Giving, and How to Encourage it

A year or so ago in board meeting a member asked, “Why we don’t do as well in our regular giving as we do with Faith Promise?” I didn’t answer very well due to a lack of preparation, but I’ve thought about it a great deal since then and in a recent staff meeting, when asked a similar question, I shared very candidly. I thought it might be helpful to share here, what I have learned through the years about teaching people to give.
 I recently read a book that helped me find words to describe what I have been doing through years of teaching stewardship. The title is Primal Leadership, learning to lead with Emotional Intelligence, by Boyatzis and McKee. They explain the difference between resonance (harmony) and dissonance (discord) in leadership. The first inspires followers, but the second discourages them and may even create deserters.

People respond better to encouragement, praise, and other positive stimuli than they do to need, emergency, guilt, criticism, or other negative stimuli.

Negative stimuli actually discourage giving even when used to ask people to give. In an old familiar joke the preacher says ‘The good news is we have enough money to meet our budget! The bad news is it’s still in your pockets.’ When I first heard it, I laughed, but it is the worst possible joke if you want good results. Such put-down humor hurts and it especially hurts giving. It doesn’t make people feel like giving. It makes us hold on tight to our money because we know dissonant means are being used. We may not know the word, but we know the feeling and none of us like it.

The best way to get people to give is first, teach biblical concept of tithes and offerings, or biblical stewardship. Secondly, let the Holy Spirit convict their hearts. Do not, under any circumstances, try to do the work of the Spirit to create that conviction. When we try to do his work we always do it badly and it often comes across as condemnation, which is not a godly work. Finally, when people give, leaders should give the congregation encouragement and praise for a job well done. Even if they are not doing as good as they should, if they give anything that should be openly appreciated by those in leadership. With consistence, in different ways and with positive words, and if done with tact and love over time, this will build a strong, financially healthy congregation of generous, happy people.

Here are some other important points:

1. Offerings are an important part of worship. The way offerings are received at many churches announces they are not important. Some offering statements even imply we’re ashamed to ask, but we need the money, etc. Offerings should be acts of worship, adoration and praise, to God. Whoever came up with the idea of saying “This offering is just for the home folks and if you’re a visitor you don’t need to give” has wasted time and insulted God by saying something they have no right to say. What if God is telling one of those visitors to give? How do we know he isn’t?

2. Teach about giving before every offering. A short comment or prayer such as, “When we give generously we are most like God.” Or, “Giving our tithe to the church is our way to recognize every good thing comes from God.” These and other such positive reinforcements week after week builds resonance (harmony) within the church and with biblical living, and produces people who give tithes and offerings, generously, and happily.

3. Pray for God to anoint the offering. Just as we pray for salvation, sermons and worship, we can also pray God will bless church giving. God wants to bless. The prayer of faith is his method.

4. Offerings should be well received. Worship Leaders have other things to think about and almost never give offerings the time they deserve. Pastors, or whoever receives the offerings should be trained in how to give a warm and positive encouragement to give as God directs. Time should be given to do the offertory well—with the dignity required for an act of worship and devotion to the most High God. People will never give enough to the church, but they will give to God. They just need to be inspired so they give from a heart bursting with the joy of the Lord.


I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.

Confessions of a Christmas Lover

Guest Essay by Kathy Gray

I confess. I love Christmas—all of Christmas. I love decorating trees and fireplaces; I love twinkly lights and baking Christmas cookies. I love silly Christmas movies with silly stories. And yes, I love gifts. I LOVE gifts—unapologetically.

I love finding the perfect gifts and the excitement of giving them. I love the thrill of a gift-heaped tree and the anticipation of all the surprises. I love opening presents all morning and enjoying them all afternoon. And...

I think God enjoys it too. I think he's a Father in heaven that finds pleasure in joyful, excited kids, just like we do. And I believe we glorify him more in our overflowing joy, than our dour admonitions to "have the right focus."

What exactly is "the right focus" anyway? I'm curious. If someone went to a remote part of the world today and discovered a pagan holiday, imbibed it with religious significance, then declared that March 14th was the day we were all to observe this—would we be obligated? Would God expect us to focus extra hard on that specific truth because some Christian somewhere decided this was a good idea? God gave numerous celebrations in Scripture, loaded with spiritual significance, which we routinely ignore. But the revised pagan celebration from ancient England, which is nowhere to be found in the Bible—we endlessly admonish ourselves for neglecting. How ironic.

