Giving Is Worship: Stewardship Ministry Workshop Resources

Thank you to all that participated in the Giving in Worship workshop. It was a great evening with a presentation by Carrie Wilson, stewardship chair at Holy Family (Angola) on how to make the most of the TENS resources. We were also privileged to have the executive director of TENS, Davey Gerhard, deliver our keynote for the evening. A recording of the workshop and links to the slide decks presented are linked below for those that were unable to attend the workshop and those that attended but want to review the content.

Giving is Worship Zoom Recording

Carrie Wilson’s “How to Use TENS” presentation

Davey Gerhard’s “Giving is Worship” presentation

Carrie Wilson’s “How to use TENS” presentation

Davey Gerhard’s “Giving is Worship” presentation

Giving Is Worship: Stewardship Ministry Workshop

Date: April 28
Time: 6:30-8 p.m. (EDT)
Where: Zoom

It's never too early to start thinking about your annual giving campaign. Join the Faithful Stewards Commission and the ONES Network for this workshop on how to make the most of the TENS resources, led by Carrie Wilson, the stewardship chair at Holy Family (Angola). Following a time of Q&A, the executive director of TENS, Davey Gerhard, will deliver a keynote on "Giving is Worship."

TENS 2020 Annual Pledge Campaign

Dear Stewardship representatives in ONES - Our Network for Episcopal Stewardship in the Diocese of Northern Indiana:

Available now on the TENS website is all the information you need for planning a successful annual giving campaign. The theme of the TENS 2020 Annual Pledge Program is Faith Filled Generosity. 

To access this information go to: https://www.tens.org/resources/member-resources/

Username and password information was emailed on June 26. If you have misplaced the information, please email Linda Buskirk and she will provide it to you.

We hope you have recruited your Stewardship Ministry team for this year's annual campaign. For a list of other resources, check out our Diocesan website's page for the ministry of Stewardship: https://ednin.org/stewardship

With blessings for faith, health and peace,

Faithful Stewards Commission

Stewardship Webpage Launched

Dear ONES representatives, Clergy and Treasurers:

Stewardship now has its own page on our Diocesan website!  From the ednin.org home page you will find it under “Ministries and Programs,” but here’s the direct link: https://ednin.org/stewardship   Scroll down the page to find information about Our Network for Stewardship (ONES), The Episcopal Network for Stewardship (TENS), and the list of online resources and book recommendations.   Also posted here will be copies of past E-News and other messages sent to the ONES email list. 

Thanks to Bishop Douglas Sparks for making this spot on the website available and to Diocesan Missioner Christopher Hillak for creating it so well!

With blessings for your stewardship ministry,

Linda Buskirk, Chairperson
Faithful Stewards Commission

Four Ideas for Stewardship Chairs

1. Set up your Stewardship Committee. Your Rector or Priest should be included. It might be helpful if your Treasurer OR Finance Committee Chair were also on this committee. This committee will review past budget information, current membership information, any plans for new or expanded programs or projects, etc. to determine the goal for your Fall Campaign. Once the goal is determined, the Committee will plan the series of events that will make up the campaign: letters that ask for a pledge commitment, homilies, testimonials, and a kick off or end of campaign celebration. (The TENS resources, paid for by the Diocese, will provide you with letter templates and bulletin inserts that can be downloaded and customized for your church).

2. Establish the timeline for your campaign. When will you kick off? When will you end? When will you post stewardship messages on social media? When will your pledge request letters be mailed? When will you insert stewardship messages into the Sunday bulletin? When will you have members give a stewardship testimonial on Sundays? Which services? How and when will you celebrate your successful campaign?

3. Take a good look at your church website. Changes might need to be made to allow for: online giving, monthly giving, access to the Stewardship Materials like bulletin insert messages, stewardship homilies, and the Pledge Card itself. Take a look at whether these things are easy for folks to find. How long does it take for someone to make an online gift currently? Recent research by fundraising software company Blackbaud says: “Online donations should not take more than 20 to 30 seconds to complete. If someone has to click multiple times, potential donors start dropping out of the gift process.” There is a wonderful program available through TENS called tithe.ly that can boost your online donations, online monthly gifts, and even create an app for cell phones that members can download to their phone to make gifts using a credit or debit card. There is no set- up charge, but each transaction is charged a service fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents. The 2.9% covers the credit card transaction fee, and the 30 cents goes to tithe.ly (a service fee is pretty standard across most major payment gateway services, including PayPal. But the value add for tithe.ly is that they will set up your website portal for you and give you a mobile app.). More information can be found on the TENS website.

4. Start gathering information and success stories that you can share with the congregation via social media, your church newsletters (print and electronic) and get those messages out BEFORE you ask them for money for the 2021 budget. People will always give more generously if they know their gifts make a difference. How is their pledge helping with outreach or missions? How is their pledge helping with Christian Formation? How is their pledge helping maintain your building and grounds? Tell these stories and say thank you to the congregation for making this Kingdom work possible. Where do you find these stories? Talk to your clergy, your committee chairs, your volunteers, and your Vestry members. The stories don’t have to be amazing. They don’t have to be more than a paragraph long. They just need to tell how God is working in and through your church family.

Blog post written by Brenda Rigdon

What is Project Resource 2.0: An Update from Camp Allen in Texas

Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Episcopal Church in Northern Indiana!

Grace and peace be with you in Jesus, the Risen Christ!

Last week, I had the privilege of gathering with bishops, priests, deacons and lay persons from 20 dioceses throughout the Episcopal Church to rekindle our passion for the important work of stewardship and its essential role in the life of our faith communities.  This initiative is entitled Project Resource 2.0 and is sponsored by the College for Bishops, the Episcopal Church Foundation and the Development Office of the Episcopal Church.  For several years in Northern Indiana, we have had a group of people called Faithful Stewards, who have tried to encourage the work of Stewardship among us!  I want to thank Linda Buskirk (Trinity - Fort Wayne), Meg Moss (Christ the King - Huntington), Pamela Harris (St. Andrew's - Valparaiso), Chuck Lewis and Steve Wilson (St. Andrew - Kokomo) , Fr. Paul Nesta (St. Paul - LaPorte) and Bishop Frank Gray for committing themselves to participating in this conference AND bringing it back to share throughout our diocese. 

The initiative focuses on three areas of stewardship:  1) the Annual Pledge Drive; 2) Planned or Legacy Giving and 3) Capital Campaigns.

You will be hearing more about our learning and our hopes in assisting every faith community in Northern Indiana to embrace more and more intentionally to important work of stewardship in all its aspects!   In the meantime, please enjoy the video below, recorded at the end of our time together.

Easter blessings,
Doug