September 2022
- Register for upcoming webinars - August, September, & October
- Check-list for your Fall Pledge Campaign
- Fall Campaign Resources are ready for download!
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Greetings!
I have a confession to make. After 10 years in charge of congregations of varying sizes and contexts, anticipating the fall pledge campaign still causes me anxiety EVERY YEAR.
I often have wonderful, thoughtful, diligent teams of lay leaders engaged and leading the campaign. And I still wonder if people will actually pledge. This year, in a congregation that is (not unlike many) still figuring out what life and ministry post-pandemic will look like, is no different.
Twice in my ordained leadership, I have started an interim position in September to find that no one had yet thought about a fall pledge campaign.
If any of this sounds familiar to you, or if you are just returning from vacation to realize that the pledge campaign this fall needs to be stronger and fresher than before - and feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of adding campaign letters to your already-full list of preparations for fall programming and worship - then I have some really good news for you!
This year’s campaign is More than Enough / Mas Que Suficiente - and the resources it includes are truly more than enough to get your campaign started. There’s a beautiful timeline you can adjust to your context, a thoughtful theological case statement, print-ready logos, bulletin inserts, and draft letters. If you missed our webinar on August 27 about the materials, it is available on the TENS website. It includes useful and concrete ideas for engaging the congregation and leaders in conversations about the multitude of gifts your congregation already has to share.
And that’s good news - we truly do already have all the gifts and resources we need to do the work God calls us to do, in this time, in our specific place.
So don’t wait. Download the More Than Enough / Mas Que Suficiente materials today and share them with your stewardship team and congregational leadership. Set a date to plan the fall campaign, and get as many people involved as possible. Forget talking anxiously about the budget and talk excitedly about the things your congregation is doing. Focus on the ways God is at work in your community, neighborhood, and congregation. Thank everyone: gratitude is contagious.
Ahh. I’m feeling better already. While I’m thinking about it I’m going to text the Stewardship chair and see when she can meet next week. Keep me posted on how your fall campaign goes. With TENS, you’re off to a great start!!
The Rev'd Sabeth Fitzgibbons
Priest in Charge, Trinity Church, Seattle
Member of the TENS Board of Directors
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There is still time to download this year's annual campaign package and implement a ready-to-go, or easily customizable pledge campaign. The TENS website is full of tools, best practices, and teaching to help you implement a great campaign that will inspire your members to make their best gifts. |
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Download Your Annual Pledge Campaign Resources today!
We are proud to announce that our annual pledge campaign materials are ready for download. The complete set includes:
- Sample letters from clergy, wardens, and committee chair
- Customizable pledge cards
- Prayers of the People for use in the campaign season
- This year's hymn More Than Enough from our hymn-writer in residence
- Weekly reflection bulletin inserts on Sundays from September 11 - November 13.
- Seasonal Reflections
- A timeline and info sheet on how to use our resources for traditional and virtual campaigns
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Descargue hoy los recursos para la campaña anual de compromiso
Estamos orgullosos de anunciar que los materiales de nuestra campaña de compromiso anual están listos para descargar. El conjunto completo incluye:
- Ejemplos de cartas del clero, los guardianes y el presidente del comité
- Tarjetas de compromiso personalizables
- Oraciones del Pueblo para usar en la temporada de campaña
- El himno de este año Más que suficiente de nuestro compositor de himnos en residencia
- Insertos de boletín de reflexión semanal los domingos del 11 de septiembre al 13 de noviembre.
- Reflexiones estacionales
- Una línea de tiempo y una hoja de información sobre cómo usar nuestros recursos para campañas tradicionales y virtuales
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Principles for Effective Responses
Download this article to review best practices for implementing a great campaign. Collected over years of experience and dozens of stewardship leaders, these tips and tools will give you a solid foundation in campaign basics.
Whether you are new to leading a stewardship campaign or in need of a quick review, this article can help! |
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Emphasize your Campaign in your Liturgy
Episcopalians express so much of their identity and practice their theology through the experience of our worship and prayer together. TENS has some great resources to help your liturgy point toward your campaign. Consider using these resources once, or throughout your annual pledge campaign.
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Review our Recent Webinar: Campaign Launch Checklist
We gathered on Saturday, August 27 over Zoom to review the best practices for 2022 campaigns including:
- A review of the 2022 More than Enough Campaign
- Exploring the timeline for implementing your campaign
- Best practices for electronic giving and virtual events
- Questions and answers from stewardship experts across the country
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Project Resource - Fall Training
Project Resource is a five-week course which meets on consecutive Sunday afternoons to teach generosity practices, the theology of abundance, and practical tips on running a great campaign. Together, your team will learn with stewardship leaders from across the Church and create your own congregation's plan to roll out a year-round Stewardship program.
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Conjuring Momentum in Slowness
Due to the pandemic, I think I have a better appreciation for time— how long things take to grow, to be of excellent quality, how much sweeter the satisfaction is after waiting a long while. How much more abundance I notice and enjoy when I commit to being present in the slowness of my timeline. Patience has been key to my enjoyment of time; life looks far more interesting when I take my time to notice every angle and perspective I have access to. There’s so much to pay attention to!
We live deceptively linear lives while nature all around us runs on cyclical time: the moon waxes and wanes, seasons return. Every day, there is movement and change. The young shoots of a plant always seem to burst out of nowhere, but of course, it’s been growing, very slowly, over time. A true group effort of various chemical factors came together to bring a small shoot to fruition. Tiny, tiny cells are working hard to sustain life, constantly in motion, without us even noticing.
Even when my life feels dull and unfulfilling, there is momentum in the slowness if I take the time to notice it because I am always growing, changing my mind, and learning new information throughout the year. Noticing, keeping vigilant, all of these awareness themes that began in the Advent season will come full circle at the end of the liturgical calendar, relevant as ever, ready to renew itself again in preparation for 2023.
All year we have pushed ourselves to return awareness to our enough-ness, which is directly tied to how we hold better relationships with ourselves, each other, and our world. Attention to our boundaries and capacities, the abundance in our connections and communities, allowing for multiple kinds of space, restoring our faith in one another, communicating better... all of it requires time. Believing that there is more than enough in all of those experiences requires patience. It’s that kind of awareness that signals us to prune, to water, to repot the whole plant altogether to nurture more growth and abundance in our lives. And to know when to leave it alone to enjoy the progress. As we continue to think about sustainable giving as well as being, let us remember that we are what we sow.
Our Stewardship is importantly relational and active. And thought the fruits of our labor in bettering ourselves and investing in community and the earth will often go unnoticed or unrewarded, we must trust the slow timing with all that goes into good work.
For Reflection:
How do you find momentum in slowness? What work remains to be done, whether it be your own healing, helping your neighbors and family in some way, or participating in a larger social justice effort?
Elise Mills is a recent graduate and is beginning her career in writing. She lives in the Bay Area and is a member of Holy Innocents' Episcopal Church in San Francisco.
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Deepening Your Legacy and
Planned Giving Program
Every congregation was built from planned gifts - the founding gifts and ideas that planted our churches have sustained us for many years. Learn how to build or rebuild your legacy giving program and promote planned giving.
- Tax-wise strategies for your assets
- How to help members create legacies that look forward
- Learn about the power of planned giving
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