October 2022
- The power of Stewardship Testimonials
- Annual Pledge Campaign Materials are Here! Download them Today!
- Review our Webinars and Trainings to support the work of Stewardship
- Announcing our Partnership with Vanco - Preferred Member Pricing
- Register for a Webinar with Vanco and TENS to increase year-end giving
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Greetings!
During the final week of September, the board and staff of TENS gathered in Denver for a retreat. With wonderful fellowship and a visionary spirit, we planned for the 2023 program year, analyzed our past results, and set new goals for the year to come. Hosted by the gracious and generous Episcopal Church in Colorado at their diocesan center, we enjoyed a few days of beautiful weather and beautiful work. I am grateful to work with such capacious, generative, generous board and staff members.
New webinars and trainings were planned, the possible return of some regional conferences were discussed, but the most energizing part of our retreat was further developing a theology of generosity and stewardship. The reasons behind how our congregations gather together time, talent, and treasure reveal the theology of their stewardship. We see this over and over again: when congregations encounter scarcity, they lead campaign efforts that feel fear-based and urgent. When congregations encounter abundance, even in the midst of uncertainty and loss, they lead stewardship campaigns filled with positivity and possibility. The budget is the same, the gifts are the same, but how we expect them, ask for them, live with them changes as our perspective changes.
In the webinars we offer, the trainings we plan, and the resources we develop in the year to come, we will root ourselves in abundance, offering hope to the world, and helping every member connect their money to mission. Expect great things!
All good gifts,
Cn. J. Davey Gerhard III
Executive Director
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More Than Enough / Mas que suficiente
Annual Pledge Campaign Materials are here!
This year's annual pledge campaign is ready for you! Our theme this year, More Than Enough, focuses our attention on all of the gifts that God gives us. Everything we receive is transformed by our generosity and love and to be used in mission for our churches. All our materials are in English and Spanish, and may be downloaded by members of the TENS network of dioceses and congregations.
Log in today to take advantage of these resources for your pledge campaign!
- Graphics and Logos in many common formats, in color and black and white
- A hymn to use in your liturgy
- Customizable letters from Clergy, Stewardship Committee, and Wardens
- Adaptable Prayers of the People
- Customizable pledge / promise cards
- Seasonal and Weekly Reflections for September, October, and November Sundays.
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New Partnership with Vanco Faith Announced
TENS is excited to announce that we are partnering with Vanco Faith to offer extremely advantageous preferred pricing for new customers of the best integrated payment processing platform available today. Help your members connect their gifts to the impact they are making in the community with this robust software service. In one place a congregation or diocese may process online payments, create social fundraising campaigns, designate gifts for specific ministries, and share stories of success. Learn more about this partnership and sign-up for a free demo today!
New customers who are TENS member congregations and dioceses will receive the following preferred pricing:
- 49% off of the monthly rate (from $49/mo to $25/mo.)
- 23% off of ACH processing fees (from 39 to 30 cents/transaction) and a 44% discount on ACH processing rates (from .90%/transaction to .50%/transaction)
- 23% off of credit/debit card processing fees (from 39 to 30 cents/transaction) and 15% off of credit card processing rates (from 2.65% to 2.25%/transaction)*
- A text-to-give add-on reduced from $10/month to $5/month
*Excludes Amex, which is 3.5%
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Looking for year-end giving solutions and tips on how to leverage online giving to fund ministry?
- An online giving platform that inspires members to donate more generously
- Solutions to help you keep your members engaged
- Integrations with 60+ church management solutions to help reduce time and risk of human error when allocating funds to their intended causes
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A Testimony of Stewardship
Luke, tradition says, was a physician and a Syrian from Antioch. The gospel of Luke weaves together themes of healing while also showing a deep concern for the outsider and foreigner. Here Luke describes a powerful scene after ten lepers are cured. What might this teach us about giving and stewardship?
Stories like this are tricky, making connections between healing and faithfulness. Misreading the text has led some to say if only the unwell could have more faith, they could be healed. Such readings are not only wrong, but they also perpetuate all kinds of injustice and ableism. Rather, the God found in scripture shows preference for the poor, the sick, and those on the margins.
The same phrase “made you well” can be translated from the Greek as “saved you.” Within a Hebrew understanding of salvation history, saving was both a deeply physical act (healing and liberation) and a reality rooted in community. Both Hebrew and New Testament scriptures point to a God deeply concerned about the physical suffering and oppression of a people. When the prophets and the gospels both speak of a messiah figure, who would bring salvation, that saving act was expected as liberation for a collective people.
“Your faith has made you well” could be read as “You [collectively] are saved/liberated [together] from that which oppressed you.” What’s more, the one to receive this message is an outsider. In Jesus, the longed-for liberation of a people is realized, and Luke shows that this salvation is not reserved for the few on the “inside” but a Samaritan, as well!
People often think about stewardship as the 3T’s: time, treasure, and talent. There is a 4th: testimony. This story includes the testimony of the Samaritan to his healing by God. Yet, here is an image of Jesus testifying as well. He says "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Jesus testifies to an expanding field of God’s saving work, to those who did not share ethnicity, race, or culture.
Here are reminded that our testimony, our witness, can be used to speak with and for each other as we reflect our baptismal covenant to strive for justice and peace among all people.
Today we are invited to give our gifts, not as an act of individual piety, but as a part of a collective action, participating in God’s work of repairing the world. This stewardship of gifts includes our words and voice. As we think of our relationships to those inside and outside our community, we are reminded how our testimony can be offered as an act of stewardship as we share in the work of healing.
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Is your campaign ready to launch?
Many of you joined us this summer in our webinars designed to help you get ready for your Fall campaigns. The three most important components of any campaign are:
- Focusing on your mission, not your budget
- Having an organized and well-resourced campaign with a strong committee and materials
- Making certain that you have online and traditional methods tested and ready to go to accept gifts.
The webinars below are available on our website, and we encourage you to view them and share them with your Stewardship Committee, Finance Team, or Vestry.
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Case Statements Matter!
How you make your case, how you tell stories about the mission, inspires your members to make their best gifts. In this webinar you will learn some great tips on creating materials that make an impact, that measure your work in the community, and that help you to tell the story of your ministry.
- What is the Case for Support?
- Generational Differences in Donor Engagement
- What elements go into a Case for Support?
- How to put your case statement together
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Breaking Through the Pledge Plateau
- Analyzing trends in giving – understanding donor relations
- Identifying and teaching the Mission
- How to recruit, train, and support leaders who lead
- Learning lessons from nonprofits about fundraising programs that work
- How to adapt your approach to fundraising
- Get three practical tools to analyze your fundraising success
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Ready! Set! Launch!
Is your campaign ready to go? We answered your questions, concerns, and heard your great ideas to get helpful last-minute tips on how to make your pledge campaign successful! Walk through the TENS More Than Enough campaign to show you how to maximize the materials for impact in your fundraising.
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Virtual Offering Plates
Have you implemented online giving platforms to help your members make their gift virtually this year? Do you have a way to ensure every family receives the opportunity to make a pledge to your congregation even if they are gathered remotely? Watch the TENS webinar on virtual offering plates to learn more about online fundraising tools. |
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