Generosity & Giving

Our friends at Generis are again offering a great and free resource to the XPastor community. Their new e-book is entitled "Understanding and Engaging Your Givers." They describe the book: "Count on it: your [...]

Sharing stories of people doing both good and great things inspires others. When it comes to giving, people can often feel shame and inadequacy. However, the Bible reveals great nuggets from people who lived attainable [...]

I recently read the book, Contagious Generosity: Creating a Culture of Giving in Your Church by Chris Willard and Jim Sheppard. I found this book to be inspiring and refreshing; it resonated with me [...]

Pastors are always asking me, “Alan, what can I do as the pastor to help increase giving in our church?” I feel that if the church is to have a healthy culture of generosity, then there [...]

Church giving and stewardship will continue to evolve and change in 2014. In working with churches in their stewardship practices and dealing with tithing, several trends are emerging. Knowing these trends will make you [...]

Many other people and organizations are vying for your congregation's money ... and time. If you don't present your ministries to your people in a way that stirs their interests, they will give their [...]

It’s inevitable---growing churches at some point will find themselves scrambling to accommodate the people God is sending their way. Which means they need facilities, and that usually means they have to raise money. But churches are often [...]

From auctions to raffles to bad rap songs, there are many “creative” ways that churches broach the subject of money. These efforts may be well intentioned, but ultimately amount to an elaborate guilt trip, a clever [...]

The 365 days of 2013 may be the most successful giving year for churches for the last five years. Counter-intuitive? Hard to believe? No question, the days of low-hanging fruit in giving are gone. The recession [...]

Welcome to year three of the recession. The church has adapted to this restricted giving environment. The new normal has set in. The new normal may be short lived, however. Making the turn into 2011, churches [...]

One year ago, we were tossing around words new to our experience. AIG, financial meltdown, Wall Street collapse, and recession all rushed into our harried conversations. As church leaders, those words pointed us to one [...]

Whether whispered silently in our heads or energetically wrestled through in leadership meetings, economic fears challenge churches. We offer hope and meaning to our communities and a world growing more restless in finding truth. What [...]

This is a sample of what Brad Leeper, President of Generis, sends to his ministry partners---churches that he helps to guide regarding their generosity. Although it is from years ago, the principles of wisdom are [...]

There it was again … a passionate group of church leaders explaining how their exciting vision stalled in the thick mud of financial shortfalls. Their vision exploded with innovation, precision, and compelling results. The [...]

When you hear the word “fundraising,” does your heart begin to pound with excitement? Or do you feel the blood drain from your face as you stand in utter terror? For many, the mere [...]

In recent months I have dealt with three non-profit clients who were thinking about suspending their capital campaign plans due to the dreadful condition of the economy. Several factors led these top-flight executives to [...]

Peter Haas knew he had a financial challenge on his hands when he got a report on the giving patterns of his fast-growing Substance Church in Fridley, Minnesota, and discovered that his 8-year-old daughter was one of the [...]