September Project #2: Stewardship Narrative Budget

“Wealth is a responsibility and the sharing of it a way of life.”
-Peter Haas, Jr.

The end of September seemed like crazy time for me... the deadlines of five different projects were scheduled within a week of each other. Projects that I have put my heart and soul into for months... Projects that I am extremely proud of... Projects that I was eager to see completed and well-received...

I just want to share a few snapshots of several of these projects over the next few posts...

Project #2: Stewardship Narrative Budget
Last Fall I was asked to serve on the Stewardship Committee at my church. I balked at first, thinking that of all the committees available, Stewardship and Finance would be the last that I would have chosen. However, my journey with my 2013 One Little Word, "momentum" inspired me to "say yes and figure it out later."

Not sure what to expect at my first meeting back in January, I did some quick online research about what ideas I could bring to the committee. As a memory-keeper and story-teller, I was enamored by the idea of a narrative budget to tell the stories of the church's ministries, and hopefully to inspire people to give to them.

I introduced the idea at one of our first meetings and soon found myself leading a 2014/15 Narrative Budget initiative. I spent the first half of the year interviewing church leaders, composing the stories, wrangling photos, and designing the document itself.

We decided early on that we would use the church website as the main point of distribution of the document, rather than printing out copies for the whole congregation. This is a bit of a shift for our church, so I spent the last few months developing a robust marketing campaign... it doesn't do any good to work so hard on the document itself, if nobody actually reads it.

The campaign rolled out on the last Sunday in September (coinciding with the celebration of our Dare to Share summer stewardship challenge... which was another of the many end-of-September projects I was working on), and it seems to have gotten a positive response. Of course, the true test will be the estimates of giving that roll in a few weeks from now...

Check out the website and the Narrative Budget document for yourself! Click here.