Proverbs 22:9

Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor.

Motives are at the heart of generosity. Why are you generous? What action, event, cause, purpose, or reason makes you generous? Every person has a different motivation for being generous.

The writer of Proverbs in the Bible says that one motivation is to get nothing in return. Feeding the poor means you don't expect anything in return. In fact, you'll probably be met with suspicion as to why you're feeding the poor - suspicion from both the poor you're helping and from your peers who wonder at your motives. So, to see who is truly generous, see how they act around the truly poor. Observe them, their interactions with the less fortunate. Watch what they say and how they say it to those with few financial means.

A few times (too few, really) I've taken action to be generous according to this verse. Each time I've come away changed. I tell these stories to remind myself to be more generous more often - because it is good for me. Ironically, each time I share, I'm blessed; each time I give, I get.

• While I was in grad school, I went to the grocery store. At the checkout line, the lady in front of me forgot her wallet at home. She left the items in the checkout line and went to call her family to bring some money. I knew she was poor from what she was buying and having to put back because it cost too much. When she stepped aside, I got $20 from my wallet and paid for her groceries and asked the cashier not to tell her. I paid for my own and left the store. That was over 25 years ago - it is still a fresh memory.
• While on a trip overseas, I came across a family of four who are economic refugees. They travel (with two young children) from country to country looking for jobs. My heart aches for the kids who think this is normal and who don't have the opportunity to have a solid education so they can become professionals to break the economic cycle. My wife and I gave them about $50 (all the money we had on hand). That was last year - I pray they have found a home and a well-paying job, but I doubt it.

There have been many other occasions in the years in between. It is never about the amount of money, it is always, always, always about the attitude of the heart. Each time I have been generous is etched in my memory. Each time I have asked enough to know that the recipient is poor. Every single time I have been overwhelmed with the sense of what I ought to do. And every time I did the right thing, I have welled up with a feeling a gratitude that I was able to be generous. Yes, there have been times I have not been generous - and those are also etched in my memory and are embarassing to me. They are lessons to my heart, to always have the attitude of generosity.

I challenge you to be generous in your daily life. Every so often some opportunity will present itself and you'll have a choice - to be generous or to withhold a blessing. Believe me, it won't affect your wallet (it really won't), but it will affect your heart (not to mention the recipient). Be generous.

Lead On!
Steve



read: greedy, selfish, self-centered, miserly, stingy

Generosity Index

You need to know about the annual Generosity Index  which is an interesting measure (at least to us numbers geeks) of how generous people are. This link is to the 2011 publication of the 2009 tax data. The compilers gather data from the US Internal Revenue Service (Canada is in the survey but in this blog I'm referring only to the US). They gather data by state:

• Total amount of income on all the tax docs filed
• Total number of tax filers
• Total number of tax filers that made a charitable contribution
• Total amount given to charities

The data is sliced and diced in two primary ways: 1) percentage of total aggregate income given to charity and 2) amount of average charitable donation. Those two are merged to get the Generosity Index and then states are ranked by each of these.

It is interesting to see the number of tax filers in a specific state but we don't know if these donors gave $10 or $10,000 so I prefer to look at the percentage of income that is given to charities. That percentage is very telling about those who are inclined to be generous with their money. BTW, by far the largest recipient of charitable dollars are churches - no one else comes close.

• The most generous state is Utah whose residents give an average of 3.09% of all their income to charities. The second is Georgia whose tax filers give away 1.85% of their collective income. There is a big drop from #1 to #2 and that is due to the Mormon emphasis on tithing.
• The top ten most generous states are
• 1. Utah
• 2. Georgia
• 3. Alabama
• 4. Maryland
• 5. South Carolina
• 6. Idaho
• 7. North Carolina
• 8. Oklahoma
• 9. Mississipp and New York (tie)
• The top ten stingiest states are
• 41. Ohio
• 42. New Mexico
• 43. Arkansas
• 44. Hawaii
• 45. Rhode Island
• 46. West Virginia
• 47. New Hampshire and Vermont (tie)
• 49. Maine
• 50. North Dakota

