Discerning the Call to a Capital Campaign
Listening for the call to a campaign is no easy task. When we survey scripture, some of God’s calls were loud and clear. Other calls were quieter and less obvious. I’ve worked with some churches where a fire or tornado meant it was necessary to build a new worship and ministry space. Their call was clear. I’ve journeyed with churches who were forced to move due to land acquisition and their need could not be denied. A failed boiler is a common cause to look towards a campaign in larger church facilities.
But, I would say, most needs are not so clear. I have seen church leaders wrestle for years about updating worship spaces, starting new programs, expanding ministries, and tackling new community problems without ever coming to a decision. As discussions wear on, leaders change, priorities shift, holidays come, more urgent (and easier to solve matters) take precedence. Shortly thereafter, the leadership forgets the reason they were discussing the original question.
While many churches have already determined they are called to a campaign before I arrive on the scene, a few were still wrestling with the idea. In those cases, I offered a simple discernment process for the leaders of the church.
Anchor this moment in scripture
I encourage pastors and the lay leadership of the congregation to devote time to reflecting on Acts 2:42-47. I offer it to you here from the NRSV:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Some questions leaders could reflect on could be:
How might we devote ourselves to scriptural teachings on stewardship?
Might we consider breaking bread over this calling several times during our discernment?
What does our call to a campaign have to say about those in need around us?
How could a call to a campaign be used to glorify God?
Set Aside Time
Discernment of any call takes time. Calls to ministry often take years to flourish, we ask couples to carefully consider their call to marriage, and some discernment and preparation for joining a church often takes some amount of time. But, what each of these shares in common is that time is set aside for each call to be prayerfully considered. In the case of ministry, that could take the form of several years of seminary. For a couple, we often ask them to take six months of time with a pastor or counselor to prepare. For a new believer, formation and education classes could take a few months. In all cases we set aside time for this work. The same should be true for discerning a capital campaign.
Too many times, I have seen it as an agenda item, among many, for a finance committee to decide on and then recommend action to a higher body. While there is nothing wrong with that process, a capital campaign is just too big an item to be lumped in with others. Once leaders think there might be a call to a campaign, we need to set aside time for that. Here are a few ways I have seen that done:
A weekend retreat for ordained and lay leaders of the congregation. They set aside time (like the three examples above) to devote to consideration of the call.
A weeknight retreat was a creative option I was once a part of. The major deliberative bodies of the church met one after another each night of the same week. They all had the same prayer service and discerned five major questions over a two hour period.
A virtual retreat. This happened during the pandemic. While I have some concern about our collective ability to focus in virtual environments, it was all we had at that time. Meeting in person was not an option. So, there were meetings during the week that culminated with a 3-hour session (again virtually) on Saturday of all the major bodies of the church. It was creative and effective!
Come to a conclusion
Let me be clear, we put no limits on when God is done talking and inspiring! I once saw a church take a full three years to decide they were called to a campaign! However, it is simply good stewardship to set some parameters on the time we are willing to devote to making the consideration of the call a priority for the leadership bodies of the congregation.
Some churches can quickly come to realize that they are called to a campaign and can start making preparations very quickly. One church went from their initial conversation to convening a campaign leadership team in two months! I had a hard time keeping up with them! They were literally a congregation on the move so time was of the essence for them. Others have taken much longer and found themselves starting the process over one or more times as significant aspects of the church changed. This really consumed more energy and resources than the church could afford.
We all know in church life that there are competing priorities to consider all the time. Good stewardship of our leaders means that we arrange those priorities in a way that advances the discipleship of the church and honors the time that our leaders devote to their ministry. While ministry priorities can be delegated to faithful volunteers with expertise, campaign considerations are necessarily the purview of the whole body of leaders. Thus, we need to be as efficient as we can with their gifts and talents.
My counsel to congregations is to take prudent time to prioritize discernment, but not longer than six months. If in that time it has not become clear that a campaign is needed, discernment could continue in some other venue or form, but it should no longer be a top leadership priority. By that time, other ministry needs will be demanding attention.
How might we devote ourselves to scriptural teachings on stewardship?
Might we consider breaking bread over this calling several times during our discernment?
What does our call to a campaign have to say about those in need around us?
How could a call to a campaign be used to glorify God?
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