GROW YOUR SPACE

1. How to Grow Your Space — A Vision for Your Capital Campaign
Your Capital Campaign vision should complete your church’s vision, but they are not necessarily one and the same. As an example, the church’s overall vision may be to teach the word of God to all ages; vision for your capital campaign is to build a family life center/social hall.

Kirby-Smith Associates will help you define and communicate your vision to your membership. As stated in Proverbs 29:18, “Without a vision, the people will perish.” Church members normally understand vision more in the context of ministry.

Church members are not interested in giving to a building; they are intent on giving to the ministry that will take place within the building. Kirby-Smith Associates will work with your church leadership and members to develop an understanding that your capital campaign is not about bricks and mortar, but about fulfilling a need to build for a stronger community of faith.

Our successful workshop will assist in linking vision to ministry and the need to build to fulfill and grow your ministries.

2. How to Get Started on Solid Footing with Your Building Project
Are you considering a new building or renovating an existing one? Do you know where to begin? Our Church Building Workshop is designed to help get your building project started on solid footing. This workshop will help you understand the differences in design approaches and different construction methods for your project. You will learn how to analyze your financial strengths, determine how much you can afford to spend, and how to use a stewardship approach to raising the necessary funds. We normally conduct our Church Building Workshops in conjunction with a bank, an architect, and a construction contractor experienced in church lending and building.

GROW YOUR GIVING

3. How to Grow Your Offering — 15 Blocks
Churches today are in great need of specific ways to grow their income to meet the increasing demands of ministry. We can cut our budgets and deal with whatever little we have left, but this is not in line with the abundance that God has promised. This workshop begins by challenging our paradigm of scarcity to focus on building up our offerings. Participants will walk away with specific things that can be done immediately to generate additional revenue, as well as tools that can be utilized long range. This workshop will help your stewardship, finance, or other leadership committee to focus on the money opportunities available in your church.

4. The Spirituality of Stewardship
When asked for the definition of “stewardship” most folks tend to immediately reach for their wallets. Some go a bit further to include time, talent, as well as how we share our treasure. In reality, how we share our time, talent, and our treasure are but the symptoms of something much more profound — our spirituality. This workshop will focus on four specific concepts that help shape the spirituality of the individuals in our congregations today. Metaphorically speaking, our time, talent, and treasure are the programs running on our computer; our focus should be on the operating system that allows these programs to work. What are the spiritual beliefs that are the foundation of stewardship? This is one of our most requested workshops.

5. Creative Ways to Give in a Changing World
The economic climate has definitely changed. This fact has affected the fundraising landscape. Kirby-Smith Associates has crafted strategies that work in this new and challenging environment. We will present a wide array of options and hundreds of ideas as part of the campaign process, along with testimonies of how these Creative Giving Solutions have succeeded in actual campaigns. Creative Giving Solutions have made it possible for many churches to successfully move forward in raising funds when they were not certain they could do so.

6. Wealth Management — Making the Most of Your Generosity — A Planned Gift Approach to Giving
Many people would like to give more to their church but are afraid they can’t afford to increase giving. They are concerned about their own financial needs or retaining enough to leave to their heirs. That’s where Rodgers & Associates can help. We help donors develop strategies to offset increased giving with reduced taxes. Imagine a donor being able to increase their giving without reducing spendable income. They are even strategies allowing a donor to give income from an asset to their church, and retain the principal for their heirs in the future. As a resource partner with Kirby-Smith, Rodgers and Associates can provide one-on-one advice to a large donor or teach a class on charitable giving strategies to your group. Your church benefits from the giving and your members save by giving tax-efficiently.

GROW YOUR MEMBERSHIP

7. Encouraging the Second Visit
Do you ever wonder what people experience when visiting your church for the first time? This workshop will raise your awareness of the experience of a visitor when they enter into the parking lot and through your church door. The workshop will help you examine the practical way to connect with that first time visitor and encourage them to return for another visit.

8. Beyond the First Visit
Getting return visitors to develop an ongoing connection with your congregation is important. So, what do you need to do to help visitors to connect to the Body of Christ? This workshop will help you understand what people who come to your congregation need to “sign on” with your community of faith, examine generational differences, and show how they impact your communication and outreach opportunities. This workshop will help you expand your options for ministry.

9. Evangelization
For 78 years, Kirby-Smith has been a national leader in conducting successful capital campaigns and contacting tens of thousands personally. Our trained staff has the ability to conduct home visits and has consistently trained church members to conduct home visitations. We have now utilized the years of training along with our understanding of the home visitation process and applied it to Evangelization. Every church desires to welcome back or re-involve members who are either inactive or non-participating. We have an Evangelization program that will help a church identify those in need of evangelization, customize a plan to contact these inactive members, and then reach out to these members using either professional Kirby-Smith staff or thoroughly trained members of your church. Research has shown that the most effective way to Evangelize is to do person-to-person contacts, and the best people to evangelize are those who were an active part of your church at one time. Now is the time to be the Good Shepherd. Learn how to reach out to those in need — your inactive members.

10. 21st Century Congregations
As the rapidly changing digital world continues to evolve, so must our communities of faith. This workshop will focus on using online resources to interact and engage your faith community. Learn how to effectively use social media to communicate and reach new members while keeping current members informed. Learn how to reach across generations from the Greatest Generation to the Baby Boomers to Generation X to Millenniums. Discussions will include online giving, creative giving, and use of the internet from websites to online learning and communication.

