"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly"
John 10:10
Generosity is at the heart of our faith, we believe in a generous God and our own generosity is a testament and hallmark of our faith in action. The ministry and mission of The Church of England is largely funded through the incredible generosity of those who give to it.
How do we Build a Generous Church?
The Church of England’s National Giving Strategy is designed to help create the best environment for giving and generosity in our churches. Find out more in this short video, and on the Church of England website here.
Every part of this strategy is important to develop in your church and you need to give them equal attention. There is a multiplier effect with these eight areas, the more you develop one area, the greater the impact of the work you do in the other areas. Growing a culture requires patience, commitment, determination and above all prayer. Leadership is crucial, but this is something that we all need to be committed to so that we become the generous community we are called to be.
The Stewardship team are here to help you create a generous culture in your church, so do not hesitate to get in touch to find out more about how we can support you in this. Email resourcingparishes@leeds.anglican.org for support and advice.
Enabling Giving
The first half of the strategy focuses on making giving easy, accessible and understandable.
- Have the right mechanisms for giving - such as direct debit, contactless, online, legacies, gift aid and so on.
- Show the impact of people’s giving - explain how giving makes a difference to the community.
- Explain the need for people to give - outline how much it costs to run a church service, lead a youth group, or serve refreshments each week.
- Build trust - say thank you regularly and be transparent with church finances so that people have confidence that the church will spend their gifts wisely.
If you have these things in place, you have created the best environment for people to give.
Encouraging Generosity
A generous culture is also essential for a church to develop a sustainable ministry. That generosity can be expressed in many different ways. It is not only about financial giving, but this is part of living generously. To cultivate a generous culture, there are four areas we need to focus on:
- Inspire people through generous leadership and celebrating generosity within the life of the church.
- Disciple members, through resources, teaching and learning, so people can grow in an understanding of God’s generosity towards them, and how they can live generous lives.
- Embed generosity in the life of the church, in its plans, services and ministry and weave it into everything the church does.
- Activate generosity, by providing opportunities for people to grow in generosity and apply what they have discovered.
Review Your Giving
We recommend that every church PCC conducts a giving review every single year. A giving review is not a financial review, it looks at giving as an act of discipleship and asks what we are doing as a generous church. What this review looks like depends entirely on you and your personal preference. The Stewardship team can join your PCC meeting to lead you through a review if helpful, get in touch with us at resourcingparishes@leeds.anglican.org to discuss how we can support you in this.
Take a look through some of our resources you can use with your PCC, click on each image to find out more:
Webinars and Training
The Stewardship Team regularly deliver training on a variety of topics to do with giving & generosity. See our Stewardship Training page for more details.