Stewardship and the Millennials: What church leaders should know about the most generous generation

When it comes to finances, some in the church don't expect much from young adults. The widespread assumption is that Millennials in particular give far less than older generations, that a confluence of student loan debt and self-absorption reduce their generosity.

Yet published data on generosity amongst the Millennials would suggest that this assumption is false. Some studies, including a 2019 report from Fidelity, conclude that Millennials donate twice as much to charitable causes as Baby Boomers. More recent data indicate that Millennials have donated and volunteered more than any other generation throughout the pandemic. This explains, in part, why companies with large Millennial workforces are increasingly committed to corporate social responsibility efforts.

Still, this generosity comes with some skepticism. The expansion of websites like Charity Navigator reveals how young adults want transparency and accountability with their donations. They want their gifts to make a real difference. While some have argued that societal impacts have an administrative cost, the reality is that Millennials don't want their money going towards staff salaries, building costs, and marketing budgets.

Millennials are a remarkably generous generation. But as a generation, their motivations to give are different from previous cohorts. Raised in the Age of Authenticity, Millennials are motivated not by loyalty to an institution. Rather, Millennials are inspired to give to movements aligned to their values and purpose. Millennials are driven to donate to causes where they believe their gifts of time and talent will make a measurable difference. So while young adults may not take after their parents in making weekly donations to a church, they are open to supporting churches that can tell the story of a measurable impact.

Stewardship with the Millennials is fundamentally a collaborative endeavor. When a young adult donates to an organization, it's not because they want to perpetuate the existence of an institution. It's because they want to be involved in an organization's mission. When telling their stewardship story, church leaders should avoid framing the conversation as a transaction: "give this, in order that the church might do that." Rather, the story must be told as a partnership: "join us in giving, so that together we might..."

A request for donations, offerings, and tithes is not a solicitation. It is an invitation to the shared work of the church.

Similarly, stewardship with young adults requires impact, accountability, and transparency. The story a church tells must make clear, qualitatively and quantitatively, the impact that offerings have had on causes and community. While every church has its own purpose and its own set of prioritized causes, there are certain issues and causes that are of the utmost importance to younger adults.

These issues include climate change and economic equality. The causes include diversity and inclusion. That's not to say that a church's stewardship plan shouldn't seek to share perspectives on the core work of the church: worship, education, and faith practices. Rather, when creating a stewardship strategy, the approach should be this: Make it clear how much of every dollar given addresses these issues and contributes to these causes. Then, make it clear how much goes towards administration, facilities, and staff salaries. As the church becomes more transparent with these figures, young adults will come to see the return that comes through potential tithes and offerings.

Some will dismiss these ideas. They will say that the work of the church is to make disciples, not to work for social justice. Others will suggest that tithes and offerings must be separated from transactions and charitable donations, that giving to a church is a distinctive act. Many from my denomination may argue that such an approach indicates "works righteousness," a theological concept often tossed around to resist change and innovation in the church.

These concerns must be addressed simply and succinctly. Stewardship is about responding to God's call through the Gospel to love and serve the neighbor. The stories we tell about the church's impact on climate, equality, and inclusivity are stories that emanate from God's call. To make an accountable, transparent impact on these issues and causes is to pursue a vocation of tremendous faithfulness.

It is now September, a season when churches tell their stewardship stories in an attempt to solicit pledges for the coming year. Stewardship with the Millennials is ultimately not about once-a-year pledge drives.

Rather, it is about a year-long journey of responding to God's invitation. Churches that find new ways of doing stewardship will discover how to tell digital stories of faith-based impact on issues and causes. Through video, blogs, podcasts, and social media, these stories must be told, and they must be told with consistency. At the foundation of this work is a pivot away from fundraising and towards discipleship and accompaniment.

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@ryanpanzer is a millennial author.

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Facebook for Faith: When we use social media for tithes, offerings, and stewardship

Facebook recently launched Faith for Facebook, a resource portal for religious leaders. The portal provides documentation, case studies, and how-to resources on Groups and Facebook Live, likely the most utilized resources among faith communities. Beneath the content on communities and video is a section on charitable giving: Fundraising on Facebook.

