How Do You Measure How Generous Your Church Is?
Is it the amount of time, talent, or treasure your people give to serve the needs of your church and community?
The answer to the second question is this: YES. But, time and talent can be very difficult to measure. What is not difficult to measure is the generosity of people with their treasure, despite it being the most difficult resource for people to give. However, one of the components of building a generous church culture is creating an ever-increasing culture of generosity.
If you want to see your church’s culture of generosity go to another level this year, you must create what we call a “Funding Plan.”
A funding plan is the written course of action your church is going to follow over the next year to see an increase in financial generosity in the hearts and lives of your people. It is designed by using nine different “Systems of Generosity” to serve both the spiritual and financial needs of your people.
Three of these systems are:
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Personal Finance Ministries
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Weekly Offering Talks
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First-Time Giver Systems
In 25 years of serving churches in personal stewardship, regular giving, and sacrificial giving, we have realized that a church’s funding plan is determined by one of two things: DESIGN or by DEFAULT. This means your culture of generosity will not go to another level on accident. You must intentionally lead it there.
If you want to see an increase in your church’s culture of generosity this year, you need to do two things:
- Learn about the nine systems of generosity we referenced earlier — you can do that HERE.
- Create a funding plan that explicitly lists when you are going to implement these systems.