Date of Award

3-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Darrell Peregrym, DMin

Second Advisor

Christine Roush, DMin

Third Advisor

Jason Clark, PhD, DMin

Abstract

In The Evangelical Church, giving actually went down after FPU in 23 out of our 42 churches (55%) the year the class was held. Nevertheless, our overall average increase in giving to the 42 churches was +2.39% the same year. The following year, giving further increased a total of 4.24% over the year before the class was taught, which supports Ramsey’s claim of a 4% giving increase. In year three after the class, total giving reached a remarkable increase of 7.06%, while 67% of our churches saw a positive net increase in giving after hosting FPU.

However, in the fourth year, giving dramatically fell to only a 2.04% increase over the year prior to the class start, a .35% decrease from even the first year. Sustainability questions arose from our pastors regarding giving habits after FPU.

It was determined to maintain our positive giving results, three strategies would need to be implemented: reinforcement, frequency, and saturation. In addition, improved communication was necessary in order not to place pastors’ expectations needlessly high.

Teaching FPU one additional time per church, preaching on stewardship at least yearly, and saturating the church with 5 to 20% of FPU attenders greatly increased giving in our denomination (by 11.6%), impacting local church budgets considerably.

Ramsey’s team proposed the completion of a program called Momentum, which strives to achieve 80% saturation of attenders who have participated in FPU. This program effectively morphs the giving culture of a church, by the “Momentum Theorem” of “Focused intensity over time, multiplied by God, equals unstoppable momentum.”13

Download

Included in

Christianity Commons

Share

COinS