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Is our church ready for a capital campaign?

by: By Dr. Steve McSwain, church consultant

For more than 10 years I’ve been providing consultation to churches of all persuasions across America. One of the questions I hear more frequently than any other is, "How do we know if our church is ready for a capital campaign?"

That’s a far more important question than most church leaders might think. Conducting a capital campaign is a rare occurrence in the overall lifecycle of the church and it must be successful or the failure may take years for the church to overcome.

I’ve put together three readiness factors. These should help if you and your church are considering large scale fundraising.

READINESS FACTOR # 1 How widespread is the awareness among members of what church leadership is planning?

Sometimes leaders want to believe that the church or parish is more widely aware and ready to go forward than the church or parish really may be. Cargill Associates has developed a Church-wide In-Focus Workshop to give the average church member a "crash course" in all that has transpired since planning began. What many church leaders often forget is that, while they have been working on plans for months and sometimes years, the average member of the church may be neither as informed nor as ready to embrace what the leadership is preparing to do.

In a three-hour workshop setting, members are given an opportunity to interact with others, learn the benefits of engaging in the expansion program, and get up to speed not only on what is planned but why. The "why" might be more important than the "what."

How aware are your people of what you’re planning? Be careful you don’t inadvertently project your awareness on a congregation that may not be anywhere near where you are in your thinking and in your readiness.

READINESS FACTOR # 2 What is the financial strength of your church? How much can you REALLY raise in a three-year campaign? If you don’t raise enough to complete the project, what is your plan for financing what isn’t raised?

Questions like these call for a pre-campaign study or a readiness assessment. In development work, this is known as a feasibility study. But that connotes the idea that there is a possibility the church, after doing all this planning for multiple months, might NOT go forward. While the "feasibility question" may be an important question to ask in some studies, it isn’t appropriate every time. That is no reason, however, not to conduct a study of this sort. There is so much more that church leadership needs to know before the campaign is launched that a study of this sort will tell them.

Interviews with multiple church households in a confidential setting plus a church or parish wide survey will provide church leaders with the following:

· An accurate estimation of the church’s financial capability in the campaign. This is important to know so that accurate and reasonable financial goals can be established in the campaign. Otherwise, members expectations could be anywhere on the financial map. Accurate and attainable benchmarks of success will help the church celebrate success.

· The "questions" "concerns" or "issues" as well as "hopes" and "dreams" that are in the hearts of their people. Don’t assume you know the heart issues because you’ve hosted a few focus groups. Focus groups normally involve some of the same people who’ve planned for the expansion program themselves. Further interviews, as part of a pre-campaign study, will reach the people you are expecting to give, but who may not be "plugged in" to church life more than attending on Sundays. Issues that emerge from these members and others during the pre-campaign study must be addressed prior to the launch of the campaign. The capital campaign is a time for prayer and preparation as members discern what God would have them give. It shouldn’t be the place where basic questions are answered and/or issues are addressed.

· What hopes and dreams members have for the project—hopes and dreams that can be shared, if known, by the entire church or parish membership. This produces ownership. And ownership produces a more generous stewardship when the time to make pledges comes around.

· An answer to the one question leaders must know BEFORE launching a capital campaign: "What do our people REALLY think about our plans for the church’s future?" I’m still amazed when I meet pastors and church leaders who are afraid to conduct a study like this to learn what their people REALLY think. If you don’t know what they really think BEFORE the campaign, you’ll learn what they think in the middle of the campaign. And if there is ever a campaign that fails, this is where it begins.

READINESS FACTOR # 3: What is the spiritual climate of our church as we prepare to embark on this journey to fund the future?

This question is even more important than the questions raised in readiness factor # 2..

A few years ago, Church Central, which trained me as a licensed church consultant, developed a means of testing the spiritual health of a church in all six purpose areas of church life—evangelism, worship, discipleship, ministry, fellowship, and prayer. I often use this Church Health Survey in the readiness assessment period as I help a church prepare for a capital campaign. Christians and churches who are spiritually prepared and spiritually healthy will be more financially generous.

It makes little sense to conduct a capital campaign with only cursory attention given to the spiritual health of Christians within the church. I encourage church leaders to utilize the Church Health Survey tool to diagnose the church’s spiritual readiness and to be open to making mid-course corrections in mission and ministry planning as I share with them the conclusions of that assessment. Those conclusions will always come with ways they might strengthen their ministry and overcome barriers to growth. Strengthening the ministry will only serve to produce a more successful financial campaign.

So, is your church READY for a capital campaign? Consider the readiness factors carefully.

Dr. Steve McSwain is a certified church consultant and senior vice-president of Cargill Associates, Inc. He also trains church consultants for Church Central.


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