Capital Campaign Playbook

A Church Consultant's Gameplan

Greg Gibbs

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781535995702
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Église chrétienne

For nearly twenty years Greg Gibbs has been helping churches from a variety of denominations, and has collected principles along the way. Having worked for two consulting organizations and researched many others, there are some universal categories that most church consultants will talk about with their clients. Capital Campaign Playbook is your inside access to these crucial conversations. Capital Campaign Playbook is a guide for church leaders who want to understand the dynamics of a faith-based capital fundraising effort in a church. It is part workbook, part consultant's book of "trade secrets, " and part owner's manual. For leaders of the church, it is a thorough explanation of what lies ahead, bringing a sense of courage and conviction where there is often trepidation.

Chapter One

Three Waves of Process

When people in the church mention a capital campaign, they are almost always thinking about one phase of it—the public phase. People remember or focus on that part because it is the part where church leaders are talking, preaching, praying, meeting, and conversing about the projects with the whole congregation. But there are actually multiple waves and a lot of work before we ever go public with asking for over-and-above financial contributions.

In the pre-campaign waves, we are establishing our readiness as a church to enter a campaign. There is a good chance that if you are reading this, you are in that phase. At a very basic level, the inquiry starts with “How much does our project cost, and will our people give that much?”

Beyond the basic question is the idea that the preparation phase is as important (or more important) than the public phase. From due diligence to establishing appropriate targets to assessing congregational buy-in, this phase is where the greatest victories and mishaps may actually occur.

Then, we realize there is still another level. For churches that want to conduct a discipleship-based campaign, we discover an extraordinary opportunity. The campaign can be a massive greenhouse for growing people’s commitment to Christ and their understanding of a life that is “true life” (1 Tim. 6:17–19).

This is why, in part, this book has been assembled. Because when there is thoughtfulness in regard to shaping the campaign, it can be an amazing experience filled with celebration and excitement instead of a dull but necessary endeavor dreaded by church leaders. The challenge is to aim for a best-case scenario: that faith in God and commitment to the church grow in a special and intense way.

To meet this challenge, church leaders should pay attention to the process in three waves:

Discover

Design

Disciple

Discover

I have the privilege and honor of coaching the senior leadership of churches under the umbrella of Auxano, a company that is the category-leader in regard to Vision Clarity. The coaches (called Auxano Navigators) don’t know where else to start but with questions about clarity. Being clear is uber-critical in any organization—especially in the church.

And if things have been fuzzy for a while about a church, its mission, its effectiveness, its future, its focus, or anything else, a capital campaign will expose that lack of clarity. There is nothing that exposes our organizational soft spots like a campaign.

Members of the church will put up with being a bit in the dark regarding church leadership and their intentions most of the time. We love our church and for good reasons. But when church leaders start to say things like, “Let’s pray about giving the largest gift we’ve ever given” or “Please consider supporting the church with a financial gift beyond your current support,” all of a sudden people care deeply about clarity.

They are asking themselves, “Why would I give even more to my church? What is so important that I should be praying audacious prayers about my increased giving? I’m not even sure I understand what’s going on anyway.”

The discovery process in a campaign starts with clarity. It requires uncovering (or being honest about) how much clarity exists in our congregation. Do people know the answers to the five irreducible questions of clarity: What? Why? How? When? and Where? In other words, before we start measuring for curtains in the new fellowship hall, we need to find out if people know where we are headed. Some churches need a bit of a clarity “time-out.”

Five Irreducible Questions of Leadership

Figure 1.1

NOTE: For more help with this, read Will Mancini’s landmark work Church Unique, which outlines how churches can articulate their identity and direction with stunning clarity.

Before moving forward with a capital campaign, church leaders may need a time of refining and honing their vision and mission. Then they may need to clarify and communicate this to the congregation. Then, and only then, will the congregation be ready to hear about projects that support that clear idea of a God-inspired future together.

I recently worked with a church in Oklahoma who originally hired me to help them conduct a capital campaign. As we started to ask the Five Irreducible Questions, it became evident that capital improvements were the least of their concerns. With a senior pastor in succession, an aging congregation, a struggling second campus, and no clear understanding of the next steps for their organizational health, there was more murkiness than would allow for an effective campaign. We took a needed time-out from campaign talk and began to chip away at their real need for organizational clarity and a focused plan for the future of their ministry.

Another important aspect that is critical to understand is that many of our churches are still made up of people from several generations, including the Builder generation, of whom many are financially supportive of the church. Barna and other researchers have revealed the differences in generational views of “building buildings” as well as giving behavior in general. The over-representation of the Builder generation in the positions of leadership and influence often leads the church to equate progress with building construction.

At the same time, so many churches are wondering why they aren’t connecting with the younger generations, Generation X and Millennial leaders. There are books written about this (this is not one of them), and this is an important pursuit when it comes to understanding the best direction for the church. Knowing the language and perspective of the generations in your church is critical. Some readers may need to put this book down and not consider pursuing a capital campaign until there is a better understanding of these dynamics and how they will play out at their church.

Church leaders should have solid and clear responses to questions like:

What is our vision for the future?

Who are we and who are we becoming through God’s help?

How will the projects being considered in this campaign help get us to that destination?

When we have a sense of how much vision “equity” we ...

Table of contents

• Foreword by Will Mancini
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Three Waves of Process
• Chapter Two: Three Conditions for Generosity
• Chapter Three: Three Threats to a Successful Campaign
• Chapter Four: Three Baseline Planning Tools
• Chapter Five: Three Kinds of Campaign Teams
• Chapter Six: Three Roles for Senior Pastors
• Chapter Seven: Three Segments of Givers
• Chapter Eight: Three Giving Constructs
• Chapter Nine: Three Elements of Discipleship
• Chapter Ten: Three Considerations for Major Donors
• Chapter Eleven: Three Categories of Content
• Chapter Twelve: Three Platforms for Communication
• Chapter Thirteen: Three Features of a Campaign Gathering
• Chapter Fourteen: Three Questions in the Giving Journey
• Chapter Fifteen: Three Unspoken Questions from Givers
• Chapter Sixteen: Three Components of the Pledging Process
• Chapter Seventeen: Three Practices after Pledges
• Appendix A: Raising Capital in Multi-Site Settings
• Appendix B: 10 Most Asked Capital Campaign Questions by Church Leaders
• Appendix C: Reasons to Consider Consultation
• Appendix D: Budgeting for a Capital Campaign
• Appendix E: Campaign Readiness Checklist
• Notes