Church of God Publications Offers Giving Methods
Church of God Publications/Pathway Press is offering alternative methods and techniques to encourage giving at the local church.
“One of the most pressing issues facing pastors and leaders right now is the level of giving and the church budget,” stated David Ray, director of Church of God Publications. “The reality is, none of us know how the next several weeks and months are going to unfold.”
Ray went on to explain Specialized Remittance Giving Envelopes, designed to help facilitate giving through mail and credit card.
“This method has been successfully utilized by Pastor Travis Johnson and the Pathway Church of God in Mobile, Ala.,” Ray said. “Pastor Johnson has generously shared this giving tool, along with a Stewardship Giving Strategy.”
The strategy involves a five-week period, the first of which involves a letter with giving envelopes. The letter directs people to give online or via text if that is an option for the church. The envelopes facilitate giving by check, credit, or debit and also have the option for people to automate the giving process. Week three and letter two involves a new letter with another giving envelope, this time, with the goal to communicate how many people have automated their giving with a challenge to double that number. In the fifth week and third letter (envelope included) should communicate how well the church responded to the previous goal.
“In all cases, the giving envelope isn’t the main business,” Johnson states in the strategy, “rather, encouragement and edification is the primary purpose of the letters. However, the letters and the giving envelopes are a reminder to give. The added bonus is that it encourages folks who are not accustomed to giving online, to do so if that is an option for your church.”
According to Johnson, benefits of the five-week letter and envelope strategy are it helps bridge the gap in order to maintain giving during this challenging season.
“People understand the pressures on the local church,” he stated. “Sometimes they just need to be reminded and encouraged. It increases the number of people who have automated their giving, which really insulates the church from the peaks and valleys of hurricane season, vacations, and other seasonal retractions of giving and attendance. And finally, churches will have taken ground and not shrunk back. When you add the ground taken and consider the benefit of in-house people and givers, the church will be further down the road to a healthy stewardship posture.”
The tithing/giving envelopes offered by Pathway include standard reply, feature credit card giving, meet USPS requirements, and can be customized to the local church. To order, call 1-800-553-8506, visit pathwaybookstore.com or click on the image below.
