Talking about giving to your church takes intentionality.
If you come on too strong, your attenders might think you’re all about money. But, if you don’t talk about giving enough, your people will miss out on the spiritual blessings that come from being generous.
Question: What if the way you talked about giving actually made your attenders more excited to give?
At Life.Church, we’ve used six unconventional strategies to create a healthy and vibrant culture of generosity. The cornerstone of our strategy is through our weekly offering/generosity time. We’ve found that no giving series alone can make up for an ineffective weekly offering time.
No giving series alone can make up for an ineffective weekly offering time.
To prepare communicators to give excellent weekly offering calls from stage, we’ve recorded a 13-part series of short training videos to help inspire your attenders to generosity. Watch the training series, download the application guide, and share it with your team!
Now, let’s jump in to the six unconventional strategies we use to talk about giving:
1. Declare War on Selfish Consumerism in the New Year
You know the common New Year’s resolutions. People want to…
- Lose weight
- Make more money
- Get a better job
While none of these things are wrong, they’re all “me-centered.”
What if your attenders focused more on what they give to others, rather than what they do for themselves this January?
Selfless will guide your attenders to make this mental shift and go beyond finances to help them live a more selfless lifestyle
What if your attenders focused more on what they give to others, rather than what they do for themselves this January?
2. Start With the Next Generation
It’s so important to make sure that giving isn’t “just for the adults.”
At Life.Church, we intentionally teach generosity in our children’s ministry.
Find kids curriculum that will help you teach your kids to be generous for free:
- Elementary (K-3rd grade) (Here’s a bonus one)
- Early Youth (4th-6th grade)
- Student Ministry (6th-12th grade)
The next generation isn’t the church of tomorrow; they’re the church of today. We can’t skip important topics like generosity with our young people.
The next generation isn’t the church of tomorrow; they’re the church of today. We can’t skip important topics like generosity with our young people.
3. Talk About Giving Without Talking About Giving
One unconventional way we’ve approached a generosity series was by not promoting that it was a generosity series right away. While we never lie or deceive, we can make the promotion of a giving series more about the complete picture of the Christian walk and then pull in the giving topics. The goal is to appeal broadly without triggering the negative “giving” reflex that some people have.
This Is What We Do is a three-part sermon series that teaches attenders how to move from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset.
The series highlights how generosity and giving are foundational parts of who we are as Christians. Because of what God did for us, this is what we do.
Find the message videos, notes, graphics, and supporting documents.
4. Talk in Exponential Figures
So often, your attenders’ approach to giving is sabotaged by the thought that God operates in the world’s economy. But God’s economy isn’t confined to what’s possible in this world.
If you want your church to be filled with irrational generosity, you have to give your people a new perspective.
Exponential shows your attenders that God has a different economy than we do, and that His ways are higher than ours.
Your attenders will learn that when we’re generous with our time, energy, money, or talents, He can cause them to affect more people than we could ever imagine.
Find resources like notes, promotional files, and editable graphics.
God’s economy isn’t confined to what’s possible in this world.
5. Bring in Financial Experts (Like Dave Ramsey)
Sometimes a fresh voice can have a big impact. If you’ve taught on giving in the past, bring in another pastor or financial expert next time to bring a fresh perspective to giving—and engage in a new, unique way about an old topic.
Bringing in a Christian financial expert that isn’t employed by your church is a great way to talk about generosity, financial stewardship, and the tithe without seeming pushy.
In the series Keep The Change, Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze teach your attenders what the Bible says about finances and gain some practical tools that will give them the freedom to say, “Keep the Change!”
6. Redefine Being Rich
So often, people think, “I’ll be generous when I’m rich.”
But here’s the problem: “rich” to most people is actually just “more than I have now.” Bigger houses, nicer cars, better vacations.
Unfortunately, “bigger, nicer, and better” are moving goal posts they’ll never reach, and as a result, generosity will always be postponed.
What if “rich” meant something completely different to your church?
In the five-part series, Being Rich, Life.Church Senior Pastor Craig Groeschel puts a fresh perspective on what being “rich” really means and how your attenders can honor God with the richness of finances, time, and hearts.
Make the most of your weekly offering time.
And to help our team maximize the weekly offering portion of our services, a few of our campus pastors recorded 13 short training videos to help:
- Clearly explain what the Bible says about generosity and the tithe
- Bring in new givers
- Grow and retain current givers
These trainings were originally recorded for Life.Church staff, and you get exclusive access to them as well through Open Network. Take your whole team of communicators through this series, download the “Inspiring Generosity from Stage Application Guide,” and help grow the culture of generosity in your church.
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