Generous Giving
The Generous Giving Team at St Martins House in Leicester supports and resources our churches to establish and maintain a culture of generosity that secures the long term future God is calling us to.
The team is inspired by 2 Corinthians 9 vs 7-8: "Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And 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."
Changing the culture of giving in your church involves looking at deepening discipleship, identifying vision, and developing good practice. The Generous Giving team has lots of tools and ideas to help churches that want to explore and embrace generosity. You may be surprised what else flourishes and grows in addition to your income.
Contact Us
Ariel Baker T: 0116 261 5348 E: ariel.baker@leicestercofe.org
We hope this ‘Life Is A Gift’ video will help you to consider seeing generous giving from a different perspective:
What is Generous Giving?
We are all called to be Shaped by God in living out our faith and embracing our calling to build God’s Kingdom here on earth. Our giving is therefore first and foremost not a matter of practicality, but part of our everyday faith and discipleship – our journey of following Jesus.
As we experience God’s generous nature the results can be seen in our own lives. Our generosity drives mission in communities large and small in our diocese. It brings the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ to the lost, and it brings food and warm clothing to those who have nothing. We are shaped by God to give what we have and transform lives: ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me!’ Matt 25: 40.
As communities of faith, and as charities, we need to be clear on why we are inviting people to give. Giving to pay the heating bills might seem very important, but what is the larger picture that the heating is enabling? This requires us to think about what the vision is for the church. What are the plans for the next few years and what is God calling your church to do? That helps us to think about what money and other resources that vision needs to be fulfilled, and how you might go about asking for it. When this vision is understood and well communicated asking for regular giving becomes a lot easier to do because we have a positive story to tell about what we will use it for.
It is also important for us to consider the mechanisms of how we raise our money, and make sure that we follow good practice. We can do this by demonstrating impact to our givers, saying thank you regularly, and making it easy and convenient for people to support us. There are many tools to help churches to do this effectively: the Parish Giving Scheme, making use of tools for digital giving for example card readers and a parish pack for Legacy Giving.
Resources to help you:
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Finance web pages (which have further infomation Parish Contributions, Finance Returns etc)
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Bishop Guli's podcast, part of the new resources to help churches explore God’s generosity