11. An Introduction to Coaching Ministry:

A Practical Introduction to Coaching

Basic Coach Training
Sometimes we can find ourselves running on treadmills with our ministry to God’s people. While exercising is a good thing for our health, a stagnant ministry is not growing and perhaps dying. That’s why having a coach can be a great motivator to continuously challenge your perceptions and actions regarding your ministry. Coaches will help shine a light in places where you might not think to look and possibly point out some of the things that may be holding you back from serving at a higher potential. Our workshops will give you a brief introduction to what coaching is from the perspective of nationally certified coaches. We discuss topics such as the difference between coaching, motivating, managing, and leading. While each has a role in ministry, coaching can be the key that can unlock and draw out the best manager, leader, and motivator in you.

We also assist you by providing two types of training events. A Practical Introduction to Coaching is a one-day workshop where you will explore and learn an effective 5-step coaching model. This model will equip you to begin integrating a powerful coaching approach into your ministry. Our two-day Basic Coach Training further equips you to integrate a dynamic coaching approach into your ministry setting with expanded skills. Here, you will experience more interactive learning, along with practicing and receiving constructive feedback. Coach training will help you empower those around you by developing their strengths to get things done. The results are multiplied when staff and lay leaders are trained as coaches thereby adding powerful tools to grow your ministry. Kirby-Smith’s top quality coach training materials and presentations are brought to you in conjunction with Coaching4Clergy.

12. Leadership Development – Creating the Engaged Church
Kirby-Smith Associates has developed a leadership program for current and future church leaders by teaching and implementing the exciting work of the Gallup organization for creating an engaged church. Utilizing Gallup’s Strength Finders, we provide your leadership with new strategies validated by Gallup studies and surveys. The program, thoughtfully applied, will double the number of volunteer hours served per week by your members increasing the likelihood of them inviting others to church events by tenfold, and triple your giving.

13. Principle-based Leadership
Where do leaders come from? How does one become a leader? Can leadership skills be learned? How can we improve our effectiveness as leaders personally, within our families, and in organizations with which we collaborate, including our churches? While there are various models for training individuals, we bring the most up-to-date research and effective tools to bear in a principle-centered approach. Principles are everlasting and universally applicable. Like the Ten Commandments, healthy principles can help today’s leaders navigate through daily challenges involving difficult decision making and collaboration with others. In this collaborative spirit and principle-based leadership style, participants learn to expect that the end results will always be greater than the sum of its parts and that true win/win solutions are not only possible, but likely.

14. School Development
School development directors, principals, school board members, business managers, and any interested volunteers have a myriad of challenges facing them regarding funding and student enrollment. If you are in need of help, we have some answers. Learn what committees are needed, committee descriptions, and their responsibilities. We can assist you in setting up development and advancement committees. Gain insight on recruiting and retaining students. Learn specific fundraising activities and how to conduct them. If you make an annual appeal, we can show you how to set it up and what to do to make your annual appeal stronger.

Running a school development office requires planning and vision; hiring tactics, job descriptions, gathering volunteers, and fundraising activities are all important considerations. Our workshop will supply you with samples and suggestions. Learn how to bring business leaders into your school. We’ll also provide information on planned giving. School development workshops touch on the full array of issues facing school leaders regarding funding opportunities and development needs.

15. What is a Coaching Approach to Ministry? – What’s the big deal?
Ministries that thrive and continue are deeply tuned into those they minister. Those who are the hands and feet of the ministry see the rewards of their work and are encouraged, enthusiastic, and engaged with providing the ministry and attracting others to join them. Those who are overseeing the hands and feet have observed, strategized, planned, encouraged and empowered others in addition to the typical routines of their positions. Coaching skills are all throughout this description. And at a simplified definition, everyone can coach — and many do naturally. When we talk about a coaching approach to ministry, we are talking about moving those skills to a new level for even better results and gaining new skills to streamline the ministry and communications for maximum attainment of vision. When a purposeful coaching approach is used, individuals are also recognized for their contributions and strengths. Confidence and unity is built.

Here’s a glimpse of what the well prepared coaching tool box will look like:

  • How to listen to hear successes, strengths, challenges, frustrations, needs, ideas, and who the other person really is, what makes them tick.
  • How to ask powerful questions that bring out truth, different viewpoints, issues to be addressed, ideas to try, resources that are or aren’t available, motivations and more.
  • How to design actions that move powerfully from the present toward the ministry’s vision. These actions are purposely planned to empower and encourage, be timely, positively effect others, be successful, and build confidence.
  • This method can be summed up in a few key spiritual concepts. First, “You shall love the Lord your God… The second is like it, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself…” Matthew 22:37-40.

Great coaching requires the coach to truly care and deeply respect the other person. This is demonstrated in listening and questioning skills. Ephesians 4:1-16 is another key passage, calling leaders to be humble, patient, build peace, and equip the saints for the work of service… Great coaching builds others up, encourages and empowers others to do their part in the body of Christ. Coaching skills are honed to produce powerful results. Church staff and leaders can benefit the ministry and those around them by building and utilizing these skills. Come join us and bring your staff and leaders, as we explore this more!