Growing Generous Givers
Jay Pankratz
July 1, 1998
I never preach on giving or ask for money," I once told a fellow pastor. "I just leave it up to the people."
"Do you teach your people to study the Bible?" he asked.
"Of course," I said.
"Do you teach them to pray?"
"Certainly."
"If you taught your people to give in a biblical manner, would they receive more or less blessing from God?"
I sat in silence. I realized I was hurting my people, not helping them. In addition, our church was in severe financial stress.
When I went home, I committed myself to teach all of God's Word, including giving. In the years since, I have seen God work in our church in amazing ways, and he has brought our people to new levels of maturity.
Here are 12 principles I've learned about growing givers.
A Full-Orbed Approach
Often church leaders work countless hours planning how to limit spending, but they focus little attention on how to increase giving. We succeed where we focus our time and energy.
1. Plan ahead
To be effective, we must prepare for our resource development strategy as carefully as we do for our music program.
The biggest reason capital stewardship campaigns increase offerings by more than 50 percent is not the new building, but the church's thoughtful strategy. Churches can attain similar results every year without a building project. In my first church, when I implemented a thorough plan, offerings increased by more than 20 percent in one year.
A good plan includes:
- a specific strategy to communicate positive stewardship all year long;
- an annual stewardship emphasis;
- instruction on finances in new-members classes;
- continual communication of a compassionate vision;
- biblical teaching on giving;
- personal testimonies;
- an annual church-wide resource development emphasis;
- annual commitment cards;
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