Fundraisers that make the church more relevant to the local community – Transcript

Jim Latimer
Welcome to Coaching for Interims. We are about empowerment for interim ministers: best practices and quick help from interims for interims – wisdom from the field. My name is Reverend Jim Latimer and I am your host today. I have the distinct pleasure of having with me the Reverend Quentin Chin. Quentin has lots of experience in this niche of ministry. I asked him if he would be willing to speak also a little bit about fundraisers because they have such an impact…. or, well, I won’t see anything more. Quentin, what would you like to share with us about this topic that I qued you up for?

Quentin Chin
Yeah. Thanks, Jim. So, yes, fundraisers. Let’s face it, almost every church seems to have a fundraiser, whether it’s a church supper which we ask people to put money in, or we do a quilt raffle, or anything like this. Why are we doing them? And the inevitable answer usually is, “We need the money.” And we can’t ignore that for many people who participate in the fundraiser it’s also a good fellowship opportunity. It builds esprit de corps. But these days I’m beginning to really question why we are doing so much fundraising. We have only so much energy to commit to anything. If we start expending a lot of energy on fundraising, what are we actually doing for Jesus? Right? Looking at the New Testament, looking at the Gospels, I don’t think Jesus did a bake sale. Well, he had nothing to sell for tag sales, right? This is not gospel stuff. And then there is a question, “We need the money, Pastor!” How do you answer that? I think one of the questions – and this probably for another topic, Jim – but let’s really look at your (the church’s) budget. How much are you spending, particularly on things that maybe in excess now, like your building? But that’s a whole different topic.

I’m gonna go back to the fundraising thing. And I asked how much energy is that fundraiser taking? And what if we were to use that energy in ministry itself? One of the things to think about would be what would happen if you called a moratorium on fundraising? And let’s think about this from the last 15 or 16 months. We’re doing this interview on June 1, 2021. We’re just coming out of the pandemic. I would say most of the churches, where people listening to this, have not done a fundraiser in the last year. That’s kind of a moratorium. How did that affect your budget? How does that affect you? This is a great time to think about it. I also want us to think about, if we want to do a fundraiser, what if it’s not for us? What if we do a fundraiser for a group or someone in the community? I love music and school music programs are really important for the development of our young people, and school music programs seriously need money, right? So what if the church decided to do a fundraiser with substantially the money going to the local elementary school’s music program? Or there may be a homeless shelter in town that needs some income. We’re all struggling. But now we take the fundraiser and we actually make it the work of Jesus.

Jim Latimer
That has a whole different energy about it, too, when it’s a fundraiser where we’re dedicating our own time and our own energy – both of which are finite – but now it’s going to benefit someone else in the community and we can really see the impact that it’s having.

Quentin Chin
Yeah! And I think that also says something about the church. Because I think many of our fundraisers – let’s say a bake sale – we dig in our pockets, and we buy the flour, the sugar, the butter, eggs, and all that stuff. We make our cookies. We make our cakes. We bring them to the church. We sell them. And who buys them? We buy them! We get some people from outside of the church buying them, but mostly we buy them. So it’s kind of this circular thing: we’re not putting money in the pledge plate, we’re just taking energy and doing and buying cookies. I think if we were to do something where our fundraising actually worked to serve a community group, I think you would change the dynamics within the congregation and the community. We publicize this fundraiser, and we say that the proceeds are going to the elementary school music program.

Heck, I’m thinking you’re going to get people coming who want to support the music program. They’re not going to come to support the church, but they sure as heck want to see the kids learn how to play clarinet.

Jim Latimer
That’s right! So the other thing that’s happening there is this shift – you’re not saying there’s something wrong about having a bake sale, of course, depending on where where the money goes, right? But when the money goes, for example, to our local school’s music program that really needs the money, right? Then the other thing too – what I’m hearing you say – is that the people, maybe the parents or the kids or whoever, that aren’t part of our church, now they’re saying, “Oh, this church is really relevant!” They’re making the relevancy connection, which is what we (many churches) are struggling with, right? People are seeing us as more relevant than before. People saying, “Oh, they’re here!” And then maybe all kinds of things could could spin off of that.

Quentin Chin
Yeah. Or another one could be the school puts together this fundraiser to provide let’s say, music scholarships for kids leaving high school entering a music curriculum. And again, this is the whole idea: what Jesus was doing was – it wasn’t really about him as much as it was about the people around him. It’s helping people get that fulfilling life. Helping people move into their future.

Jim Latimer
That’s it! I think that’s a perfect place to stop, to conclude here, because you really put the icing on the cake. There are typical fundraisers to pay our own bills, and then there are fundraisers in the manner of Jesus – in the manner of what he cared about, in the manner of the impact that he wanted to have. And that kind of fundraiser is not only going to bring life to us, but it’s going to bring life – more life – to those we serve. And it’s going to put a smile on Jesus face too, I’m pretty sure.

Quentin Chin
Yeah! I would say so.

Jim Latimer
Great. Quentin, thank you so much. That’s a great way to think about fundraisers in a different way. All fundraisers are good, but thinking about them differently can really help us. Great to have you with us, Quentin.

Quentin Chin
Thanks for having me.

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