What You Need to Know About a Church Capital Campaign

What Is a Church Capital Campaign?

It is a carefully choreographed series of events that encourages an ongoing offering for a given period above and beyond current general fund giving.

It is a process designed to help raise money from within the congregation for large capital projects such as construction, renovation, the purchase of expensive items (such as vans, organs, stained glass, or playgrounds), or for debt retirement.

Most importantly, a capital campaign is at least as much about spiritual growth as it is about raising money. A proper capital campaign is based on biblical principles and produces both spiritual and financial fruit.

What it is not is a high-pressure sales pitch used to fleece the sheep of their money.

In fact, the focus of the campaign is not on money, it’s on communicating that a biblical need exists and how God can meet that need through the proper stewardship of the time, talents, and treasures He has given His people.

What Are the Phases of a Church Capital Campaign?

A capital campaign is typically broken down into several phases.

The time needed to complete each phase is dependent on the size and organization of the church.

1. Planning & Recruiting?(3 weeks – 6 months)

In this phase, the church sets the campaign schedule and recruits the members of the executive committee. This committee is made up of the following eight positions:

1) Executive Director

2) Kickoff Event Director

3) Communications Director

4) Major Gifts Director

5) Prayer Director

6) Advance Commitments Director

7) Follow-up Director

8) Shepherding (Bible Studies) Director

Some churches also recruit an Administrative Assistant to assist the Executive Director and Committee.

2. Equipping & Preparation?(5 – 10 weeks)

The directors and members of the various committees are trained by the capital campaign consultant and fulfill their respective responsibilities.

For example, the Communications committee chooses the campaign theme and slogan and writes the Case Statement, the Prayer committee plans the prayer vigils, the Kickoff Event committee organizes an all-church celebration service to introduce the campaign, etc.

3. Public Presentation?(5 – 8 weeks)

This is the phase that is most visible to the church body and what most people think of when talking about a capital campaign.

Once the church moves into the public phase, events need to stay on a more rigid timeline. This phase of the campaign is carefully choreographed to maximize the effectiveness of the preparation.

During this time the church capital campaign committees and the pastor provide information, build excitement, and spiritually equip the people to understand the need to build and how they can participate in meeting that need.

In most campaigns, phases 1 and 2 should start at least 4 to 6 months before the church wishes to be in front of the congregation for the public phase. This will make the whole process much easier, less stressful, and will improve the overall quality of the campaign.

4. Receiving Commitments?(1 – 3 weeks)

On Commitment Sunday the members bring their completed three-year commitment cards to the church. In the two weeks following, the Follow Up committee members collect commitment cards from those who were absent or didn’t turn in a card.

This phase is capped off with a Celebration Sunday service to announce the total of the three-year commitments and to celebrate what God has done, and will do, in the church.

5. Collection & Follow-up?(3 years)

This phase includes the ongoing collection of pledge contributions, accounting, follow up, regular reminders about, and new member assimilation into, the campaign.

What Benefits Can You Expect from a Capital Campaign?

In a campaign directed by a professional church capital campaign consultant, your church can expect to experience the following benefits:

1.??? Spiritual growth and increased faith.

2.??? A pledge commitment of 1 to 3 times current annual income.

3.??? An increase of 10 to 15 percent in general fund giving. Yes. Really!

4.??? A greater understanding of the biblical teaching on stewardship and how God wants us to use the resources He has entrusted to us to complete the building project.

5.??? A greater sense of congregational unity and excitement.

How Can You Know If Your Church Is Ready for a Capital Campaign?

Before launching a capital campaign, it is vital that your church has a good idea of what it wants to build, why it needs to build, and what it can afford. If the church cannot definitively answer these questions, it is premature to run a capital campaign.

The “what”, “why,” and “how much” of the building program are critical requirements for the intellectual and spiritual components of your campaign. Trying to run a campaign without these critical components is like trying to run your car without spark plugs.

The best way to get this information is through a professional Feasibility Study. This is an objective analysis of what a church needs--and what is feasible for it--to build.

