As you consider your giving to the church this year, please consider how you can grow in your own generosity.
An idea for someone whose income has gone down in the last year:
- Even if the total dollars given decreases, people can still grow in generosity. Consider this: if before your income decreased you were giving away 2% of your income, with income being less, can you find a way to grow the percentage of giving to 3 or 4%? There are people in our congregation who will need to decrease the total dollars given because of loss of work or other reasons
Other ideas:
- Systematic giving leads to generosity: For most people, we can grow significantly in our giving just by making our gift on a regular basis. Sign up for automatic giving or just add an amount each week or month. Growing giving by $1 per day equates to significant growth over the course of the year.
- An extra gift or two during the year: A story was shared from a congregation that participated in this program last year about someone who said, “I’m not sure what the future holds for me, but for now I am doing okay, so I will double my giving in the month of April.” Well, what if we decided to double our giving one month or even two months next year?
- Grow by a percentage each year: For some, the idea of a tithe is unachievable in a single year, but something people would like to reach someday. By growing giving by a percentage each year, it is achievable over the long-term. If you currently give away 3% of income, perhaps you can reach 4% next year and 5% the year after. This takes discipline, but over the long-term is effective for some.
You may have your own ideas for growing in generosity. As a church family, growing in generosity together will have a tremendous overall impact!