Growing In Giving

Growing as disciples in response to God’s love

An old hymn reminds us: “All that we have is Thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from Thee.”

What we do with this “trust” from God expresses the depth of our gratitude to Him, not only for material things but above all for the spiritual gifts of His grace: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

One way we say “Thank You” to God is through our offerings of time, ability, and money to His work and to sustain His Body on earth, the Church.

“How much is enough?” is a quest ion of ten asked. A better question is: “How much do I trust God?” Since all things are from God, and God gives both to sustain us and to equip us to contribute to the holy work of God’s people, we can believe and t rust that God will provide for us.

The Bible says several things about our giving. First , set aside for God at the beginning, not the end, of your allocation of the wealth entrusted to you. “Put first the Kingdom of God, and all else will be yours as well,” said Jesus.

The Bible also provides the figure of one-tenth of one’s means – a tithe—as the starting point for determining what we shall render to the Lord. The phrase “tithes and offerings” shows that God expects His people to set aside a proportion for Him—and to be generous beyond this proportion as well, according to His guidance and our devotion.

“But . . . but . . . but . . . “ People not presently at this level of giving of ten say “I couldn’t possibly do that.” They are both right and wrong. It might be difficult or financially complicated to jump from two percent of one’s giving—approximately the national average for all denominations’ members, including those who only show up once every year or two – to ten percent in a short span of time.

But it is not impossible for people to tithe. There are people in our own congregation who tithe in spite of a mortgage, college tuition, car payments and medical expenses. The Bible says: “For nothing shall be impossible with God.”

Even if “tithing” is presently far away, nearly everyone in a congregation is capable of raising the standard of their discipleship. God calls His people to grow in their response to God’s good gifts, provide a just share of support to the congregation they belong to and depend upon, and lighten the burden of their brothers and sisters in faith who struggle with financial issues as members of Council or committees.

For those who choose to answer this call, there is a simple procedure to establish a giving schedule that will lead toward greater obedience to God’s teachings about our management of life.

Growth Giving Formula:

a. Offer a prayer of thanks to God and ask for His help to express your gratitude through your choices about giving, spending, and living.

b. Calculate your annual income total: _________________

c. Calculate one percent of that total: _________________

d. Divide “c” by 52: _________________

e. Write in your currently weekly offering: _________________

f . Add “d” to “e”: _________________

f . Begin giving this new amount this Sunday.

This will result in a one-percent (1%) annual growth in your giving, and give you a full year to adjust your lifestyle choices to this increase in self -disciplined discipleship.

Even if you gave nothing now, in ten years, you would be a tither.

For those who would like to grow their giving faster, use the “Growth Giving” formula every six months instead of once a year.

If every confirmed, communing, contributing member in the congregation did this, we would have a budget surplus which would enable us to adequately fund education programs, compassionate ministries and maintenance needs.

Even if half of our members did this, we would be able to expand the budget to answer currently-unmet needs.

Together we can do this with the help of God. Will you answer Him?