Aim Small, Miss Small

There are some movies you can watch over and over again and still be entertained. Movies like Forrest Gump, Rocky, or The Blind Side never get old. Yet one of my favorites is "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson. I love that movie! It was that movie that spawned something in my spirit about our giving strategies for our church. Do you remember the part where Colonel Benjamin Martin was rushing through the woods with his two young sons, in an attempt to ambush the British and rescue his oldest son? He handed his young boys a rifle and said, "Boys, Aim small, miss small." What did he mean? He meant if they aimed at the man and missed, they missed the man; but if they aimed at a button on their jackets, they could miss the button but still hit the man. I think we need to adopt this same principle to our churches in terms of giving. Let me share just a couple of things the Lord slammed me with a few weeks ago.

• Our congregations are made up of different entities (young singles, young parents, older people, college students, educators, etc.)

• Each entity is passionate about specific things. For example, young parents are passionate about their children; educators are passionate about their careers, young singles are passionate about finding their soul mate, and so on.

There is huge importance in knowing the different entities that make up your congregation; and even more important is to know their passions...because their passion equals what they consider to be relevant. How does all of this tie into giving?

People give to what is relevant; they give to the things they are passionate about. Threatening the church to give or suffer dire financial consequences or teaching them to treat God like a lottery ticket (give and He'll give you more than you can stand) is tiring and distasteful. While giving should be an act of worship, we still must be strategic in funding the work of the Kingdom. Rewind with me to "The Patriot" again. The brave Colonel said, "Aim Small, Miss Small." I think this needs to happen in our churches. Here's how.

• Discover the Different Buttons: Define the different entities in your church and learn their passions (remember, whatever they are passionate about is what they consider relevant).

• Aim Small to Miss Small: Build a quarterly giving schedule "aiming" at one (not all) entity and tie it to giving.

Let me give you a quick example of our giving schedule for this upcoming Sunday. Our target is "Parents." We understand parents are passionate about their children, so my Children's Pastor will lead giving. She will probably have three or four cute kids on the platform. They will either recite a Bible verse, sing a song, or do something cute. Afterwards, my children's pastor will remind the church their generosity does much more than pay the light bill; their giving enables us to train up their children in the Word of God. Now the singles will think that's cute, but every parent in the building will see it as AWESOME and RELEVANT because they are PASSIONATE about their children. People give to passion.

When we aim towards those who are community minded, we'll have one of our servolution leaders to lead giving. Same thing. Tell the story, tie it to giving, and every community-minded person hears something that is relevant and they give out of their passion. Creating this kind of schedule enables you to build your giving around, not only entities, but even life issues that may occur in your community. The options are endless!

Don't get me wrong, teaching on tithing and offerings are needed. We need to shotgun the Biblical commandments about giving; but we should be wise to aim small to miss small. We should speak relevant language to our people, so they understand that giving accomplishes the eternal things that they themselves are passionate about.

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