{"id":1877,"date":"2014-09-30T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T12:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trainchurchleaders.com\/practicum\/?p=1877"},"modified":"2026-05-18T16:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:46:16","slug":"free-from-coercion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trainchurchleaders.com\/practicum\/free-from-coercion.htm","title":{"rendered":"CHURCH FACILITIES: Keep Free from Coercion"},"content":{"rendered":"
To get the greatest benefit from this practicum, make sure you have read related training on the site. Click below to read about Christ-Like Character:<\/em><\/div>\n
Church Leadership Basics: God’s Heart for the Church<\/a><\/center><\/div>\n

You sense a need to rebuild or renovate your church facilities but it will cost more money than what’s in the budget. You might go in a couple directions:<\/p>\n

\"Building1) You begin a building fund seeking pledges. You might not be sure people will be on board so you stress their need to give, as though they would be less spiritual if they didn’t. You put people on the spot, afraid if you allow\u00a0them too much time to think about it they might not give as much.<\/p>\n

2) You work together with the people to seek God’s will for building, investing much prayer into it as a group. Once a decision is made, you ask them to continue to pray about how God might want them to participate and then you provide options for them to do so.<\/p>\n

In the first scenario, you are doing more arm-twisting or manipulation — coercion. It might yield some results, but after time, you find people no longer keeping up with their pledges.<\/p>\n

In the second scenario, you are letting God work in people’s hearts — cooperation. It will tend to yield more ownership of the project among the people and you will tend to have people giving and helping willingly in response to God’s prompting.<\/p>\n

Effects of Coercion on Christ-like Character:<\/h2>\n

The Steering the Church Toward Christ-like Character Leadership Guide<\/strong><\/a> looks at two effects of coercion on Christ-like character.<\/p>\n

For More on being Christ-like: Resources about Christlikeness in the Church<\/a><\/p>\n

All Posts about Facilities Management:<\/h3>