What motivates a generous giver? Why do they give, and how are faith-based motives different from secular ones? A Christian’s level of dedication to biblical principles, involvement in church affairs, and maturity of faith are just three indicators mentioned in the articles and papers below that measure believers’ drive to give, especially to God’s kingdom. One can see how these motives influence giving trends in our congregations today.
Affirming Cheerful Givers: What Prompts the Generosity of Major Donors?
Melinda R. Heppe. In Trust Magazine 12, no. 4 (Summer 2001).
Money may be the medium of exchange, but faith and vision underwrite the kind of giving that can build new dormitories and endow schools and scholarships, as a brief look at these seven donors will show. Faith and vision can’t work in a vacuum, however. Potential donors need opportunities to develop relationships with faculty, staff and students and to become acquainted with specific needs. Then Spirit-filled givers will be moved to “lay up treasure in heaven” with investments here on earth.
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Characteristics of a Generous Giver
Ron Blue. Excerpt from a speech delivered at the annual Generous Giving Conference, Phoenix, Ariz., March 1-3, 2001.
Christian financial planner Ronald Blue has asked himself, “Why don’t Christians give more?” In attempting to answer this question, Blue describes five characteristics of a generous giver. Such a person usually (1) has biblical paradigms, (2) follows biblical principles, (3) has a giving plan, (4) is accountable to another person and (5) has a passion to finish strong.
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Stewardship as a Ministry in the Local Church: Understanding Motivational Reasons for Giving
Randall K. Barton. Enrichment Journal (Fall 2000).
What we teach concerning giving should always be based on the word of God, but the hearers of the word in our churches are in divergent positions in their stewardship walk. The CEO of the Assemblies of God Financial Services Group looks at the different motivations for giving within the church to better help pastors shepherd their flocks. According to Barton, we must have multiple strategies, with the goal of helping people to yield control of their finances to Christ, habitually honor Him in their financial decisions, and steward the resources He has provided.
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Your Unique Design for Giving
Bill Hendricks. The Gathering Newsletter 5, no. 3 (October 1999).
Has your financial giving become separated from your areas of giftedness? The result often is joyless giving. This article suggests three ways to restore the connection and bring back the joy of giving.
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Why People Accumulate Wealth
Crown Financial Ministries.
When the Bible speaks of wealth, it not only relates to money but also to homes, families, abilities, talents, intelligence, and education—everything we have. God’s perspective of wealth is always centered on attitudes. So, in keeping with God’s perspective of wealth, and realizing that the accumulation means more than just storing away—it also refers to making, using, spending, and sharing wealth—why do people accumulate wealth? There are seven basic reasons.
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Seven Styles of Giving
The Gathering Newsletter 5, no. 3 (October 1999).
Development professionals have known for a very long time that understanding the particular motivation of the donor is critical to successful fund-raising. Not everyone is the same in the way they give. Here are the seven distinct types of donors.
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The Nine Stages of Giving: How a Family Gives
Ken Dayton. The Gathering Forum.
The former chairman of Dayton Hudson identifies nine stages of giving in his family's five decades of experience. Having started as tithers, they now have set a higher standard for themselves.
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The Six Marks of an Effective Giver
The Gathering Newsletter 5, no. 1 (January 1999).
The Gathering recently convened a group of funders and ministry heads from around the country to talk about how to define effective giving. What made the conversation unique was the candid insights from the various ministry heads about their experiences with effective and ineffective funders. At the end, we condensed the conversation into six basic principles.
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The Gift of Giving
Fred Smith, Sr. The Gathering Newsletter 4, no. 3 (August 1998).
One cannot imagine a more difficult or dangerous way of life than choosing to spend the bulk of one’s time giving away one’s money to worthy causes, especially Christian causes. Difficult, for profitable stewardship requires a new and more strenuous discipline than making the money. Dangerous, because of the temptations of the flesh heaped upon anyone having money to give. Moreover, the sheer administrative monotony risks turning the joy of giving into the duty of giving. As A.T. Cushman, the past chairman of Sears, told the author years ago, "Fred, the art of administration is constant checking."
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Time, Talent and Treasure = Time and Talent
John Ronsvalle and Sylvia Ronsvalle. Journal of Stewardship (Ecumenical Center for Stewardship Studies) 48 (1996).
Even as church members contribute less and less to the maintenance of their own buildings, benevolence funds continue to shrink at a yet more drastic rate. As both clergy and laymen develop a consumerist attitude of fulfilling perceived rather than actual needs, the vision for missions work fades, and the meaning of stewardship degenerates into simply “meeting the budget.” When attempts to reintroduce the true concepts of stewardship focus on treasure to the apparent neglect of time and talent, congregations become upset. However, treasure is simply the end result of the wise use of one’s time and talent: Money represents the accumulation of one’s past efforts. Where and when money is used, then, shows where one is channeling the first fruits of his labor. In this article, stewardship is not tied to any explicit gospel message; rather, stewardship is connected to the Christian life as a decision we must make in order to choose God’s best. Note: No downloadable text or audio is available at this time.
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Levels of Contributions and Attitudes toward Money among Evangelicals and Non-Evangelicals in Canada and the U.S.
Dean R. Hoge and Mark A. Noll. Chap. in More Money, More Ministry: Money and Evangelicals in Recent North American History. Larry Eskridge and Mark A. Noll, eds. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000.
This essay analyzes giving trends, attitudes and behavior of several major religious groups in North America, as well as the main factors affecting giving and attitudes about money among Protestants. This research reveals that evangelicals, on average, give much more to their churches than other Christians for the following primary reasons: “First, evangelicals are more involved in their churches, and their church involvement is the strongest single predictor of giving. Second, evangelicals hold to strong beliefs in Bible truths, and this is a strong predictor of giving. Evangelicals’ faith includes belief in God’s promises that God will take care of the faithful, and it gives higher priority to a spiritual life than the material life. From the survey evidence, these are the primary explanations for impressively high evangelical giving, rather than any background factors such as education, age, or occupation.”
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Unpaid Debts: Metaphors and Millennialism in Southern Sectarian Movements
Ted Ownby. Chap. in More Money, More Ministry: Money and Evangelicals in Recent North American History. Larry Eskridge and Mark A. Noll, eds. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000.
In this study of two sectarian groups of early 20th-century evangelicals, we find examples of groups that complicate the standard image of evangelicals practicing strict, world-denying asceticism. Ownby examines Churches of Christ and Pentecostal groups such as the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.). He shows how “Their distinctive theological commitments—sanctification and premillennialism among the Pentecostals, rationalism and congregational autonomy among the Churches of Christ—helped define how each group answered economic questions, and in fact, which economic questions they chose to ask. The southern Pentecostal groups looked back to the nineteenth century for the background of their critique of the twentieth-century economy. They believed that society was in moral decline, and they tried to remain separate from it. At the same time, they enthusiastically embraced economic and bureaucratic centralization as the best way to support missionary programs that put into action their beliefs about the coming millennium. Thus, they grew more worldly and less sect-like in their financial and bureaucratic practices at the same time they intensified their rejection of forms of worldliness that interfered with sanctification. On the other hand, Churches of Christ were relatively ‘worldly’ in their perspective on the twentieth-century economy. Wealth was worrisome, but its pursuit could teach useful religious lessons about following clear rules for a higher purpose. However, in upholding traditions of rigid congregational autonomy, they rejected a world that expected more bureaucratization, more centralized authority, and more interconnectedness.”
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