July 2017 – Nonprofit Readers Blog

Your sermon is finished. You’ve labored countless hours on it, and maybe even practiced for good measure. Throughout preparation you prayed earnestly. Now you believe you are all set for Sunday delivery.

As a pastor you preach just about every week to your flock. Making the most of every opportunity can make a difference with lasting impact.

More goes into exegeting and constructing a good sermon than your congregation could ever imagine. But there is still one more thing to do before you climb into the pulpit.
Ask these three simple questions and you’ll have a better crack at hitting a home-run.

Is This True?
What is the most powerful way to communicate today? You might be surprised to hear it is not a flashy PowerPoint display, a video clip or even a charismatic personality that gets the job done.
Communication Sciences have studied for years what constitutes the most effective interaction between sender and receiver, message-intended and message-received. In spite of mind-numbing advances in technology the experts find the best communication is still . . . “an honest man speaking truth.” Believe it or not, it’s true: you potentially have more power than a Hollywood IMAX Blockbuster.

But we already knew that from God’s Word—it’s more powerful than a two-edged sword. That is, as long as the message is based on the truth of a text rightly divided, as Paul mentored Timothy.
Having said that, you know congregations can smell a pastor a mile away who is short-changing the truth with hasty preparation. And giving the sheep what they think they want to hear can be tempting. Fact is that at the end of the day, only the truth of God’s Word truly wins the hearts of listeners.

So What’s New?
Still, the truth of your text alone won’t quite cut it if your listeners have heard it all before. My mentor, Dr. Alex De Jong, used to warn me as young pastor: “Dave, never tell them what they already knew before they walked into the sanctuary.” Does that mean you shouldn’t preach truths they’ve already heard? Or course not. It means that if your message does not contain something new, you owe them to convey God’s deep, timeless truths in a new way.

On the one hand, if you don’t find that new angle, your message is certain to clatter like a sour string of clichés. On the other hand, if they walk out thinking, “I never saw it that way before!” the Spirit has already started to work.

And, by the way, to bring with conviction something new is difficult if it is not somehow new for you too. So never stop digging into the inspired text until you strike gold.

Does it Break Through?
But that begs one more question before you deliver that barn-burner. Because even God’s truth explained in a new way won’t quite reach the listener’s inner ear. If they leave with only a new appreciation for truth, it will soon be forgotten and you will have wasted their time–as interesting as you may have made the moment.

Renown homiletician Dr. Klaas Runia put it this way: “The message of the text must intersect with the situation of the listeners.” There, at that intersection, is where the sermon “happens.” That’s preaching rather than delivering a mere theological lecture. So, effectual preaching of the Word is not only about “What?” or even “What’s new?” but also “So what?”

When the listener knows what to do with the message, by grace they can become a different person than before entering the sanctuary. Do you believe that when a Bible-based sermon breaks through into everyday lives—that’s how wonderful, Holy Spirit transformation transpires?

Let’s Recap
The good news is that preaching God’s Word is the most powerful communication on earth. The Second Helvetic Confession contains a marvelous declaration: “The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God.” That was eons before the communications experts discovered again and again the unsurpassed effectiveness of the spoken word.

Here’s the bottom line: Shouldn’t every pastor who preaches be aiming for life-transformation? Possibilities for that miracle exist every time you get behind the pulpit—and you remembered to ask these three simple questions prior to delivery.

H. David Schuringa

For more: The Nonprofit Leaders Digest

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Have you ever had a donation request or fund-drive fall flat? There’s a reason for that. You may have missed at least one of three proven dimensions of an effective ask.

Your ask must authentically engage the intellect, emotions and the will. Engaging two out of three is not good enough. You need all three for a fighting chance for heartfelt and enduring support. Sounds simple, but it takes hard work and earnest prayer, dependent alone on God’s promises. So let’s reviews the landscape.

Food for thought

Every ask should be abundantly clear as to what your nonprofit does. And the donor needs to know how you do it differently or better than a hundred other nonprofits. Right off the bat, you must provide solid reasons for the donor to part with his money and to invest in your initiative. Persuade the potential supporter why your cause is important and how it will make the world a better place.

Your donor is not stupid. So speak to the mind. Prove what you say. It is always helpful to have statistics to back up your claims. Stats beyond belief, however, raise red flags. Facts on the need for your nonprofit, as well its accomplishments, speak volumes. And produce some charts.

Prove your case that your nonprofit’s efforts are worth his precious time to consider.

Get to the heart of it

Facts alone, however, won’t persuade even the brightest philanthropist. As odd as it may sound, few will write a check because there’s ample reason and evidence to do so. They need to sense deep within they should get on board. Donors must empathize with the mission. There’s a certain-can’t-put-your-finger-on-it-something–something deep within–that switches on when a gift is produced.

One of the best ways for a potential donor to turn on to your nonprofit is through stories. Illustrations of real people, with a real need, that their gift can meet. Pictures of your nonprofit’s work can dramatically strike a cord and move a donor to join your important effort for good.

At the end of the day, a donor has to be touched deep down by your vision. If not moved by your cause, no matter how compelling the facts are, the checkbook stays in the pocket. All the compelling facts in the world won’t convince unless he senses the Spirit moving in a mighty way.

Action speaks louder

You can hardly imagine more that a donor needs than the right information and that deeply rooted feeling for forking out a gift. Well, there is another dimension that is vital to engage and this is that the gifts will actually do what you say they will do.

This is hope for results that can be kindled by sharing exciting, attainable, but challenging goals the gift will accomplish. Outcomes are chief in mind for today’s donors.

In some way they should experience those outcomes themselves–get them involved in your nonprofit somehow. That can mean a tour of your facility, introduction to volunteers and staff, service on an advisory board or a committee. Sometimes it possible for the potential donor to join you on the field where real people in need are getting real help because of your nonprofit.

NOT a Magic Formula!

Be aware: these three dimensions are not a three-point pitch or slick recipe for success. They are three dimensions that are dynamically interwoven throughout your presentation. A three-strand cord is not easily broken. If one prong of the fund-raising electrical cord is missing, however, you lose the connection and donor appeals go dark.

Woven together with prayer and supplication, your imperfect appeals for partnerships at the right time and to the right person will ignite support as you have touched his head, heart and hands. Consider every donor and potential donor, large and small, as your partners for reaching the heads, heart and hands of people in need. Trust in God’s promise that if you ask, you shall receive.

H. David Schuringa

For More: The Nonprofit Leaders Digest

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