Carolyn Kitto

Tips for Growing Generosity

by Carolyn Kitto

Invite people to respond in a giving invitation.Acknowledge people’s current generosity by allowing them to validate their generosity through responding to a giving invitation. The more people respond the greater the sense of generosity in the church.

• Invite members and participants in the church to be a part of a grassroots planning process to shape the mission objectives of the church. Not only will more people volunteer to be part of achieving the goals. They will also want to support them financially.
• Shape the church’s budget around the mission plan instead of expenses. This helps people understand the budget and see how their giving makes a difference in people’s lives rather than just paying the bills.
• Grow a range of giving opportunities both for the mission of the church and for the wider church, community and world. Christianity is a give away faith, when we live with those attitudes both our generosity and our resource will grow.
• People are made in the image of God, who is generous and they want to respond generously to make a diff erence.
• Provide immediate expressions of thanks and intentionally follow-up to give people a second chance to respond.

These tips first appeared in Journey Magazine

Tags: generosity, mission, money, stewardship