When You Wish You Had a Reset Button — 5 Common Mistakes Churches Make in Conducting Capital Campaigns: Mistake #4 · DickersonBakker

Sooner or later every church faces the need to raise money for facilities–whether to expand, renovate, or repair. Church campaigns are complex, and it is important you get it right the first time.

In our previous posts we talked about the importance of making sure your campaign is on solid ground with your congregation, understanding why it is important to engage major donors early-on in the process & making a solid plan and executing it without a hitch!  

With an initiative as far-reaching and important as a capital campaign, it is critically important to get as many people involved and giving as possible. Yet churches often fail to do so, instead relying on just a small handful of people to shoulder the burden, which often means critical tasks don’t get done. In the fourth entry in this series, we discuss this common mistake churches make in conducting church capital campaigns…

Mistake #4: Not completing the work

Prayer is vital to a capital campaign; but prayer alone will not fund your goal. Sitting back hoping “God will provide” is not a workable approach.

A campaign is a lot of work, and requires broad participation from your entire congregation. Here are some ways you can get people involved and giving:

• Make sure everyone in your congregation knows about your campaign. Talk about it early and often, and keep it in front of your congregation with signs, banners, announcements, videos, etc. During the six weeks that your campaign is being presented, you want your people saturated in the message of your campaign.
• Match your church members’ talents with work that needs to be accomplished. There is much to do in a campaign. Select your leaders carefully, and then let them build out a team of volunteers to help them accomplish their tasks.
• Put one person in charge. He or she is not the person who needs to do all the work (quite the opposite actually–his or her only task should be keeping everyone else on task) — you need one person who is acting as flight traffic controller of the entire team of both staff and volunteers.
• Communicate with people about investing funds the Lord has given them stewardship over. Make stewardship teaching a central part of the campaign — in the weekly sermons, in small group discussions, and Sunday School curricula.
• Never stop praying while you are going about this work.

Nehemiah offers a clear illustration of the rhythm of prayer and action in a campaign. Upon learning the fate of Jerusalem Nehemiah prayed for days. Discerning God’s call he then rose to action, raising resources and inspiring people around him to accomplish a great work. This pattern is repeated throughout Nehemiah—prayer first, then rising up to do the work.

15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16When all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, they lost their confidence; for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.…  Nehemiah 6:15-16

Continue on to our final entry in this series: Mistake #5… 

Don’t wish for a reset button! Let our team of professionals expertly guide you through the process of conducting a successful campaign for your church. Contact us today for information.