Assumptions about Your Congregation

1. The leadership realizes financial discipleship is one part of stewardship. Stewardship includes personal life, community life, public life and financial life

2. The congregational leadership (pastor and majority of Session members at least) feels God’s amazing, all encompassing, grace and is driven to respond in gratitude

3. The congregational leadership believes: “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work” --2 Corinthians 9:8

4. There is a group, task force or committee in your congregation given tasks associated with stewardship. This group meets monthly to plan, evaluate and be supportive of ongoing programs.

5. The persons that serve on this committee, task force or group each feel called to this work and willing to make personal commitments in the area of stewardship.
 

Areas of Responsibility for your Committee, Task Force or Group

1. Stewardship Education

a. For members of the committee and all members of the congregation—all ages
b. Inductive experiences rather than deductive experiences
c. Encourage pastor to make it a frequent part of sermons and worship experiences

2. Modeling Stewardship

a. Personal

1. Share your story
2. Commit to education as a student and a leader
3. Commit to financial discipleship—pledge!
4. Consider your part in environmental issues: global warming, recycling, etc.
 

b. Corporate

1. Encourage the session to respond as we would like each of our members to respond: commit to education; responding to God’s grace with extravagant generosity; give all our mission dollars off the top; etc.
2. Invite the congregation’s members to join the leaders in committing to stewardship education; responding to God’s grace with their accumulated resources (the annual campaign to fund the operating budget); giving beyond themselves before they take care of any other expenses.
3. Model good stewardship by using the church building to reach out to the community and fill needs in the community

3. Mission Interpretation

a. Provide and encourage “go and see” kinds of experiences for ministry and mission
b. Develop a Narrative Budget for your congregation
c. Publicize the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Special Offerings: One Great Hour of Sharing; Pentecost; Peacemaking; Christmas Joy
d. Use newsletters, bulletin inserts, minutes for mission as often as possible to tell members of the mission that is being done with their dollars
e. Use the Mission Yearbook of Prayer and Study as an example of the scope of mission work done by all governing bodies of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
 

4. There is a Continuum of Financial Gifts along the financial discipleship journey. A congregation should encourage each type and provide resources to individuals moving along the continuum.

1) Impulse Giving - giving from your wallet or purse
2) Annual Gifts - ongoing ministry of the church (often a pledge)
3) Campaign Gifts - special offerings, capital needs (usually a pledge)
4) Special Gifts - donor-selected ministries/missions
5) Deferred Gifts – often planned from accumulated wealth
 

Ideas in Cultivating Generosity

1. Give members permission to talk about their faith and money

a. Encourage every member to write a money autobiography that describes his or her thoughts and feelings about money from childhood to the present.
b. Create small groups to share the joys and concerns of working, getting a raise, not getting a raise, losing a job, managing a family, taking vacations, etc.
c. Provide resources and small group interaction around things like living more simply, what to do with extraordinary wealth, and the joys and struggles of including generosity in the family budget
d. Provide places where members can discuss their experiences with faith and money – the struggles and the joys. Where groups can covenant to encourage and support each other as they live out Christ’s teachings on possessions, wealth and money.
 

2. Make practicing financial discipleship a priority for the whole faith community

a. Encourage and support members as they increase the percentage of their income they give to others
b. Thank everyone personally that gives anything to your church. Celebrate gifts!
c. Make all gift giving and the thanksgiving an integral part of worship
d. Encourage all members to share their financial discipleship stories and make new disciples along the way