Roger Lane has served local churches, ministry organizations, denominations and universities in leadership and strategy for raising funds for kingdom ministry. He was the Vice President of Development at North Central University and also served with Financial Solutions with the Assemblies of God denomination. He continues to mentor and coach pastors and has recently distilled his years of wisdom and experience into a helpful book called Funded: A Leader’s Guide to Raising Money God’s Way. Roger is married to Ann, and they have two daughters, two sons-in-law, and eight grandchildren.
Key Questions for Roger Lane
-What are pastors and ministry leaders missing when it comes to laying a good foundation for fundraising that honors God and the donors?
-How can church leaders effectively transfer their vision to others in their church?
-Have you seen effective global ministry initiatives?
-How can pastors clarify the difference between stewardship versus generosity?
Key Quotes from Roger Lane
“In the past, [raising funds for ministry] has been kind of a scary thing, and I don’t know that the fear has necessarily left.”
“The donor bases of church and parachurch organizations are becoming more sophisticated in where they give their resources.”
“Leaders have a tendency to get nervous when they start talking about fundraising, and so that nervousness can tend to cause us to lean to our own understanding…and we miss what I call the ‘secret sauce,’ which is, I think it’s a prayer path where we really get engaged with God.”
“You can’t raise money for a moving target. So we have got to be really clear and very focused.”
“I encourage leaders to pull back and give it a couple weeks to a month to just pray and wait and listen and pray and wait and listen until you feel that you have a clear communication from the Holy Spirit.”
“There’s a strength in numbers…When we have unanimity and we’re all together, it really makes a great statement in leading the initiative with the congregation.”
“It’s really important to have video communication and also publication communication. I think it’s very important to illustrate the visuals of what we’re trying to accomplish, any time that we can.”
“We always say that money follows vision…I think that anything that can touch on the heartstrings of our people, we want to push them in that direction.”