Church leaders talk about financial matters all the time, and it is not uncommon for these conversations to be focused primarily on the progress toward your giving goals. For an effective financial stewardship strategy that starts at the top, expand your financial discussions to include the topics that affect your givers.

Imagine you begin to exhibit health concerns. You present various symptoms that give rise to concern. One response you could make would be to consult the information superhighway, which will give a broad range of possible illnesses from one end of the spectrum to the other. Another response would be to consult a physician.

Church giving can be an uncomfortable topic, but funding is essential to your church's function. There are many hurdles to overcome, but with the right approach, you can help your congregation grow and become better givers.

Church leaders talk about financial matters all the time, and it is not uncommon for these conversations to be focused primarily on the progress toward your giving goals. For an effective financial stewardship strategy that starts at the top, expand your financial discussions to include the topics that affect your givers.

Capital campaigns are intensive fundraising endeavors aimed at securing substantial funding within a set timeframe. Typically, these campaigns support projects like constructing a new church, renovating facilities or retiring debt. However, beneath the financial surface lies a profound question: Do capital campaigns align with biblical stewardship?

Until the introduction of online giving, givers weren’t really thanked for their donations to their church. It was their obligation and their worship, so they didn’t expect a thank you. 

While every giver is different, they are alike in this way: Each one starts with a first gift and concludes with their last. This can be when they stop supporting your church (lapsed) or bequeath a final gift posthumously (legacy).

It’s no easy task trying to get people to understand the beauty of giving and generosity. Giving is an expression of worship, an invitation to partner with God in everything. It requires you to “place your bet” on the work of God over the physical comfort of predictability. Many of us have felt the discomfort of calculating the amount of money God has deemed his tithe and tried to do the math on how that would impact our wallet.

In our last article, we shared the difference between stewardship and generosity; you can read about it here. In this article, we're diving deeper into generosity and what it really means to be generous.

If you’ve been a Christian for a minute, you’ve been exposed to messages on giving to the church or requests to give to a capital campaign. There’s nothing wrong with messages on giving or fundraising for worthwhile ministry projects. The danger comes when giving is portrayed and communicated as a duty we Christians have to perform instead of a loving response to a God who’s been extravagantly generous to us.

Jesus's story of the widow's mite in Luke 21 shows us we can't classify generosity or faithfulness by the amount people give. However, historical giving patterns can serve as a remarkably accurate ministry health check. Giving data can provide cues to your givers' well-being and the challenges in their lives and, thus, how you can best serve them. In fact, this is the most ethical use of your giver's historical data.

Today is Giving Tuesday, a movement that began in 2012 to encourage generosity. According to givingtuesday.com, "GivingTuesday is an opportunity for people around the world to come together through generosity in all its forms by sharing acts of kindness and giving their voice, time, money, goods, and advocacy to support communities and causes."

I've been fascinated by the many new and creative ways people are making a living these days. By using platforms like Etsy, Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube, to name just a few, many people are ditching the 9-5, climbing the corporate ladder, way of making a living. These solopreneurs, mostly the younger generation, are seeking something that the standard career paths cannot provide.

When it comes to giving, a minority of churchgoers are still financially supporting a majority of church ministry. Usually less than 20 percent of churchgoers contribute regularly to their church. This is discouraging, first, because of the lack of resources for the church. Second, because of what it reveals; a lack of trust in God concerning money.

Over the past 20 years, I have seen the language and terminology in the Church around the topic of money change. Truthfully, I've even participated in this by trying to appeal to the people in our Church. As a person who is passionate about seeing people financially free, I've gone to great lengths to improve my communication about money to ensure people understand the information as well as my motivation behind it.

It’s a common feeling for many believers to feel “called” to advance the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s as if God is constantly looking for donors to fund his mission; he’s got a goal set and those buckets keep sloshing around dimes and nickels. Pair that with the trend in many churches to do capital campaigns where Pastors reveal a “number” God gave them, and if we’re not careful, it can feel like we’re doing God a favor by giving generously.

Doing what’s right is a struggle for us in most areas of life. Because following God’s commandments goes against our fallen, sinful nature, our attempts to do it right can often take the form of tasks we perform. We do so to prove to God, or perhaps more to ourselves, that we are Christ-like, that we’re doing what’s right.

The other day I was browsing Instagram when I saw a post from a page geared towards ministering to women. I’ve seen their posts many times before, and intrigued, wandered over to their website. I found a series of devotionals, and one of them piqued my interest.

In a previous article, we’ve talked about how the Church is missing out on the greatest transfer of wealth that we have ever seen. I recently came across pretty disturbing statistics about giving in the church, specifically with the younger generation.

Tithing causes all kinds of heated debates and arguments. Whichever side of this issue you find yourself, for or against tithing, it's essential to be informed. There are too many opinions regarding this critical issue, not enough knowledge, which should come from one source, the Bible.