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Contact Info:
MAXIMUM Generosity
Brian Kluth
5201 Pinon Valley
Colo Springs, CO 80919
Cell: 719-930-4000 Email:
bk@kluth.org
Web: www.kluth.org
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1 - Aim for transformed lives, not
institutional survival
Too many churches only
get interested in teaching generosity truths when there is a budget crisis
or building project in the church. With more than 2,300 verses in the Bible
on finances, generosity and material possessions, God obviously intended His
people to learn His ways in these matters so they can glorify God with their
resources and live in financial peace.
2 - Christians are in trouble
With record
bankruptcies, corporate downsizing, out-of-control credit card spending,
rampant materialism, and giving patterns at 30 year lows, people in your
congregation are desperately in need of the insights available in God's
Owner's Manual, The Bible. You can proclaim God's word with clarity,
conviction and confidence to people who truly need to hear what God has to
say.
3 - Provide spiritual vision
I learned of one church
that had a member who was considering giving his church a $100,000 gift. He
went to the pastor and asked him "if you had available some unexpected
financial resources, what would you do with them?" The pastor thought
for a moment, and said he would like to put new wallpaper in the ladies
restroom. The man gave him the funds for the project, and gave more than
$99,000 away to another ministry that had a vision big enough to worthily
put his gift to work for kingdom purposes!
4 - Get God's written blueprint for your
ministry
In Scripture, resources
always followed a God given plan. In Exodus 30-35, God gave Moses detailed
instructions and in Exodus 35 the provisions came forth. In Nehemiah's day,
when the king asked him "what he needed", Nehemiah gave him a detailed
answer. When David challenged people to give in I Chronicles 29, he had a
detailed plan he was asking them to resource. Do you have a detailed godly
vision that can be clearly communicated in writing? Are your plans tangible
and measurable?
5 - Connect people's giving to the
ministry of the church
Often we ask people to
"fund the budget". But the reality is we are asking people to give to help
teach children, to provide full-time spiritual leadership for our children
and teens, to help fund mission work worldwide, etc.. You need to creatively
learn to connect the church budget line items with actual ministry that is
touching people's lives. For example, If you are raising money for Christian
Education facilities, talk about a family that was turned away because of a
lack of CE space.
6 - Tell stories of how God is creatively
stretching your financial resources
In our church's recent
expansion project, we recently had a $10,000 phone system donated to us, a
retired electrician donated more than 300 hours of work over a 10 week
period, a gravel company donated rock for our parking lot expansion, we were
able to purchase a $35,000 office cubicle system at an auction for $4,000, a
marble company donated marble for all of our bathrooms, a plumbing company
installed all of our plumbing fixtures for free, etc., etc.. When you can
report how God is "stretching" the financial gifts God is giving, they are
encouraged in their personal giving and have a growing confidence that their
resources are being wisely used.
7 - Use personal testimonies about how God
has taught people to give
Once I was asked to
come and give a stewardship message at a church in Iowa. I agreed to come
under one condition. I told the pastor he needed to with the help of the
treasurer, determine four individuals or couples who by their giving
records, appeared to be giving 10% or more of their income to the Lord's
work. (Notice, I did NOT say, the largest givers. Someone might give
thousands of dollars each year, but it might only be 1 or 2% of their
income). Each week for four weeks, one of the couples or individuals was to
give a 2-3 minute testimony of how God taught them to be faithful givers.
When I came to preach, people's hearts and pocketbooks had been touched and
softened through these testimonies. During the next year, that little
church's budget grew from $125,000 to over $200,000! The message to the
congregation was not the needs of the congregation, but the grace of God in
allowing people to become faithful givers to the Lord's work. In my own
church, from time to time, we have people in the congregation tell their
giving stories. One Sunday, we had a single mom give her story. She had been
recently divorced, had 3 young children, was making $20,000/year, and had
$24,000 in accumulated debts when she began to have a desire to give at
least 10% of her income to the Lord's work. She told how God helped her with
this decision, how he slowly began to increase her income, how she began to
live on a budget, and that within 3 years, she had paid off all of her
debts. She also explained how after learning to give 10%, she increased her
giving to help missionaries and support the church's expansion projects.
Many people were deeply moved and deeply motivated to become faithful givers
after hearing her story of God's help and grace.
8 - Encourage God's people to personally
read and study God's word
In a Barna Research
poll, 52% of the people who read the Bible on the own were givers to their
church. The less someone reads the bible, the less likely they are to be
faithful givers at church. To help people learn God's perspective on
finances, provide financial teaching in Sunday school classes, seminars, or
Bible studies from Crown Financial Ministries or Willow Creek's Good Sense
Ministry. If you want to reap a spiritual harvest of generosity in the
future, you need to be regularly planting the seeds of God's financial truth
today.
9 - Recognize faithful Christian giving
increases with age
Barna Research reports
what percentages of people in the following ages donate financially to their
church: 31% of Babybusters, 43% of Baby boomers, 54% of Builders, and 61% of
Seniors. Your most generous gifts will often come from older and more mature
saints, but your church needs to be actively teaching younger saints God's
word in the area of finances and generosity through a multifaceted financial
ministry.
10 - Don't reinvent the wheel, utilize available resources for your
church
Years ago, there were very few models and methods for
emphasizing financial faithfulness and
Biblical generosity in churches.
Today, there is a growing number of outstanding ministries and organizations
ready to help you and your church:
www.MAXIMUMgenerosity.org,
www.crown.org;
www.goodsenseministry.com,
www.nationalchristian.com,
www.generousgiving.org,
www.stewardship.org,
and many other resources that you will find listed on these website.
If you are a denominational church, also be sure to check with your
denomination to find out what resources they have (or forward this article
to your denominational leaders, so they can pass the information along to
other pastors and church leaders).
If you want to move forward in being all God wants your
church to be and your church families to be, it is absolutely vital that you
begin to advance Biblical generosity and financial teaching in your church.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Brian is the publisher of a (FREE) monthly email
MAXIMUM generosity newsletter for pastors,
church leaders, and denomination leaders. His
www.MAXIMUMgenerosity.org
website has a significant number of helpful generosity articles and resources.
He is also a national and international speaker, seminar presenter, and writer
on Biblical generosity and financial matters.
Brian’s written materials have been distributed to more than 350,000 Christian leaders in more than 100 countries .For additional materials
go to: www.MAXIMUMgenerosity.org.
© www.kluth.org.
Copyright reprint permission for non-commercial purposes can be purchased for
$20 to photocopy, fax, email or print this materials for 1-25 people, $50 for
distribution to 26-500 people, $75 for 501-999 people, and $100 for distribution to 1000 or more. To
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bk@kluth.org | |
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