14 Step Process Pastors And Church Leaders Must Take To Regain Trust From Their Congregations

As a member of INJOY Stewardship Solutions, I know the importance of congregational trust when it comes to raising significant resources for new projects or ministry expansion.  However, the trust it takes years for pastors and church leaders to build up is not solely limited to capital campaigns.  It affects every area of ministry.
Recently, one of America’s leading church online donation services took multiple unauthorized drafts from its members who participate in scheduled giving.  This is a potentially harmful blow to any ministry for the following reasons:

1. Church members could be harmed through bounced checks, interruption of services, overdraft fees and incorrect reporting of their credit.
2. Recurring online giving has become the #1 way churches avoid summer giving slumps.  A lack of confidence in this process would result in significantly decreased participation causing a church to deliver ministry well-below the level it is accustomed to.
3.  Young people primarily give through electronic and online services.  You run the risk of disenfranchising an entire generation from the generosity experience.
4. Leadership takes a lot of time and energy moving people towards online giving.  You do not want to waste this investment.
5. Trust in the overall decision-making of leadership could be lost.
6. Your already-busy staff must now reallocate their time, energy and resources towards correcting this issue.
7. The church takes a financial blow by paying countless overdraft charges for their members.

To rectify this problem and rebuild trust in the online giving process for its members, the following are the steps one church took.  It provides a great 14 Step Template Pastors And Church Leaders Must Take To Regain Trust:

1. Admit A Mistake Was Made – Admit you had an issue and be specific about what happened.
2. Identify Those Affected By Your Mistake – Quickly identify those affected by the error.
3. Immediately Contact Those Affected By Your Mistake – In most cases you can send an email or text letting people know an error has occurred.  However, to regain trust, this is only the beginning.
4. Follow Up With A Personal Contact – Just sending an email or text is lazy in these type of situations.  You must take every step necessary to follow up your written communication with a phone call or personal contact.
5. Explain What Happened – Facts are your friends when regaining trust.  Walk people through the details of the error.
6. Recognize The Impact Of Your Mistake – This shows empathy.  Communicate you are very aware of the complications and possible consequences of your error.
7. Apologize – This is the biblical mandate we have as Christians.  This also shows humility.
8. Immediately Fix The Issue – Advise you are working diligently on getting an immediate solution.
9. State Your Value For The One(s) Affected – Let your people know they matter deeply to you and are valued members of your church community.
10. Make Restitution – For an electronic funds mistake, you would compensate for any overdraft fees or returned checks.  Restitution would look different for another issue but restitution is needed to regain trust.
11. Protect The Reputation Of The One Affected – To regain trust you must take public responsibility for the error.  In the case of overdrafting someone’s account, the church should issue a letter if needed for clarification to any creditor.
12. Create Opportunities To Rebuild The Relationship Through Continued Conversation – Provide all contact information to a person at the church if additional assistance or support is needed.
13. Offer Time – Depending on the offense, give people as much time as needed to process the error.
14. Deliver Great Performance – Christians should show more grace than anyone else because they have experienced God’s grace for their sin.  However, the best way to regain trust is through excellent performance.  This demonstrates you took the first 13 steps seriously.  Actions speak louder than words.

Pastors and church leaders, is there someone you need to regain the trust of today?

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