“But thank God! He has given Titus the same enthusiasm for you that I have. Titus welcomed our request that he visit you again. In fact, he himself was very eager to go and see you. We are also sending another brother with Titus. All the churches praise him as a preacher of the Good News. He was…
Category: Stewardship
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…
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…
Are You a “Digital Giver?”
Online giving was a novelty in the American Church prior to COVID. But the closure of churches during the pandemic caused churches to scramble to maintain their offering revenue in the absence of giving in person. COVID normalized the practice of online giving. Almost every church, regardless of size, offers it to their members. Website…
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…
The Shrinking American Middle Class
The Pew Research Center has published new findings on the shrinking middle class in America. American’s have probably already felt this to some degree, but the article cites some helpful information related to the diminishing middle class. What does this mean for churches and their stewardship ministries? How should church leadership address this?
How to Connect with Younger Givers
As the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers begin to age out of the American church, so will their financial support. One of the worst assumptions church leaders can make is that Generation X and the Millennials will pick up the giving dollar for dollar. Here’s a great article from Christianity Today on how churches…
The Top 10 Things to Know About the Generosity of Women
Here are 10 things you need to know about the generosity of women, thanks to Mary Jovanovich of Schwab Charitable: 62% of women are the primary sources of household wealth 40% of women out earn their husbands 47% of all businesses are owned by women Women will inherit over $28 Trillion in the next four…
Neither Poverty nor Riches
This weekend I finished Neither Poverty nor Riches by Craig Blomberg. The book serves as a theological survey of Scripture regarding money and possessions. Here are Blomberg’s final five conclusions from this book which I highly recommend: Material possessions are a good gift from God meant for his people to enjoy. Material possessions are simultaneously…
