Every Every pastor must deal with the money issue in his or her church. I stumbled upon a simple way that inspired our church to give generously. A few years ago in January our offerings were tanking. For some reason January giving seems to always drop. My unscientific analysis tells me that this happens when the credit card bills come due, people realize how much they overspent for Christmas and temporarily cut back their giving.
I woke up in the middle of the night almost in a panic about our financial picture. As I wrestled with what to do, I felt God challenge my worry with this thought. “Charles do you believe I will take care of your church? In this time of need, why not challenge the church to give more, to give generously?”
I couldn’t believe what I was sensing. I argued with God and pled, “God, we don’t need to GIVE more, we need to GET more.” Well, my arguing, like Job’s, didn’t convince God otherwise. So over the next several days I crafted a plan to challenge the church to give generously.
Give Generously
In doing so I made up the word ‘titherosity’ by combining the word ‘tithe’ with the word ‘generosity.’ Here was our plan. We would act upon the principle from Scripture that states, “Give and it will be given to you.” (Luke 6.38) For four straight weeks we would give away 10% of each Sunday’s offering to a specific missional need outside our church.