According to Facebook's documentation, Facebook covers "all fees for donations made on Facebook to charitable organizations." Churches that qualify as 501(c)(3) organizations could thus use Facebook Payments for fee-free fundraising. The sign-up process is brief: provide a recent bank statement, relevant contact information, and submit some paperwork.

Once enrolled in Facebook Payments, churches can add a Giving button their Facebook Page (which, of course, is different from its Facebook Group). When an individual donates on the Page, funds arrive in the church's bank account within a matter of weeks. According to the company, "If your organization is enrolled with Facebook Payments, then it will be paid out every two weeks. The funds will be paid to your organization as an ACH, or as a direct deposit to your organization's bank account."

Other than the free cost, the benefit to using Facebook for tithes and offerings is accessibility. The wide adoption of Facebook in a congregation makes it easier to collect tithes and offerings than on platforms like a church management system or standalone giving app. With seven out of ten Americans using Facebook, and five out of ten Americans visiting Facebook every day, it's likely that most members of a congregation already have a Facebook profile. Even older members of the congregation are likely to use the social media site. Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation are the fastest-growing adopters of the social media platform.

But as with all technology in a ministry context, there are questions that church leaders ought to address before directing congregants to donate through Facebook:

• Ethics - should you use social media for tithes and offerings?

• Exclusivity - should Facebook be the only platform for tithes and offerings?

• Liturgical integration - how might we remember that tithes and offerings are more than a transaction on a social media site?

As with all ministry technologies, church leaders ought to reflect on the ethical implications of using Facebook for donations. While processing fees are covered, a donation through Facebook gives the social media giant access to even more user data, in the form of credit card numbers and billing addresses. While this data is undoubtedly secure and protected from hackers, one wonders how Facebook could integrate this data into their ever-growing portfolio of user information. Still, without concrete examples of improper usage of user financial information, any expectation of corporate malfeasance is an assumption. The fact is, online tithes and offerings require church members to share their financial information with some organization, whether it be a bank, an app developer, or a social media company. It may be a net positive to route these donations through Facebook, which has far more cybersecurity resources than smaller app developers. We may not know what Facebook does with all of this data, but we can be confident that it is safe from hackers and breaches.

From a practical standpoint, we should also consider whether Facebook should be the only platform or one of many donation platforms. The more donation platforms a church utilizes, the more complexity it introduces for its treasurer and administrative staff. There is some value in using Facebook exclusively, particularly since it doesn't charge a donation fee. Yet, three out of ten Americans don't use Facebook, and it seems almost callous to suggest that someone needs to create a social media profile to tithe to the church. The best answer to the question of exclusivity, then, might be to use two platforms for donations: one that integrates with the church's website (such as Tithe.ly or Breeze CMS), and one that connects to a Facebook Page.

Ultimately, church leaders would do well to remember that tithes and offerings are always an act of Christian worship: giving back to God what God has first given to us. This is difficult to remember in the world of fast-paced online transactions. With the rise Venmo and PayPal, the exchange of funds through cyberspace has become truly effortless, even impersonal. While it's beneficial for churches to receive offerings through a click-to-donate button, it's essential to maintain a connection between stewardship and worship. Donating online to church is an act of worship. For this reason, churches should not abandon the offering during online or live-streamed services. Church leaders might even consider having a virtual blessing for click-to-donate buttons, on Facebook or on a website, marking that these technologies are in fact an expression of the community's worshipping life together.

Facebook for Faith's giving tool is a valuable resource for church leaders. The lack of transaction fees provide a compelling advantage when compared with other church offering technologies. While it might not be the only way to collect tithes and offerings, it might be the most useful way - particularly when it is connected with worship.

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@ryanpanzer is the author of "Grace and Gigabytes."

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Slack for Ministry: A new way for churches to collaborate virtually and asynchronously

Less than half of Americans want to work full-time from an office when the pandemic subsides, according to the New York Times. These sentiments follow a recent McKinsey analysis suggesting that most organizations can rely predominantly on remote work without any drop in effectiveness or impact. According to McKinsey, even location-based services like healthcare may one day see over one-third of employees coming to work virtually. We are in an economy where the number of available jobs is misaligned to the number of active job seekers. As a result, organizations that are unable or unwilling to collaborate virtually and asynchronously will soon encounter a severe shortage of job applicants.

