Anna Burns talks about the number one question you should be asking your new donors.

That question is — "What moved you to give for the first time?"

Do you know what moved your donors to donate to you? Why did they give? Did they give because they support the ministry that you're doing or because they support you personally and whether you were working at this ministry or another ministry they would continue to support you? Knowing the answer to this question is one of the most powerful insights that you can ever gain from a donor. Anna outlines three reasons why you should ask this question as soon as possible. Click the green play button to listen:

Anna Burns is with The Great Commission Foundation.

Click here for the "Ask Anna" article she referred to in this episode.

Click here to subscribe to Anna's Fundraising Tips newsletter.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TGCFandFriends Facebook: ...

Organizational Coach Dr. Ken Thiessen outlines five common ways that anxiety manifests itself in congregations and Christian ministries.

It is important to understand how anxiety dominates much of the unhealthy decision making processes and broken relationships within faith-based ministries and congregations. Dr. Thiessen identifies these five unhealthy ways anxiety hampers good communication and conflict resolution within Christian ministries:

• Triangulation — people talk about people rather than to people
• Self-differentiation —  relationship is contingent on agreement
• Blaming and Scapegoating — Who's the one who made this mess?
• Multigenerational transmission process — an endless cycle of looking to replace  "the problem person"
• Over-functioning and Under-functioning — People who take on the burdens of responsibility for everything, and those who avoid responsibility for anything.

  Click the green play...

Advice for Short Term Mission Trips

Two experts respond to these questions on security and longer term engagement we received from a ministry leader in Brazil:

I’d like to hear about good resources with advice about safety and security for groups coming out on short term mission trips. Oh…and another thing I’d like to hear on your podcast — what are some advice on how do we engage these short term mission tourists to become long term donors? They take a lot of our time and most we never hear from again after.

Mark Crocker is Executive Director of STMleader.com

Mark shares with us his insights on Short Term Missions, having trained tens of thousands of volunteers to head overseas and make a difference. Mark served as the chair for short term missions at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s Global Mission round table. He now consults and trains for faith-based and secular NGOs. He heads of STMleader.com and Stopover.ca....

Dr. Lyndon Wall of Refresh Ministries points out that burn-out is often predicated by a loss of hope.

Dr. Wall prescribes six remedies to recover your hope and prevent burn-out.

First, ask yourself — What is my understanding of my call to impact the world?  See if you can write it out in a sentence. Second, ask — What is my hope level of this happening?  Rate on a scale of 1-10:  One meaning little hope, 10 fullness of confidence. Third, ask — How has your ministry experience affected your belief in yourself, other people and God?  Has there been a sliding toward negative attitudes in any of these three categories? Fourth — Consider the difference between faithfulness and impact.  Which was your calling to?  Often when we are called to a certain ministry, we add our own assumptions about how that ministry is going to change the world.  When our assumptions don’t pan out we move easily to despair. ...

Anna Burns has a recommendation:

Reach out to your donors in a personal way by sending them a Christmas card. This is a simple way to say, "Hey, I'm thinking of you and wanted to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas."

Anna Burns is with The Great Commission Foundation.

Click here for the "Ask Anna" article she referred to in this episode.

Click here to subscribe to Anna's Fundraising Tips newsletter.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TGCFandFriends Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatCommissionFoundation  

 Dr. Joel Thiessen continues his synopsis on the reasons people go "post-church".

The thesis he advances is that most of the reasons for why people diminish their involvement in church attendance has virtually nothing to do with what churches do or don't do. Most of these things have to do with broad cultural changes within society.

Click the green play button to listen to Dr. Joel Thiessen: Dr. Thiessen identifies these eight reasons:

1. Rejection of exclusivity
2. Life transitions
3. Teenage choice
4. Too busy
5. Scandals and hypocrisy
6. Intellectual disagreement
7. Interpersonal tension
8. Social ties

Joel is the Director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute at Ambrose University in Calgary.

Dr. Joel Thiessen is a sociologist of religion who specializes in religion in Canada. His academic interests developed as an...

Anna Burns answers this week's question — "It's so hard to get donors on board and then keep them interested in supporting my project. I seem to be losing supporters. How can I keep them donating?"

  Full transcripts and related resources are available without cost through our private Christian Ministry Academy membership site.

Get access to our free show notes portal .

Anna Burns is with The Great Commission Foundation.

Click here for the "Ask Anna" article she referred to in this episode.

Click here to subscribe to Anna's Fundraising Tips newsletter.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TGCFandFriends Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatCommissionFoundation  

   The background music featured on this podcast is by Christian musician Steve Bell and his producer and recording engineer Dave Zeglinski. It's called “O Love“ and is...

Dr. Joel Thiessen talks about people who claim to be Christian... but only show up in church for religious holidays and rites of  passage.

Between 40 and 50% of those who identify as Christian attend religious services mainly for religious holidays and rites of passage. They show up every Christmas. They show up every Easter. They baptize their children. They want to get married in a church, but they don't attend any other time of the year. Click the green play button to listen to Dr. Joel Thiessen: Dr. Thiessen identifies three reasons they do show up occasionally in church:

Tradition — Tradition is a powerful anchor that guides our behavior.

Family — Much like sitting around the dinner table, attending a religious service brings back the family memories.

Sacred Space — feeling closer to God in a church.

  Full transcripts and related resources are available without cost through our private Christian Ministry Academy membership...

Organizational Coach Dr. Ken Thiessen responds to a ministry worker in Southern Africa about team conflict.

She asks:

We have some communication and conflict problems on our ministry team. I feel very isolated and don’t know how to deal with this. Please… could you have your podcast give some regular tips for team conflict resolution. And how to deal with a team leader who doesn’t bring out the best in us? Click the green play button to listen to Dr. Ken Thiessen.

Dr. Ken Thiessen has a 30 year track record of leading, consulting, and coaching organizations to realize their imagined future.

Church leadership teams will benefit from the resources on his Anxious Congregations website.

Dr. Ken Thiessen came into ministry after a very successful sales career.  He spent 20 years in pastoral ministry before transitioning into a denominational leadership role for 5 years.  During his time as a pastor he served small town and city churches....

Dr. Joel Thiessen shares his insights about Canadians who claim to have no religious affiliation.

In sociological terms they are labelled "religious nones".  

Click the green play button to listen to Dr. Joel Thiessen:

He highlights five distinctive characteristics of Canadians who claim to have no religious affiliation ("religious nones"):

1. They believe they're open-minded and free
2. They hold varying beliefs about the supernatural
3. They are very clear that they have meaning and purpose quite apart from religion
4. They believe that you do not need religion in order to be moral
5. They have a strong aversion to forced religion.

Joel is the Director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute at Ambrose University in Calgary.