Church building today is both complex and expensive.? A feasibility study will identify the current and future needs of the ministries and translate those needs into land and building requirements along with a feasible plan to make it happen.?

We recommend that a Feasibility study be done as early in the planning process as possible. Certainly, the best time is before you invest a lot of money in design and as early as two to three years before you build.?

You can also get help from a book written by Stephen Anderson, the late founder of Abundant Giving. It is called Preparing to Build and has helped many churches to get ready for the building process.

How Much Money Can a Church Raise in a Capital Campaign?

Over the past several decades, thousands of churches have executed professionally facilitated capital campaigns.

Historically speaking, these churches have typically raised between 1 and 3 times their annual giving in a three-year period.

In our Abundant Giving capital campaigns, we average 2 times annual giving in three-year commitments.

What Are the Financial Benefits of a Church Capital Campaign?

Ignoring for the moment the tremendous spiritual benefits that result from a capital stewardship campaign, there are at least six ways a church will financially benefit:

1. By having a savings fund to pay cash and avoid debt.

2. By augmenting its borrowing capacity to expand the scope of the building project.

3. By having the necessary cash to cover up-front expenses and/or to have a financial buffer prior to securing a construction loan.

4. By paying off debt as quickly as possible.

5. By having a fund from which a portion of the higher mortgage payments for a new facility may be paid until the congregation’s giving can grow to meet the payment.

6. By enabling it to meet a lender’s conditions to qualify for a loan.

About Dr. Rod Rogers

Feel free to?contact Rod?for a no-pressure conversation about your needs and our church capital campaign program.?

Stewardship Consulting Experience:?Rod has led church capital campaigns as a pastor and consultant since the mid-nineties, serving churches nationwide.? He is also the creator of an?annual giving program?used by over 3,000 churches in 25? countries with weekly giving increases from 20 to over 100 percent.

His first experience with church capital campaigns came in the early nineties when, as a pastor, he hired a church capital campaign consultant to help him lead his congregation in three back-to-back, three-year capital campaigns. These campaigns transformed his church spiritually and financially and opened his eyes to the power of biblical stewardship teaching for making disciples.

Stewardship Author:?Rod has written two books on biblical stewardship: a book for pastors,?Pastor Driven Stewardship: 10 Steps to Lead Your Church to Biblical Giving, and a devotional,?Giving That Pleases God: 6 Weeks to Biblical Stewardship. Unlimited quantities of each are available in eBook format to churches that implement our Abundant Giving capital campaign or annual giving program.

Pastoral Experience:?Rod didn’t grow up wanting to be a stewardship consultant! Since he was called to pastoral ministry at age 15, he has had a passion for biblical exegesis in Greek and Hebrew and for expository preaching. He has over 30 years of pastoral experience as a youth minister in the USA and Portugal and as the founding and senior pastor of churches in Denver, Colorado, and Costa Rica. He also served as the Bible teacher on the radio program The Nourishing Word, and as Visiting Lecturer of Pastoral Theology at New Geneva Theological Seminary, Colorado Springs, Colorado.?

All this pastoral experience enables him to lead your church through a capital campaign from the pastor’s perspective.?He understands the concerns pastors have about talking about money in the local church. And he can share from personal experience how to lead a congregation into generous, sacrificial giving in a respectful and biblical manner.

Education:?Rod has a diploma (Pastoral Ministries and Greek)? from Moody Bible Institute, a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies from John Brown University, a Masters of Theology degree in Old Testament and Semitic Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from New Geneva Theological Seminary.

Certifications:?He is also a Certified CHAT Coach (Church Health Assessment Tool). CHAT is a church survey using a user-friendly online process that allows churches to get accurate, anonymous feedback from the congregation in as little as thirty days. The CHAT instrument is based on the research and content from the Baker Bestseller,?Becoming a Healthy Church. Using this survey, Rod helps churches assess their health based on 10 characteristics of a healthy church.?

Personal:?He loves spending time with his family, reading (two to four books a week on his Kindle Paperwhite), traveling, and improving his Spanish.?