Using RockRMS to Foster Generosity - by Simple Donation

A sponsored blog post by Rock Sponsor, Simple Donation.

Too many church leaders confuse stewardship for fundraising. Stewardship isn’t fundraising; it’s discipleship. It’s recognizing that God owns it all (Psalm 24:1) and that we’re stewards or manager of what He entrusts to us. Most church leaders recognize that their role is to make disciples, but too often neglect this critical part of discipleship: helping people choose the Master over mammon (Matthew 6:24).

Isn’t the duty of church leaders to help people have a right relationship with God? One study found that 25-50% of regular attenders don’t give at all. Would you think someone who gives nothing is recognizing that God owns it all and that they’re merely a steward of what God entrusted to them - that they have a right relationship with God? Being a steward isn’t about the church getting money. It’s about the giver being rightly related to God.

If we’re going to help equip the saints for works of service to the building up of the body of Christ, we’re going to have to address the idols in our life. So often the idol for many in our church is the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things. These choke out the Word of God and make us unfruitful. (Mark 4:18-20).

It doesn’t have to be this way.

We can foster a culture of generosity in our churches and we can leverage the data that’s available to us in RockRMS to be intentional in our discipleship efforts.

Consider that the Smith family has been faithfully attending your congregation for many years. Giving faithfully weekly, John was let go from his place of work in the middle of the pandemic. Not knowing what to do, they stopped giving. No one said anything to them about it, and honestly, no one even noticed. What does their act show about where they’re putting their trust? What could the church have done to minister to them if they’d just noticed the signal that stopping giving provided? What if the church regularly reviewed and acted on a report that revealed people who stopped giving?

Consider Trisha, who has been an agnostic since college and began showing up to your local church the past 4 months. A month ago Trisha gave her life to Christ during a weekend service and has since been on fire, finding ways to plug in to your church body. Last week she gave for the very first time, to any church, in her entire life. How could Trisha be encouraged in this further step of faith? What if the church regularly reviewed and acted on a report that revealed first time givers?

The data available in RockRMS can be a tremendous tool in helping make disciples. It can help you identify regular attenders who don’t give, givers who aren’t in groups, people who stop giving, first time givers, members who give very little or not at all, and people who give a lot (keeping in perspective that what Jesus calls a lot is different than the world’s measure). All of these are signals - signs that relate to what people believe and where they’re putting their trust. Signals that show how we can come alongside and encourage others.

Lots of churches are using RockRMS to recognize and act on the signals. Some are acknowledging steps by using reports to generate thank you notes. Some are creating connection requests. Some are using RockRMS Steps to include stages of generosity as part of the discipleship journey.

RockRMS is a great tool to empower ministry. Are you leveraging it to recognize signals that can help your team be strategic in discipleship?

Simple Donationʼs first core value is Faithfulness to Jesus Christ. In putting Him first we want to ensure that we are helping to equip and enable the body of Christ with amazing software that can aid in true stewardship. It’s our desire to come alongside you in any custom reporting needs that help to identify and move individuals and families along their discipleship journey.

Please join Jeff Ward in the continuation of this conversation at RX2022 in Phoenix on Tuesday, September 13th at 1:55pm as he gives a presentation on Best Practices in Stewardship and Financial Reporting. You can find the full schedule of amazing speakers at https://rx.rockrms.com/schedule.