Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” And God will generously…
Category: Generosity
What Are You Doing With Your Surplus? (2 Corinthians 8:11-15)
Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. Of course, I don’t mean your giving…
No Greater Example (2 Corinthians 8:8-10)
“I am not commanding you to do this. But I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches. You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could…
Three Ways the Macedonians Exemplified Generosity (2 Corinthians 8:3-7)
“For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action…
Economic Stratification and Patronage in the First Century Roman Empire
Peter Oakes is the Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester. His recent monograph, titled, Empire, Economics, and the New Testament, provides a couple of resources for generosity that I wanted to share in light of the study of 2 Corinthians 8-9. I hope this will shed some light on…
Are You a Generous Person?
When I was serving as a local church Pastor, I often used the words giving and generous as though they were synonyms. In fact, I would often thank people for their generosity when I should have thanked them for their giving. Here’s what I’ve since decided about generosity. Suppose I was to ask you for…
How Inflation is Affecting Charitable Giving
WealthManagement.com weighed in this week on the 2022 Giving USA report with some important insights. In a post titled How Inflation is Affecting Charitable Giving, the authors noted that while inflation may not reduce the charitable intent of generous people, inflation has reduced the impact of the charitable giving dollar. The same dollar given in…
A Great Illustration!
Last week I was with Hill Country Bible Church in Austin, Texas. While I was there, DeWayne McNally shared a story from Texas history that I asked to share. Sam Houston became the sixth governor of the state of Texas in 1859. Life on the Texas frontier was rough and rugged. Men molded by the…
Secrecy vs. Confidentiality
It’s common to hear a church leader struggle with the challenge of developing and discipling their givers when their church’s giving records are closed. My company, MortarStone Generosity, provides data analytics and intelligence software that measure the recency, frequency, volume and tenure of givers so that church leaders can encourage givers to take steps toward…
Lifeway Research on ‘Shrinking Donors’
Lifeway Research has recently contributed to the commentary on stewardship and generosity with a report that cites research conducted by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The report echos what others have been stating all summer, chiefly that the pool of givers to religious organizations is dwindling. How is it, then, that in the face…
