About Jeff Newlin

For the last eleven years I’ve helped a lot of churches raise a lot of money. But that’s not the way I view what I’ve done. From my perspective what I’ve done is build up a lot of churches in the grace of giving. There’s a big difference between the two.

In II Cor 8:1 Paul speaks of the poor Macedonian Church’s extraordinary generosity for the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem as “the grace of God,” i.e. the unmerited gift of God. But in II Cor 8:7 he also speaks of this grace of giving as something that he wants the Corinthian Church to excel in.

What I love about this, and what I have based my stewardship ministry upon, is that true human generosity is a gift from God. Yet, at the same time, generosity is a virtue that Christians, and people of every other religion that I know of, are urged to grow in and strive for. Paradoxically, this human generosity and the human effort that produces it is but another expression of God’s preceding grace towards us.

Church stewardship campaigns provide unique opportunities for Christians to grow in their understanding of the importance of giving and their experience of the joy of giving. I am convinced that if I focus on building up the church in the grace of giving that the money will take care of itself.

More about Jeff

Services

Giving Assessment

Evaluation of a church’s total giving culture, programs, and needs; resulting in recommendations and a plan for improvement.

Capital Campaign

A special appeal, normally for a period of three years, to fund a project or projects beyond what a church can afford through its operating budget.

Annual Operating Budget Campaign

Increase the spiritual meaning of giving and the amount of giving to a church’s operating budget.

Combined Capital and Operating Budget Campaign (2 pledge cards)

With Emphasis on Capital Campaign
Most common. Capital giving normally for 3 years. Annual giving normally increases 1-2%.

With Emphasis on Operating Budget Giving
When a congregation needs a major increase (10-20%) in its long-term annual giving and has capital project/s requiring no more than 1 times its annual giving.

Featured

Single Fund Giving (1 pledge card)

Special capital and/or mission initiatives are added to the current operating budget. Works particularly well in churches with low levels of giving/pledging, and where the church requires a short-term increase in annual giving of up to 50%.

Feasibility Study for a Capital Campaign

Develop a very accurate projection of what a church is likely to raise in a capital campaign for a particular project.

Endowment/Foundation Assessment and Development

Establish or improve a church foundation/endowment which is attractive to prospective donors, and inspires the current congregation’s generosity instead of crippling it.

Lead Gift Development

Develop a plan to cultivate and encourage financial leaders to bump up the annual budget and to inspire and motivate the congregation’s generosity.

View Case Studies

Why Work with Jeff?

Results

FINANCIAL

A church’s capital campaign potential is effected by many variables: project/s, lead donor potential, demographics, length of time since previous campaign, etc. I consistently get high MOIs (the Multiple Of annual Income that a church is able to raise in 3 yrs) relative to a church’s campaign potential, and am happy to share the results of comparable situations with congregations. But most importantly, the great majority of the churches I work with are delighted with the amount of money that they raise.

SPIRITUAL

Money should never be an end in itself, especially in a church. Money in the church should always serve a spiritual purpose, to advance the cause of Christ. Therefore, it is essential that the money be raised in a spiritual way. Many church members have told me that their campaign decisions have brought them great joy and deepened their commitment to Christ. Many pastors have told me that their campaigns have deepened the stewardship cultures of their churches and united their congregations more profoundly on their central Christian mission.

Experience

Church Fundraising

I was an RSI Stewardship Consultant for 11 years, from Sept, 2004 – June, 2016. RSI has worked with over 11,000 churches since it was founded in 1972 in Dallas, TX, and raised over $11 billion for those churches in the process. I learned much from RSI and contributed much to RSI. During my RSI years I worked with over 90 churches on over 120 capital campaigns. These churches represent 28 denominations and 33 states, plus Canada. They also reflect tremendous variety in size, budget, theology, length of pastorate, etc.

Pastoral

I was a Presbyterian Pastor (PC USA) for 27 years, serving six churches in a variety of settings. Unlike many pastors, I loved talking about money in relation to the gospel and appealing for money to fund my churches’ ministry visions. I led successful capital campaigns in three different congregations. I emphasized annual operating budget giving in all my congregations and annual operating budget giving steadily grew in all of my congregations. I inherited churches with endowments and developed those endowments in order to attract more bequests.

Resources

"Jeff provided stellar leadership for our staff and congregation during a critically important three-million dollar capital campaign. His practical wisdom, authentic winsomeness, and ministry acumen were a great blessing to us, as was his bold and clear vision for Christ-centered stewardship. I believe that the success of our campaign was due, not only to the sacrificial generosity of the congregation, but also to Jeff's professional and relational leadership"

- Eric Park, Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church in Butler, Pennsylvania

"I give the highest praise to Jeff Newlin and the work he did for us at Shepherd of the Prairie. Jeff helped tremendously in keeping us focused on the main thing...Glorifying God with our lives. Jeff's approach to fund raising seeks to first raise faith in the hearts of believers and in the process funding followed. Jeff's biblical understanding of stewardship along with his upbeat, positive, playful spirit is infectious"

- Mark Boster, Senior Pastor, Shepherd of the Prairie Lutheran Church ( ELCA), Huntley, IL

"I walked through the doors of my first call as solo pastor (after 6 years as an associate) to a church which had taken on more than a million dollars of debt to do desperately needed renovations. How grateful I was that God had led them to Jeff Newlin to assist with our capital campaign – one which my leaders hoped might raise $300,000. God brought an amazing thing to birth as we received commitments of nearly a million dollars, and Jeff Newlin was the midwife who coached us through the whole challenging, beautiful, faith-building process."

- Lisa Day, Solo Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Hightstown, NJ