I love thinking about the incarnation. It is an awesome and stunning reality that deserves to be renewed regularly in our hearts. But I feel no more obligation to do so in December than I do in July. There is nothing Biblically binding about our Christmas celebration beyond the principles that apply to every day of our lives such as goodness, faithfulness, generosity, gratitude, contentment, peace, joy, patience, and kindness.

I'm not sure what it says about us when the pagans exhibit more joy in their holiday celebrations than we do. I think we should be the merriest people on earth, exhibiting such contagious joy that everyone around us is asking why we enjoy life so much. If I were an unbeliever, I would certainly NOT want to be a Christian during Christmas...with the incessant guilt-laden admonitions, dour expressions, and weary sighs. Nothing about this is attractive.

So no, I don't feel guilty in the least during the holiday season for not focusing enough on Jesus' birth. I feel the same freedom I feel every day of the week to focus on Christ in a whole array of ways. And yes, I love Christmas. I choose to focus on Christ by observing that he gave the most amazing gift to those he loved when he came to earth. Consequently, I want to have a generous heart towards those I love as well. I want to reflect his goodness by rejoicing in the fact that every good and perfect gift is from the Father above, and he gives these good gifts for our enjoyment. I want to honor him with exceeding joy and gratitude in the midst of all these good gifts. And if any unbelievers are watching, I want my joy and celebration to be irresistible.

Meet Kathy Gray. . .

Kathy Gray is our daughter, a home-school mom, a teacher par excellance, and, as you can see, an excellent writer—and a lover of Christmas. She, and our daughter Twyla, get their writing ability from me (and my mother) and their love of Christmas from their mother, my wife, Carol. (I actually enjoy it almost as much, but only because of how well Carol and the girls pull it off. They all three love to give gifts that fit and bring happiness to the people they love, and like Kathy, I think that’s a virtue to praise God for, not a behavior to be ashamed of.

Thanks Kathy, for a beautiful essay and a wonderful statement of faith. I love you!

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .and that's My View from Tanner Creek.

The Law of Love Commodities

The normal law of commodities is called supply and demand. Most supplies are limited, which doesn’t really matter if there is no demand. In such case, because there is little or no demand, the value of a particular commodity will be very low. However, if the supply is limited and the demand is high, then the value of the commodity under consideration goes up and can even become so expensive as to be unavailable to the average person.

However the law of love commodities is vastly different, because love is a commodity of unlimited value regardless of the size of the supply. Let me give an imaginary example.

Suppose a man is walking down the street with a gallon of unconditional love. As he walks he happens upon two other gentlemen who are carrying empty jugs. Because he loves them unconditionally and he knows the value of unconditional love, the first man shares his love with the other two, giving each half of the love in his jug. The two men who had been carrying empty jugs go on their way rejoicing because they each have a jug that is half full of love.

Now, according to the normal law of supply and demand, the first man should be going on his way with an empty jug. However, the law of love commodities is different. When you give love away, the love you have is not diminished, but multiplied and the man with the jug full of love goes on his way with a jug that is still full and overflowing.

Now of the two men who were blessed by the half jug of love, one had an eternal blessing but the other’s blessing was only temporary because he did not know or practice the law of love commodities.

One of the men, when he happened upon a person with an empty jug, shared happily what he had, and discovered, to his amazement, that when he gave love away, his own was multiplied and he went on his way with a jug overflowing with love and because he was a quick learner, the love in his jug never ran out even though he gave it away over and over and over again.

Sadly, the other man was not so generous with others and was not wise enough to know that his lack of generosity was actually penalizing his own soul. When he met a man who was downcast from carrying an empty jug that had no love in it at all, he merely hugged his own jug to him the more tightly to be sure the man did not try to steal that which was so valuable to him. The sad thing was that each time this happened both persons left their meeting more impoverished than when they met— the man with a half jug of love was the most impoverished of all because the love he had hoarded soon evaporated and he was left, once again, with an empty jug.

Love is one commodity that never diminishes when you give it away, but evaporates quickly when hoarded.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . .
and that's my view, from Tanner Creek.