I was recently challenge to come up with 20 reasons why anyone would want to use offering envelopes. I took the challenge!

1. Note: The purpose of this document is to begin a conversation about a systematic tool
our church can employ to maximize the giving capacity of your existing membership to,
in turn, expand your ability through fully funded ministry budgets to do more ministry.
To learn more about how offering envelopes can specifically impact the level of ministry
funding in your church, please contact LifeWay Envelope Service via phone
(1.800.874.6319), e-mail (envelopeservice@lifeway.com), or Web
(www.lifewaystores.com/envelopeservice).
20 Reasons Why You Should Use Offering Envelopes
1. Offering Envelopes are the MOST EFFECTIVE "call to action" tool ever designed by
direct mail fund-raisers outside of individual "asks."
2. Excellent way to communicate the identity of your church by using church specific
information.
3. Easily customizable piece that highlights the funding priorities of your church.
4. Great record-keeping tool for church office to ensure contributions are recorded
correctly.
5. Encourages systematic, faithful giving by inviting every member to participate simply
by placing an offering envelope in their hands.
6. Consolidates church office mailing when contribution statements, pastoral letters,
communication cards, and special offerings are included in the set. This is especially true
for those who mail their offering envelopes to members.
7. Message series offering envelopes are designed to reinforce the Christian educational
principles being taught through small groups, Sunday School, and other related Bible
Study material.
8. Subtly reminds the church member of the financial responsibility of church
membership.
9. Offering Envelopes are available with stock designs but are also completely
customizable. Each church is only limited by its own creativity.
10. Churches who use offering envelopes, on a whole, have a broader and more
consistent giving base.
11. Including mail-back offering envelopes allows the member to give even when they
are not physically present.

2. 12. Offering Envelopes serve as a symbol of how faithful giving is critical to establishing
a long-term, sustainable ministry.
13. People don't give unless they are asked to give. Offering Envelopes ensure an appeal
is being made regularly.
14. Offering Envelopes are not sexy, but they are tried-and-true vehicle for church
funding.
15. Multi-purpose offering envelopes such as the Welcome Offering Envelope can be
used in the pew as a way to record a visitor's information as well as a collection piece.
This cuts down on pew clutter and maximizes the church's investment.
16. Offering Envelopes are a tangible tool churches can use to teach the habit of giving in
children, the next generation who will be called upon the fund the ministry of the local
church. Laying a foundation of faithful giving begins today.
17. Offering Envelopes are an essential accountability tool that churches can use to
measure general level of member commitment. If someone isn't giving to your church,
they haven't fully committed to the ministry of your church. Chances are they also aren't
giving their time or investing their talents either.
18. Offering Envelopes are most effective with those who don't fill church leadership
positions but are often decided upon by those few faithful givers who would roll their
weekly tithes into Worship in pennies if it was asked of them. The greatest temptation of
the church leader (lay or paid) is the assumption that "everyone" in the church feels the
same way about giving to the church as they do.
19. Offering Envelopes provide the basis for collecting not only dollars but also the
giving habits of your congregation. Armed with enough giving data by giving unit,
church leaders can use different methods of analyzing that information to uncover trends
and make critical and informed operational and funding decisions with objective data
instead of pure intuition.
20. Samaritan's Purse, World Vision, and an endless number of good organizations doing
good things are sending the members of your church envelopes asking for a portion of
what God has blessed them with too. They just don't call them "offering" envelopes.
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Interested in learning more about how to fully fund your church and achieve long-
term sustainable ministry? Ben Stroup calls himself the "Chief Broker of
Opportunity" because he is helping pastors and church leaders change the
conversation from "What do we have to cut to survive?" to "What does God want
us to do next?" He is a frequent speaker on the subject of building sustainable
funding models for ministry. Follow Ben on Twitter (@domoreministry), Friend

3. him on Facebook (Ben Stroup), and subscribe to the Do More Ministry blog
(www.lifewaystores.com/domoreministry.) He recently published his first book,
Church Giving Matters.