How is the giving at your church? Could it be better? Do you know how?

These are important questions, especially if you are considering entering a season of expanded vision and ministry. The best place to start is with a Giving Assessment. Think of this like a diagnostic at the car shop. You look at all the systems and parts to see what can be optimized for best performance. I’m not sure there’s anyone better than my good friend Greg. He’s helped me and our church through two different seasons of expanded giving. I trust him and his work and know you will too. He’ll spend a few days with you and your team. He asks tons of questions and analyzes a bunch of your data. Then delivers an Assessment Report that will show you the actual state of your giving and ways you could make it better. 

 Shoot him an email if you’re interested. Greg@stewardshipofyou.com. 

On to this week's newsletter. 

Have you ever attended a conference or seminar that left you with so many ideas and insights that you almost felt overwhelmed by where to start? Sometimes in those environments we become a little discouraged because of how much we know we need to improve.

The avalanche of ideas make us feel anxious about what to tackle first. We even have doubts about whether we’re the leader that can accomplish the things we want to do.

We need a shift in mentality. That is the subject of this week’s newsletter.

Don’t Try to Run A Marathon on Your First Run

I like to run. Each morning, unless there are circumstances or schedule conflicts that prevent it, I run 4 miles. I do it every day. I’m not a race runner. I don’t sign up for half marathons or full marathons, even though I’ve done both.

But if I decided today that I wanted to run a marathon in the next six months, I would not go out the next day and run 26.2 miles. That’s not how you prepare yourself for the task ahead. The way you prepare yourself to run that many miles is you work your way to it.

You might do a long run 6 miles one week. The next week you may stretch it to 8 miles. Then 12 miles. The point is: you grow incrementality. You don’t go from running 4 miles every day to running 26.2. You start with slight improvements.

This is how we need to approach growing as pastors and leaders.

1 Actionable Tip

Commit yourself to getting 10% better and you’ll see great fruit in your labor.

One of the things I’ve promoted with my staff for years is “get 10% better.” I’ll ask them the question, “How can you make this ministry 10%?” “How can you get 10% as a communicator or vision-caster?” These questions take us away from trying to run 26.2 miles on our first morning out and help us to think more about incremental steps of improvement. This goal helps leaders to grow without the discouragement of trying to tackle everything at one time. Growth takes time, and improvement takes consistent effort.

How can you get 10% better as a leader?
Maybe reading this newsletter each week is one way. ☺

Opportunities for Students & College Age Young Adults

Are you helping the students and college-age kids in your church stand firm against the opposition coming at them in the culture? If you’re not actively equipping them on issues of gender and sexuality, you can be sure the culture is. We’re here to help.

Join us October 13-15 at Black Mountain, NC (at Ridgecrest Conference Center). An incredible line of speakers will be teaching students about who they are as image-bearers of God. These foundations will supply students with important understanding of their identity. Plan to bring your students. It’s going to be a fantastic conference.