Generalizations are rarely correct but there are interesting patterns

• Many of the most generous states are seen to be very religious (Utah & Idaho with Latter-Day Saints; Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi with Baptists and Methodists).
• Many of the most generous states are seen as some of the poorest states
• Many of the stingiest states are in the Northeast: Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine which is an area of the US that is considered less religious
• Is there a correlation between faith and generosity - it would seem so (if we are looking broadly).

Years ago I read that research by Empty Tomb, Inc. showed some interesting statistics:

• In 1932 the average Christian gave 3.2% of his or her income to the church. This is at the depth of the Depression, when people had less to give than ever before as a nation. It was a very, very tough time for the US.
• Just before the economic collapse of 2008, the average Christian was giving 2.3% of his income to charity. During one of the most prosperous economic times in the US, Christians were more stingy than during the Great Depression. The figure of 2.3% has steadily dropped since, which means Christians are giving even less.

You can draw your own conclusions from this information. Here are mine:

• More money does not make you more generous.
• Generosity comes from the heart, not the wallet.
• Being poor (a relative term in our country when we compare ourselves to other countries) means you understand better than others the importance of helping others.
• A person's faith and religion plays a large role in his or her generosity.

Lead On!
Steve

Choices

Have you noticed? Young people today just don't have the same level of commitment to church as their parents and grandparents! They have no loyalty. They have no deep roots. They don't believe and support the one thing that their ancestors did - that bedrock commitment to their church. They really don't value investing themselves in a church, planting seeds into that faith community, and paying it forward to the next generation.

(Okay, this is where I insert a disclaimer to say this is not true but a massive generalization - please read on)

Of course they don't.

They don't because their parents and grandparents - the same ones who voice many, if not most, of those complaints above - taught them they don't have to have commitment to anything. I'm not blaming anyone, I'm just pointing out how this past two generations have been brought up by their parents.

Choices.

That is one of the hallmarks of capitalism and one of the benchmarks on which this nation is built financially. You, the consumer, get to pick and choose.

So, flashback to your childhood and remember when you sat in the grocery cart as your mom turned the corner and enter Wonderland - the cereal aisle. Mom slowly pushed the cart and you began saying (or if you couldn't speak, you'd scream) what cereals you wanted. Mom ended up buying 2, 3, or even 4 different kinds of cereal because she knew you would switch every few days. And Mom didn't stick just to Kellogg's  brands, she'd even get General Mills or even the occasional off brand (which Dad usually ended up eating or maybe you gave it to the dog!).

Sure enough, over the next couple of weeks you'd have Cheerios for a few days, then switch to Fruit Loops, and then jump over to Sugar Smacks, circle back to Cheerios and finally you'd say you were tired of all those but you'd seen a new cereal on TV and you wanted to try that one so Mom might as well throw away all of the others and just go get the new one.

Kids learned that they can switch cereals on a whim. But also soft drinks, clothes brands, fast food chains, and any other consumer product out there. As an adult, we switch loyalties with car manufacturers (even though grandfather was a Ford or Chrysler or Chevy buyer) and even neighborhoods - I know of people who will move every few years when they grow tired of their home. Young people do the same with jobs. 20-somethings today will switch careers 7-10 times in their work life - that means that they will change job every 3-7 years.

Anyone who has been a child in the past 65 years (since WWII) has been raised in a culture of choices where they are in charge of making those choices.

So why do long-timers in the church get all upset when their kids and grandkids jump from one church to a different church to no-church and over to a church of a different denomination or no denomination. After all, it's what we taught them: "you don't have to accept what is in front of you," and "you have the power to change your circumstances and surroundings so do it."