This trend matters a great deal to churches, which are just as active in the labor market as any organization. While church leaders may prefer to think of congregations as localized units shaped in response to the needs of a geographic neighborhood, the church of the future will be less of a bounded entity. In this digital age, congregations will take up a both/and position, serving the needs of the physical and virtual neighbor in response to God's call, with acts of discipleship taking place down the street and throughout cyberspace.

Church leaders, then, need to find a way to collaborate virtually and asynchronously, with rostered leaders, lay leaders, members, and virtual/physical neighbors. Whether a congregation has a large office with dozens of staffers or a small office with a pastor and an administrator, today's church leader is tasked with extending the collaborative reach of the community.

Slack for Mac OS

This is why Slack is such a compelling platform for ministry. Originally designed as a chat application, Slack sought to reduce dependence on email. By convening chat conversations and hosting direct messages between collaborators, Slack reduces dependence on the inbox and facilitates collaboration between those who are neither located in the same place nor working at the same times. While churches are ineligible for Slack's nonprofit discount program, an account starts at just $8/person per month.

Slack invites anyone connected with an organization to join "channels," or chat rooms, created around shared projects. Companies might have channels for sales, marketing, product development, or human resources. Churches might create channels for worship planning, faith formation, Sunday school, and administration.

Once organized into channels, Slack provides the infrastructure for meaningful collaboration. This includes apps that support teleconferencing platforms like Zoom, as well as integrations that support work on shared documents like Google Docs. Slack also provides threaded conversations, facilitating the possibility of a lively back and forth.

How can today's church leader get the most from Slack?

First, identify what areas require collaboration, and accordingly, meeting times. Does your church have a weekly worship planning session? A bi-weekly finance check-in with the treasury committee? Each of these represents a possible Slack channel, where ideas can be exchanged and questions answered outside of scheduled meeting time.

Second, find specific opportunities to utilize Slack to exchange ideas. Adopting a new technology requires an awareness of uses cases. The most common way churches might start to utilize Slack is to bring together the worship planning team, who can use the platform to integrate music, preaching themes, prayers, and other aspects of Sunday morning. Communicate how and when collaborators should turn to Slack - and remember to communicate the benefits of reduced meeting time, and greater community input.

Next, think about Slack as a platform for more than staff collaboration. While most organizations initially adopt Slack for internal use, congregations don't have a clean demarcation of internal/external stakeholders. All members of the church, and to some extent, all members of a neighborhood, are valued collaborators. Most church and neighborhood members won't want to engage via Slack initially - they likely tend to prefer to engage through social media like Facebook Groups. So, start with the church's lay leaders, or those who serve on standing boards or committees. Board and council members may be the most eager to reduce unnecessary meetings, holding conversations and even votes when it best suits their availability. Your church council Slack channel may be far more valuable in fostering collaboration than channels for pastors and church staff.

Finally, remember to have fun with Slack. From an endless trove of animated GIFs to seemingly every emoji (and the ability to create your own), Slack makes digital collaboration far more fun than any email exchange. The extent to which a congregation actually enjoys using Slack determines the sustainability of the platform in a ministry context.

While Slack is an excellent collaboration tool for congregations, it's important to remember that all technologies have a potential cost to our attention and energy. Cal Newport, author of "Digital Minimalism," recently published a book critiquing the rapid adoption of Slack. In fact, Slack can prove to be distracting, particularly when its usage is not goal-directed. In a ministry setting, Slack requires a specific purpose. It also requires some documented usage practices. It's best to encourage Slack users to carefully monitor their notification settings, potentially deactivating mobile notifications so as to avoid interruption outside of working hours.

Throughout this time of extended digital distribution, we've seen and experienced the redefinition of the workplace. That redefinition is coming to our churches, beckoning us to find new ways of collaborating in mission. Slack is a compelling tool for purposeful ministry, an invaluable resource for the digital age church leader.

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@ryanpanzer is the author of "Grace and Gigabytes."

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