Pony Express 1st Year Plan
Does This Program Include The Youth & Children?
It does. Youth and children who have made professions of faith and taken vows of church membership are given the opportunity, along with their parents, to make stewardship responses by filling in estimate of giving cards. In fact, campaign leaders are encouraged to give all youngsters from the first grade up the privilege of turning in cards.
What better time is there to introduce the joyous discipline of giving than early in life? A religious habit established while one is still young is a habit that may well last a lifetime, having become a part of the individual's spiritual lifestyle!
So, the Pony Express program is designed to give these youth and children the same opportunity to make giving estimates that the older members of their family are given. And many of them do participate with a real sense of "belonging" and "importance." They respond in just as enthusiastic a manner as their parents and grandparents respond. They, too, love the respect the are shown!
The Power Of The Program Is Threefold
The strengths of The Pony Express Stewardship Plan are three in number.
First, it is a program of maximum involvement in the solicitation of the estimates of giving. The relay system democratizes the solicitation, giving many, many members the chance to help with the campaign in a way that is comfortable and rewarding for them.
Secondly, it is a program of minimum resistance due to the use of the "estimate of giving" concept. While members who in the past have refused to sign pledge cards are willing to fill in estimate cards, those who have made and paid pledges customarily treat their estimates as if these were pledges and pay them just as faithfully!
And in the third place, it is a program of total accountability within the framework of a very sound organizational structure. The various key workers are held accountable by other key workers, so that all features of the program are likely to be carried out on time and in appropriate ways. Each such person is held accountable, and each is supported in appropriate ways.
Churches For Which This Program Works Well
The Pony Express is a natural for churches that desire to conduct a campaign that will produce increased giving AND a raised Spirit-level in a time of economic uncertainty or financial opportunity.
This program is a natural also for churches that desire to conduct a campaign with effective leadership, and do not want to spend funds to hire a professional company to lead it.
The Pony Express Stewardship Plan works well for churches that have been using a Commitment Sunday approach with diminishing responses, either in terms of numbers or amounts --or both!
It works well also for churches that feel the need of a "soft" approach to their members, having attempted hard approaches that have failed to produce the desired results or having used no serious approach at all.
Churches In Which This Program Does Not Work Well
This program does not work well for churches that have never conducted a financial solicitation using a developed organizational structure AND whose clergy and /or laity leaders do not think such a structure is necessary.
It does not work well for churches looking for a program that requires little effort, believing they will have -automatically- the financial support needed to be and do all that God is calling them to be and do!
And, this program does not work well for churches whose leaders are unwilling to trust members to respond generously to the estimate of giving concept and insist on the absolute necessity of using the traditional pledge concept.