Church-hopping today doesn't happen for only the same reasons as before. I think that our grandparents jumped to another church because of something that happened and caused them to leave. They take that frame of reference and apply to their kids or grandkids.

I think there are a multitude of reasons why people today leave church.

• They don't like the programming or staffing
• A friend invited them to go to another church
• They want to experience and experiment with a different church
• They're looking for a church with values that they have (at the present time)
• They want a church that will be good for their kids even if there is nothing for the adults
• They're seeking a church that is strong in one area of ministry or cause which they identify with
• They've had a conflict with a lay member or staff leader
• Or any of hundred other reasons

So what is a church to do. How do you address the issue of church hopping in your church? The number of responses is equal to the number of problems but here are a few prime answers

• Do nothing - just accept that people will come and go through your church. Don't change anything and realize that the back door is just as wide as the front door and that many people will use both and a few core people will stay and help run things.
• Focus on a few core principles that guide your church and which in turn limit the number of ministries you do and then do those few ministries extremely well. That means the people who do come will be inculcated into your few ministries.
• Provide a variety of ministries so that you're trying to do lots of different things. This is what many churches do - focus on nothing and aim at everything. It works for a while but frankly it dilutes the power and ministry and energy of a church to focus on nothing and try to do everything.
• Have a few compelling environments which attract people and make them stick to your church. These compelling environments will attract like-minded people so long as it remains a high-level of quality. This is simliar to #2 but that is focused on ministries and this point is on people-groups.
•  Have several different worship styles within the same facility. That means building several worship centers or doing quick-changes; it also means a bigger staff. But the hope is that you can be a church where people can flit between worship and education venues all the while hearing the same message in a variety of methods.

OR, change the point of view of the people coming to church. That is MUCH harder to do. You see, everything I wrote above sees people coming to church as consumers. They aren't. And church leaders should stop treating members as consumer. Church attendees are to be givers - of their time, their talents, and their financial treasure. They are to be GENEROUS!

When you attend a wedding, you are not a consumer. You are there at the invitation of the bride or groom; you didn't just crash it. And the wedding is NOT about you - it's about the bride (sorry, grooms!). You are a participant - there to enjoy the party and to help celebrate a special day.

Worship is NEVER about the people inside the church. People are there at God's invitation (and we have no right to turn anyone - anyone! - away). Everyone must be there with the right motivation - not "to get something out of it" but to celebrate God and the life we've been given and in turn give away anything and everything we can to help others.

Yeah, changing members in a consumer-oriented culture into reverse-consumer (generous givers!) is not easy. But God doesn't do easy (or else he'd wipe us off the map - LOL) and God certainly isn't a consumer-God.

God does love and giving and celebrating and joy. We should and can and must, also.

Lead On!
Steve

Generous Living

• My daughter participated in Relay for Life a few weeks ago. This event is put on by the American Cancer Society to raise funds for cancer research.
• Last week, my church had a yardsale to raise money for youth to go on a mission trip.
• A couple of months ago a friend participated in St. Baldricks - an event during which people will shave their heads to raise money for cancer research.
• Every time I go to Starbucks, they give me the opportunity to buy a mosquito net for $10 for give a few dollars for some cause.

Every week I'm given the opportunity to be generous - to give a few dollars to people or a cause that is worthy of financial support. There are countless ones that don't deserve your money or time - it is up to the donor to do his/her due diligence to ensure that the cause is worthy. But for the ones that are worthy, how are you giving to them. More importantly, is "generous living" part of your nature?

A few years ago Oprah interview some poeple who came into sudden wealth. Some were lottery winners and others were actors. All said they were mobbed by family and friends who wanted/needed money. The bottom line that everyone agreed with is that sudden wealth magnifies your innate personality: if you are stingy, you will be even more stingy with your money; if you are innately generous, you will be even more generous with your new money.

