Synod’s new minister of generosity position aims to increase giving across the church, including local congregations

HEADLINE: Synod’s new minister of generosity position aims to increase giving across the church, including local congregations

By Pastor Devlyn Brooks

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

-- Frederick Buechner

MOORHEAD, Minn. -- It’s evident that the future of the church in North America is changing.

So it should also come as no surprise that the way that people give to the church also is changing, says Pastor Keith Pearson who was installed as the Northwestern Minnesota Synod’s Minister of Generosity at the Synod Assembly held in May.

Long gone are the days in which people gave a percentage of their income to the church as a matter of obligation, and as such, the church is seeing its generosity increasingly come from individual donors who can make large gifts, foundations and donor advised funds.

“Historically, as a church, we haven’t done a great job of asking people to support their ministry,” Pearson said recently over a cup of coffee while talking about what his new position means for the synod and its congregations. “At the same time, people are still generous. They want to make an impact on the world. But people need to be asked, and we need to paint a picture of how we, as a church, make a better world.”

So what will Pastor Pearson’s role with the synod look like? … Especially considering there really isn’t a comparable full-time position in all of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America?

First of all, the job will require a lot of listening, he says.

‘We want to specifically go to the folks who are giving, learn what their passions are and share how the church can address those big needs in the world,” Pastor Pearson says. “Everyone has a call story, their conviction as to why they follow Jesus. Be it a grandparent’s influence, a Sunday school teacher, confirmation advisor. … At some point, they come to a crossroads in life where those influences are stirring in their heart, and they want to connect their faith to that hunger. … My job is to find those intersections.”

So why a Minister of Generosity now? What makes the timing right for such a position? … A confluence of events says Northwestern Minnesota Synod's Bishop Bill Tesch, who sought out Pastor Pearson for this position which is part of a development pilot program funded by a generous anonymous donor.

“This is how we are responding to how the church has changed, and how differently people give,” said Bishop Tesch. “We can invite people’s generosity to support things they wouldn’t think of. Jesus always invited commitment from his disciples, from the people He ministered to. As a synod, we need to foster those invitations.”

Bishop Tesch calls this practice a “structured invitation” because he says few individuals wake up in the morning and know they want to give to support a specific ministry. They need to be invited to make gifts toward the passions they have.

Pastor Pearson says that his new position’s mission isn’t only to support the synod and its ministries, but rather it’s to support all three expressions of the church: churchwide; the synod; and individual congregations.

That means when he’s talking with donors, it’s his job to figure out where that giver’s passions align in the church. This way he will not be competing with local churches or other church-supported ministries for gifts, but rather the goal is to enhance giving among donors to all of the church’s ministries, on every level.

“Because Pastor Pearson will be inviting more generosity to all the expressions of the church, this may invite more generosity in general,” Bishop Tesch said. “When Pastor Pearson is coming to town, we want to partner with the local pastor and church leaders to see what they are trying to accomplish locally as well. Maybe we will be able to assist with those goals.”

“My first question to a potential donor will always be: ‘What is your gifting relationship with your home congregation? Have you considered giving more there first?’” Pastor Pearson assured local church leaders. “Because everything begins in Sunday school. That’s where I learned that Jesus loves me. So the congregation is always going to have the deepest, most profound impact on our faith. But Jesus also sends us out into the world so that more people know the love of God and Christ Jesus. We need to take seriously what he sent us into the world to do.”

In fact, both Bishop Tesch and Pastor Pearson hope that pastors, congregational leaders and other ministry leaders see the Minister of Generosity position as a new resource to help invigorate their own generosity strategies.

Pastors and others can reach out to Pastor Pearson if they would like support in approaching a potential donor, but maybe aren’t ready or confident they will be successful alone.

Historically, Pastor Pearson says, the synod has existed to facilitate organizational things bigger than the individual congregation, but also to further the work of the larger churchwide body. That means the synod supports professional clergy, provides programming that individual churches couldn’t do on their own and also finds new places for ministry to grow.

On the churchwide level, the synod helps foster the ministries of tackling the world’s biggest problems like feeding the hungry and responding to international disasters.

“The synod is here to be the connecting piece,” Pastor Pearson said. “We, as the church, still want to tackle things like world hunger. For an individual, that’s a big bite. But collectively, we’re a force to be reckoned with. The Lutheran church is well known internationally for its response to need.”

While the Minister of Generosity role will be as a synod employee, both Bishop Tesch and Pastor Pearson say that the churchwide organization will be closely watching and supporting this three-year pilot program that is being funded by a generous grant.

“The churchwide organization recognizes this could become a model for other synods to use,” Pastor Pearson says. “If this program produces results, the ELCA may help fund more of these positions throughout the church.”

Meanwhile, the churchwide organization will be participating in this program by offering various support and resources. For instance, Pastor Pearson will receive development coaching from churchwide staff, as well as be given access to the ELCA’s data on givers and potential givers.

Pastor Pearson, who assumed his role in June says his first year in the position will involve a lot of background research, learning what the ELCA’s resources are, building relationships and building the foundation of the synod’s giving message.

He added that while this position is new to him, he isn’t new to the mission of development. For the past four and a half years he served at the ELCA Foundation’s Regional Gift Planner in western Minnesota and North Dakota, a role similar but different to his new synod role as the Minister of Generosity.

Pastor Pearson said in his role with the foundation, his responsibility was to find givers who were planning for large, end-of-life gifts, such as part of the estate planning process. In his new role with the synod, he’ll be focusing on donors interested in giving now.

Prior to working with the ELCA Foundation, Pastor Pearson served 16 years in parish ministry, the first nine years at First Lutheran Church in Hector, Minn., and then seven years at the larger Peace Lutheran Church in New London, Minn.

He’s also served on the board of Green Lake Outdoor Ministries and the New London Education Foundation.

And long before serving in ministry, Pastor Pearson had a career in the business world too, his last position being Director of Communications for Minnesota’s Office of Technology, where he was integral to the state’s Y2K bug preparations.

“God called me to the ministry a lot of years ago, but a lot like Jonah, I went in the opposite direction. But God is persistent; God used all those other pursuits to teach me the things I needed to know to be successful in ministry,” Pastor Pearson said. “Ultimately, I ran out of excuses, and I wound up in ministry. I learned to step through doors that opened that took me in directions I didn’t expect to go.”

Pastor Pearson lives with his wife, Janine, in New London, Minn. He also has a daughter, Rachel, who lives in Fargo, along with her husband Ryan and their son, Nolan.

“We have got to be better about evangelizing why the church matters. Doing the work that Jesus taught us to do,” Pastor Pearson said about his new mission. “Why should anyone support us? Why should anyone show up on a Sunday morning? … If we don’t tell them what we do? This is about reenergizing their faith.”