The Church Excelling
Concept:
Around the globe, the potential of the church is sadly limited by economic scarcity, and the cognitive and emotive hindrances associated with lack of funds.
The Church Excelling is an initiative to inspire, educate and guide God’s people into lifestyles that tap the beauty and effectiveness of stewardship as primed by the grace of giving.
In a nine to twelve month denomination-wide initiative, The Church Excelling guides clergymen and lay leaders in the joy of being lifestyle agents of change in the central role of the grace of giving.
Jesus said, “It is better to give than it is to receive.” As each church, guided by clergy and lay leadership, inspires her people to the practice of redemptive giving, transformation takes place in personal, corporate and social relationships.
Goals:
The Church Excelling is themed from II Corinthians 8:7, where the church is congratulated for excelling in five specific graces. As admirable as those graces are, the church is incomplete without a sixth grace, the grace of giving.
The final goal for The Church Excelling is that every participating church will experience increased personal stewardship and financial strength, allowing:
- Increase in effective service to congregants,
- Expanded outreach to the non-churched, and
- Greater fiscal care for the church and the clergy.
Note: this is not a “quick fix” fund raising program. Short-term funding efforts simply apply “temporary treatment to historic wounds.” The Church Excelling is a comprehensive step in the development of giving lifestyles for each church.
Vision statement for The Church Excelling:
“Transforming the Church in its world through lifestyles of generous stewardship.”
Mission statement for The Church Excelling:
“Inspiring, educating and coaching church leaders in generous stewardship.”
Structure:
The Church Excelling is a program spearheaded by the denomination or association, encouraged and facilitated in harmony with Eight:Seven.
The program is led by The Church Excelling Steering Committee which is formed by the sponsoring organization, in consultation with Eight:Seven.
The implementation of the program mirrors the leadership of the Steering Committee and those additional leaders the committee appoints.
The Steering Committee will likely consist of both the executive/administrative officers and local leadership with a track record of being effective agents of change.
Schedule:
The heart of The Church Excelling program is a six week period of time during which every participating church teaches, preaches and discusses six pre-determined stewardship related subjects, as presented biblically. Sermon samples on the six subjects are available for each participating pastor.
The six weeks of teaching and inspiration follow several periods of orientation, training and basic research for each participating church. The training leading up to the six weeks of preachment is a requirement for each pastor. Training sessions are scheduled and venues developed by the Steering Committee as part of their work early in the process.
Following the six-week stewardship series, each participating church will again record basic research data to assist in the evaluation of the program.
In Conclusion
Generous stewardship is a life journey, not an event. The Church Excelling is designed to stimulate God’s people to “next steps” in this journey.