Customer Reviews

Creating Congregations of Generous People

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mike Durall's slim but succulent guide to increasing and stimulating congregational giving is a welcome tonic when fundraising bibles seem to focus more on technique and need than motivation and virtue. Durall encourages us to aim to create congregations of generous people not as a ruse to open wallets but because - as he illustrates and explains well - only generous people in spirit and ethos will ever fill the plate. And it is more than his homespun wisdom as supported by his distilation of current reasearch and thinking from leaders in the field. Durall's emphasis on giving as the sharing of gifts with which we have been blessed is inspirational as well as practical. Give a copy to your minister as well as to every fundraiser you know!

I found this book to be most appealing for the following reasons: 1. It is very attractively designed, thus having an instant appeal to the bookstore or on-line browser.

2. It's content reinforces this external promise by virtue of: A)It's organization. The first sections witness the extent of the author's on-site research of charity as practiced by many Protestant and Jewish congregations. This survey is presented in a commendably non-judgmental way. The later sections deal with the author's own experience in his leadership of fund-raising within his own Church. The wisdom derived from such experience constitute the core of his message. B) The message. Mike Durall makes a convincing case for the necessity of a personal "stewardship" that combines spirituality and financial giving into a true act of charity. Furthermore, this attainment can have a vital effect upon the development or enhancement of a donor's life style and his concept of his relationship to his neighbors in this world. C)Its literary quality. This book is highly readable owing to its clear and refined prose. D) Its reference notes and bibliography. These combine to give further evidence of the thoroughness of research performed by Mike Durall in authoring this fine book!

I ordered a copy of Michael Durell's book for a quick peruse to see if there were ideas I could inject into our congregation's upcoming canvass. After a first read, I ordered four more copies the next day, and handed them around to the Canvass Committee members. Michael lays out a renewed vision of generosity with which to appraoch the perennial problem of raising the church budget fromthe faithful. His observation that this process is no less about growing souls than any other area part of church life, and that the object is to cultivate a generous spirit, sat well with my congregation this year. We used his book in our planning and our process. The result? The book was a part of a positive canvass, pledges are up and people are feeling good about their generous participation in the life of the congregation.

Michael Durall begins his stewardship consultations by asking congregations, "What kind of people do you want to become?" In his new book, Creating Congregations of Generous People, Durall argues that a thoughtful annual stewardship appeal, based on questions and answers about who we are, can serve as a vehicle for spiritual growth among members. Just published by the Alban Institute, Creating Congregations of Generous People is the fifth title in its Money, Faith and Lifestyle Series.

According to Durall, asking for money eventually becomes routine, even tedious-but creating a congregation of generous people becomes more meaningful with passing time. The book looks at real-life congregational cases and includes guidelines for implementing Durall's member-building approaches to sustaining effective stewardship.

"`Stewardship Is Not for Sissies' could be this book's subtitle," says Mary L. Miles, Director, Annual Program Fund, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, Boston. "Michael Durall challenges congregations to accept their responsibility to own the stewardship process and to empower people to lead more generous lives...Drawing on examples from current stewardship literature, the practices of many faith traditions, and his own experiences, Durall explores how money is viewed in religious settings as well as how to create a climate for increased generosity and effective fundraising over the long term." Kenneth B. Smith, Senior Fellow, The Chicago Community Trust, calls it "one of the best books on stewardship" that he has read: "It should be must reading for every theological student and every pastor who approaches stewardship issues with hope for results."

"Having been a church treasurer and the chair of a stewardship appeal, I am painfully aware of how recalcitrant are the impediments and how betrayed are the opportunities to treat money as an instrument for God's work. Michael Durall's discussion of some of the dilemmas and strategies of congregational stewardship is a practical voice in a conversation that is desperately needed," asserts Paul G. Schervish, Department of Sociology, Boston College.

A principal of the Common Wealth Consulting Group in Belmont, MA, Durall publishes Charitable Giving, a quarterly newsletter that covers religious philanthropy. His consulting firm assists secular and religious organizations in establishing and sustaining effective stewardship programs. Creating Congregations of Generous People is Durall's first Alban book.

Every pastor, canvass chair and church treasurer should buy this book. If you have any interest in inspiring generosity within your church community, this book is for you. As a stewardship consultant, I have long seen the need for religious people to cultivate generosity for its own sake. Giving is a religious practice, the benefits of which are beyond counting. Mike Durall places our stewardship activities in the spiritual dimension, while sharing practical and realistic advice. Having put in his time on canvass committees and having assisted many congregations, he therefore speaks with the authority of experience.

If you take this book seriously your stewardship committee will no longer be comprised of anyone you could talk into taking the job. Instead the fund drive committee will be the most exciting, religously challenging group in your church. This is a book that will change how you view stewardship. I only wish he'd written it ten years ago!

Many of the lessons that Michael Durall outlines in this book would have saved me a lot of pain when I ran the pledge drive for a three-year period in my church. He has lots of tips here, yet the part I liked the most was his whole new way of looking at raising money. Rather than something to be dreaded like some sort of congregational root canal, he presents giving as an affirmation of one's life and the embodiment of the hopes of a group of people. He combines realistic techniques with a sense of inspiration. If I were running the pledge drive again, I'd give a copy of this book to everyone on the committee.

In the 99-page goldmine of Michael Durall's book "Creating Congregations of Generous People" he presents a wealth of practical instructions that some member or committee of every congregation can use this year. Written in Layman's language, it will change a dreaded task into one with great purpose and satisfaction in completing a task we are called to do. It seems that Durall has stepped up to the (collection) plate and hit a high hard one into a crowd that has been waiting to catch it.

Too often in the rush to complete a fund-raising campaign, the leaders of churches, temples mosques, and synagogues think only of the number of dollars they must raise rather than focusing on the opportunity (and challenge) of helping their members to see the bigger picture: why give money to support your religious community and how to judge the level of support you should offer. Mike Durall's book, which draws upon experience with people from many religious traditions, offers a perspective on this deeper issue that cannot be safely ignored. The strength of this book is its grounding in the day-to-day realities of both those charged with leadership in financial matters for communities of faith and in the day-to-day realities of the members of those communities. Instead of focusing on the short term "goal" of the fund-raising campaign, this slender volume instead invites leaders and givers to ponder the meaning behind the giving. In so doing, it expresses a kind of faith that those with a deeper understanding of the teachings of their faith on the spiritual dimension of giving will give more generously. My reason for giving it less than the full "five-star" rating is only to encourage the author and others to bring us the follow-on volumes that will enable givers to do "financial planning" with a wider perspective than just personal comfort in our later years. For anyone seeking a deeper appreciation of the meaning of generosity in the context of religious communities, this book is indispensable.

I have been deeply involved with church fundraising for about 10 years and have read all sorts of books on this topic during that time. There is nothing I have read that fills the niche Durall's book does. It is simultaneously practical and philosophical, and it permanently changed my personal relationship to money and to the spiritual practice of generosity. For anyone interested in fundraising for religious purposes, I believe it is so important to read that I now buy multiple copies and give them away to people. This is truly an inspiring, one-of-a-kind book.

We are encountering change in every walk of life. Why not in the church stewardship program? Unique insight and a step-by-step process to generate a passion for giving. It is progressive look at effective fundraising in a church setting.