culture today.” “People don’t want to give to a problem… They want to give to something that’s making an impact.”

“People don’t want to give to a problem… They want to give to something that’s making an impact.” –Todd McMichen on Episode 41 of the Church Leadership Podcast
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“Two of the biggest giving heroes in the bible: the widow and her mite, and the young boy with the fishes. It’s not about amount. It’s about hearing God’s Word, being obedient, and letting Him take care of the rest.”

Breakthrough ideas with Todd: 

• 74% of churches have online giving, but they only receive about 15% of their income through digital avenues.
• 90% of our personal wealth is contained in our assets not in liquid cash – what if your church had a way to enable generosity in this way?
• What happens if you’ve got one alpaca too many?
• What does a generous human being look like?
• What would it be like to have a church filled with generous people?
• Lifeway Generosity is turning every smartphone into an offering plate.
• Your members are giving above and beyond dollars every single week to somebody… why not the church.
• The outside the church around generosity has completely changed from 20 years ago.
• So 20 years ago as leaders in the church we have been afraid to talk about money because that’s a personal private matter, that’s changed.
• Millennials are very generous, and they are socially generous.
• if the church is going to catch up, we have got to be more confident in socializing generosity.
• If a millennial is in worship on Sunday morning and you’re welcoming them, and you go through the entire worship service, and you’ve not told them the power of a dollar given to your local church, the difference it’s making, you’re turning them off.
• Any time we’re about to pass the plate, anchor the moment in what your people can become by giving and tell a story of what the giving is doing.
• The millennial generation doesn’t see different types of generosity differently. So serving generosity is equal to financial generosity.
• 84% of millennials, on average, are giving to nonprofits. And when they give, they give almost $500 annually, and they give to three different nonprofits.
• The millennial generation is generous. They’re just not giving in ways the church has readily acknowledged and accepted easily.
• Every generous church we find is led by a generous pastor
• We didn’t learn how to raise money and disciple people in their generosity in seminary. Here’s what to do.
• Sometimes exegeting somebody’s life situation and helping them understand how generosity affects their relationship with Christ is as important.
• What would you do if you had to cut 25% out of your budget next year?
• Every first time givers was at some time a first time guest. Hospitality impacts generosity.
• You can’t turn on joy across the congregation 30 seconds before the offering plate passes, joy starts in the parking lot.
• Those churches that really welcome people well, seem to be some of those churches that are overflowing with generosity
• When a church raises this budget 5% in advance, they start the fiscal year out, it’s behind, but everybody’s spending.
• Instead of creating a 105% budget, what if you did 98%? It changes the game for you. So you’re not actually spending less, it’s just a completely different way of thinking and feeling about it.
• There is a massive problem that pastors are unaware of. Total giving has flat-lined or a little bit up, but the number of givers is on dramatic decline.
• Attendance is going down, but giving is staying the same.
• We are going to lose 10 million givers in the Boomer generation. You can’t stop that from happening. You don’t know it’s happening.
• Should a pastor know how much someone gives or doesn’t give? And how do we disciple the key donor?
• The number one missing ingredient in the budget process is a yearly goal.

Breakthrough resources in this episode: 

Generospitality eBook

LifeWay Generosity

The Genius of Generosity by Chip Ingram

Webinar: Your Most Welcoming, Generous Christmas Yet!

Todd McMichen has served local churches for over 30 years in a variety of roles from small rural congregations to church plants to mega-churches. His generosity roots rise from leading multiple capital campaigns for two churches where he served as a staff member, raising over $35,000,000 for their visionary projects. Since 2000, Todd has been a well-established stewardship coach, generosity leader, author, and conference speaker. He now serves as the Director of LifeWay Generosity & Digital Giving. Todd is a graduate of Palm Beach Atlantic College in West Palm Beach, Florida and Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, Theresa. Visit Todd’s blog at toddmcmichen.com or follow him on twitter @toddmcmichen.

How can you achieve your goals if you do not know what they are or what they mean? In this session, Todd will talk about the importance of not only knowing what your goals are with your church, but how to define them as well.

https://www.arcchurches.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/ARC16OC/discovering_and_defining_your_churchs_vision_and_values.mp3

Every church planter and pastor dreams big dreams! Every pastor also knows what it is like to get stuck. Then you can be at the end of one dream while staring up the mountain at another dream knowing that you have never been their before. When vision is fuzzy we can default to a plug and play ministry model or even worse we adopt the generic vision of another church. God wires each pastor and church to fulfill His purpose in unique and powerful ways. This APP Session will help you gain new tools you can take back to your leadership to develop a visionary path that will never cease inspiring and directing.

https://www.arcchurches.com/wp-content/uploads/podcasts/discovering_and%20_defining_your_churchs_vision_and_values.mp3