By Chuck Queen What are we to make of the Gospel story of the poor widow who put in the temple treasury all she had to live on (Mark 12:41-44)? In the previous Markan paragraph Jesus denounces the self-righteousness of…
What’s necessary vs. extravagant giving
By Scott Dickison As far as the typical news cycle goes, this column is about a week late. August 29 marked the 10 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on American soil. But then again, on Labor Day of 2005…
Cultivating generous giving
By Molly T. Marshall Since my vocation as a seminary president requires travel and presence in varied congregations, which means irregular attendance at my home church, I volunteered to be a member of the stewardship committee. It meets at times…
Should a pastor know what church members give?
Every time I teach a stewardship workshop or class, this question invariably comes up: “Should a pastor have access to contribution records?” In some congregations, pastors are prohibited from knowing what people contribute. In others, pastors choose to shield themselves…
De-toxifying charity
Many years ago, I was prompted to rethink my own presuppositions about stewardship after reading Ron Sider’s probing book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity. More recently many of us have been thinking more…
Pastors as social entrepreneurs
Seldom do I meet a pastor who, when they find out I’m in fundraising, asks about raising money. Ironically, most seminaries don’t teach this elemental aspect of ministry—congregations are nonprofits; contributions are elemental to their growth. However, before congregations and…
Sigh. It’s that time of year again.
By Amy Butler If your family is anything like mine, you probably recently engaged in the annual Thanksgiving tradition of sharing some things for which we are each thankful. It can be a tradition that lessens in meaning with its…
With humor and hard work, church changes its ‘culture of giving’
By Jeff Brumley Two years ago, Second Baptist Church in Liberty, Mo. gambled that two cartoon cows would help foster a culture of generosity and transform stewardship in the congregration. It might sound crazy, but it worked, resulting in a…
Does anybody really know what tithing is?
By George Bullard Has a more general, difficult to measure, New Testament-oriented concept called generosity snuffed out the clear, easy to measure, Old Testament concept of tithing? Let me try that again. Has a left-brained legalism about tithing interpreted as…
Does anybody really know what tithing is? Does anybody really care?
Has a more general, difficult to measure, New Testament-oriented concept called generosity snuffed out the clear, easy to measure, Old Testament concept of tithing? Let me try that again. Has a left-brained legalism about tithing interpreted as 10 percent of…
If you had a million dollars …
What would you do if you had a million dollars? That’s a fun “what if” game most of us like to play, pondering all the good we could do, all the fun we might have, all the contributions we could…
Birthday offerings
What is your earliest memory of giving or receiving? That was the first of a set of prompts given to a small discussion group this week at a class I attended on religious fundraising. My mind immediately pictured a small…