Auctions - friend or foe?

Many Christian schools employ the annual auction as a way of raising funds. The school deploys the parents to secure or procure items (usually for free or at reduced cost) that can be sold for a nice profit, which benefits the school.

Some of the positive aspects of this approach are:

1. Stakeholders (parents) are engaged in the support of their children's school
2. It brings the school community together by working cooperatively
3. It gets the parents interacting with the neighbors and businesses who get to learn something about the school
4. People who have craft and other skills can be stewards of their talents and contribute to the school in this way
5. The auctions can raise large amounts of money

Some of the negative aspects are:

1. Parents get worn out from soliciting (or begging), hence a slowdown on bid items
2. Businesses, too, get weary of be asked for free or discounted items unless they already have a healthy relationship with the school and auction support flows from the relationship
3. Auctions, in their purest form, are financial transactions that do not build relationships or assist donors in the stewardship growth.

There are additional positive and negative aspects, but what do we do with auctions?

I suggest that you look at ways of tailoring the auction to encourage and build relationships with people who see the school as a ministry they want to be involved with. For example, a class may assemble a basket of mementos or a scrapbook or even get the parents to help with a quilt.

These kinds of projects help forge meaningful connections between the donor and the school and allow for there to be an on-going and growing relationship that allows us to go deeper with the donor.

So, before we throw out the baby with the bath water, look for ways convert the transactional event to a transformational experience.

Write me back with your experience; we can sharpen each other.

Being a Good Steward vs. Doing Stewardship

Philippians 2:1-8

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!

Doing the job of being a stewardship coach is more than beating our bodies and minds into a new discipline. If we try to do that, we will fail because human motives are impure and human strength is limited.

However, we can be a good steward, which is to put on (or imitate) Christ's humility. If we see ourselves as nothing but servants of the One who gives us breath then we are positioned for for the work of stewardship.

I was speaking with a young friend today who "gets it" in knowing that we seek transformed lives, not just profitable transactions. I reminded him that he did not always have this handle on the truth. Moreover, we are continuing to grow in knowledge and wisdom. As such, we should stay humble recognizing that puffiness can stunt our spiritual growth.

With the humility of Christ as the standard we can approach others with grace and care, the same grace He lavished on us when we came to see that we cannot save ourselves.

We should still be bold and passionate, while being ever mindful of the One who gives and releases all good gifts.

Sailing and Stewardship

One of the first things I learned when I started sailing small boats was that, while I should have our destination in sight, I may not be able to sail straight to it. Winds, currents and other conditions demand that we may have to "tack", or sail in diagonal directions to eventually arrive at the destination.

Development and stewardship is, in many ways, similar. We must tack in building and developing relationships. I see this in two areas:

1. The Lord wants us to pray and to rely on Him. If He makes the process the "cause and effect" as we find on the transactional world, where is our faith? If it is a linear process, then we reduce the process to "this many visits or appeals" equals this many dollars. So, we just get better at turning the crank on the find raising machine.


2. On the higher level, there are people and organizations that we can and should bless, and there is no immediate return or connection with the goal of raising funds. Here, we need to see that we stewards need to be available to the King to be used in a way that advances His Kingdom. Most of us do not have vast sums of cash wealth, but we have much to share with others. Who knows, maybe we can even help them with their fund raising!

The sailing analogy breaks down a little because, in development, we may not be able to see the destination that the Lord has for us. However, we can watch the prevailing winds (the Spirit) and sail in the direction He points.

The results are His after all; to God be the Glory.

The Joy of Used Computers!

What school or other ministry has not been offered one or more used computers? However, many times these "gifts" are not current in hardware or software or operating systems.

So, unless we have IT departments with nothing to do (no way!) these gifts are not really beneficial for either students or staff.

When this situation occurs, we can politely say "no thanks, our specifications require current operating systems". Or, we could take a tack that brings the donor into closer relationship.

Here are some thoughts from a call I received recently:

1. Someone thought of us. They tried to match their gift with our need: a great place to begin.
2. I called back and asked how they found out about the school and how this batch of hardware became available. I learned that this mom may be putting her child in our school in the next year.
3. We want to keep the dialog going to see if the computers can be used.
4. We want to discuss other areas of interest with the donor to see how they might contribute in another way.

A culture of stewardship looks for faith-based relationships, which takes more time and effort than a simple "Sorry, these units don't fit our needs".

In the ministry work to which we are called we welcome opportunities to help our friends walk closer with the Savior.

A Donor's Self-Portrait

When we speak to donors we have the opportunity to "interview" them about their passions so we can see if and how our school (or other ministry) fits into their giving make-up.

A donor may not be able to quickly articulate their passions for others; after all, who asks questions like that?

By asking about other ministries the donor gives to, we can begin to triangulate on what types of work blesses the heart of the donor. Then, if we are active listeners, we follow up by saying, "so your heart is really moved you see....., right?"

This happened to me today. My friend almost got teary-eyed when he described the before and after pictures of surgeries used to repair cleft pallets. I never knew about this burden for underprivileged children, but it helped me see a little more of the donor's heart.

As we went through the other areas of interest I was developing a composite picture of a generous giver with a heart for restoration of lives through various venues and methods. Now, when I see something about one of his areas of interest I can forward that to him.

These "touches" keep us in ministry dialog even when we are not the immediate recipient of monetary gifts. However, blessings come in many forms and we not should presume to know when and how the Lord might move the donor in the direction of our school.

Be still and....