It is my personal belief that 99% of those that regularly attend your services know they are suppose to give to your church. Yet when I hear sermons on giving the vast majority of them preach that people ought to give. It is as if we believe that if someone is not giving they do not know that they should give. The issue is not for the most part their knowledge of the Scriptures when it comes to giving. They simply have trouble putting into action what they know to do. We could spend a whole other blog post about why this is and perhaps at some point I will write about that. However the majority of my readers are pastors, staff and church leaders. So what I write today is to them in hopes that we will re-evaluate our preaching and teaching on giving.
Let me say at the outset that I am not saying we should not teach what the Bible says about giving being a requirement. I have purposely not made this about tithing but giving. While I am a proponent of tithing I don’t want that to be the focus of this post. Rather I want to encourage you to rethink how you are attempting to get your members to give. If giving is in decline I submit that the real issue is not ignorance of what the Scriptures teach but an unwillingness to give. We have to take additional steps beyond simply saying give because the Bible says so.
Here are five steps that I think can and will help you increase the level of giving in your church.
1. Make it meaningful. People want to know that their gifts matter. Cast a compelling vision and people will give to support that vision. Tell people why their gift will matter and you will find them much more willing to give than if you simply tell them it is required that they give.
2. Make it easy. The easier it is for people to give the more they will give. See my last blog post for more on this.
3. Make it fun. I know this sounds weird but why is it that we have made giving so difficult and hard? Find ways to make giving a fun experience for your members and they will more gladly give. One way I believe is to focus on what giving accomplishes. Also removing guilt from the equation will go a long way towards lightening up the whole giving process. When I give because I want to rather than because I ought to, then giving has become fun. In life we naturally gravitate towards that which is fun. Another way of saying this is to make giving positive.
4. Make it practical. The honest reality is that many of your members cannot see how they can afford to give. Help them learn how to manage their finances with practical life lessons and you will find they will give more.
5. Make it beneficial. If I know that giving faithfully will bring blessings to my life it is a whole lot easier to give. The Bible is filled with passages that tell us that if we give we will receive in return from God. You don’t have to preach the prosperity Gospel that many have abused. You simply have to preach the whole counsel of God. The facts are that God has promised to bless us if we give. By the way He has promised to curse us if we don’t!
I believe we must hit the restart button when it comes to our approach to teaching on giving. If we don’t we run the risk of seeing our giving continue to decline. At some point that decline is going to seriously impact your ability to do ministry. The time to head that off is now not when it happens. So the next time you think about preaching on giving wash your message through these five grids.
Mark Brooks
Founder and President
The Charis Group
PS. We are hosting a webinar on designing Apps for your church that can help you make giving easy for your members. Email me at Mark@TheCharisGroup.org to find out more information.
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