3 Giving Conversations Every Church Should Be Having With Members

Talking about money isn't always easy, but effective giving conversations are crucial for the health of a church and its members.

GIVING CONVERSATION #1:

Spiritual Benefits of Giving

Leaders know the connection between giving and discipleship. They know that learning to trust God with our money is a major component of our spiritual journey. But not all your members know this.

Are you regularly and strategically talking about the biblical principles of giving (including the idea that, generally speaking, generous giving plants seeds for a blessed life)? Are you encouraging members to see giving as a way to grow in their faith and live out their values, not just an obligation to fund the church's budget? These tools can help you help members get started.

Giving Conversation #2:

The Importance of Stewardship

Stewardship refers to the responsible management of resources, including financial resources. Many churches offer courses on responsible financial management, but we’re seeing a growing interest around creating a specific program for their church to proactively include stewardship training as a core concept for assimilating new members and educating existing ones. It would include, of course, #1 above.

Giving Conversation #3:

Transparency and Accountability About Gifts

It’s becoming common for people to express concern about financial transparency and call for greater accountability in churches and nonprofits. They want to know that their donations are being used responsibly.

In light of public awareness of fraud, extravagant buildings and expenses, and high-paid pastors, this is not unreasonable. However, sometimes the pendulum swings unreasonably far to an extreme where donors don’t want to support legitimate operational expenses. Instead, they want all of their donation to go to mission recipients.

This gives churches both a responsibility and opportunity to show that the members themselves, and the community, are recipients of ministry resources, teaching, support, an environment to gather, worship and serve, and a staff to manage all of that…all of which are funded strictly by donors’ generosity.

One easy way to provide transparency around donations is to use Vision2’s gallery of Give Stories that lets givers designate their gift recipients and see -- right in the giving form -- the impact of their gifts.

We'd love to show you all Vision2 can do to help with these giving conversations ... and more. Reach out with your questions.