Children learn more by watching than by listening to their parents. If they see their elders being generous, I want to believe that these youngsters will grow up being generous (that is a hope of mine, I don't know that there is any documentation to prove that). I've seen that lived out many, many times in individual situations - youth will be naturally generous because that is what they were taught by their parents.

All of us can be examples of daily generosity to individuals and causes. All of us need the practice of being more generous. All of us should be examples of generosity to the next generation. Generosity is not just about money, but also about your time, your skills, your expertise, your wisdom - its about being generous with YOU!

What are you doing to live out generosity? Do you take advantage of those opportunities that literally come across your path or do you ignore them? Do you research the causes that are requesting money or do you ignore them or give them a token gift instead of really digging?

Then, when you are living out your generosity, do you tell others about the neat cause or purpose? Make sure your motivation is pure - don't tell others to get them to applaud you, tell others because you want them to be aware of how they can help, too.

Make generosity part of your DNA. Make it so that when other people talk about you, the word "generous" is used countless times. Make "a generous person" the words that should be on your tombstone.

Why do this?

• If you are a follower of Christ, you'll be generous because God was and is generous and you are commanded to be generous (you have absolutely no other option).
• If you are not a follower of Christ, do it because there is no downside to being generous. When is the last time you heard someone get criticized for being "too generous?"

Give. Be generous in all you do, every day, so that people will automatically presume you will be wisely generous.

Lead On!
Steve

Generosity Not Just Tithes

For years I've struggled with the idea of tithing. Yeah, I know all about the verses in the Bible about tithing and why and when and whether you tithe on gross or net and all those other things about tithing. Yes, tithing is a critical component of Old Testament theology and practice. Yes, tithing is important for children to understand and it is easy enough for anyone who can move a decimal point to get as to how much they should give back to God. Tithing is for children - not for grown-ups.

I don't like tithing. Never have. Never will. There - I've said it. I don't think tithing should be the basis for adult stewardship education in Christian churches. We're beyond that. Actually, we've been beyond that for about 2,000 years - I'll prove it. Here's my premise - let's stop teaching tithing to adults and really, really teach GENEROSITY.

Tithing is the first step in giving back to God. I think most adults stop at that point and never progress beyond tithing. What Jesus teaches and lives out is much, much more than tithing - it is generosity and that is what God wants and expects from each of us, not just tithing. Too often tithing can end up being a scorecard - yep, done my 10%. God doesn't want just 10%, he wants more; he wants us to step out in faith and dependence on him. While tithing has a place, I don't think it is enough for a mature Christian.

Tithing is mentioned in the New Testament three times.

• Matthew 23.23 and Luke 11.42: Jesus roundly condemns the Pharisees for being sanctimonious and legalistic, even in their tithing on minutae but forgetting the big picture.
• Luke 18:12: Jesus mocks a Pharisee who keeps all the commandments, even tithing and fasting, but is less justified before God than a miserable tax collector.
• Hebrews 7.2-6: Paul tells the story of Abraham's encounter with Melchizidek and the tribute, a tithe, that Abraham gave. Paul is citing history and not writing theology.

Jesus himself didn't have anything good to say about tithing because the Pharisees had made a mockery of it. Like so many other things that the very human Pharisees "legalized" to death, Jesus didn't argue the point but instead came at it from another direction. Jesus emphasized generosity at every turn.

• He fed 5,000 men (plus women and children) - now that's generous!
• He brought people back to life and healed people with disablities
• He taught people like they'd never been taught before
• He gave of himself till he was exhausted from the crowds
• He died as the ultimate sacrifice and sign of generosity

In fact, the only instance I can find (based on my memory, mind you) of God being selfish is God's demand that humans not worship anyone else (including money). That's it. All the other words spoken by God relate to his giving nature and generous spirit. God does chastize people for their selfishness and spiritual immaturity but otherwise God is all about giving - from creating Eden (Genesis) to creating heaven (Revelation).

How does this translate to our churches today? Glad you asked!

Teach tithing to children. There are fundamental principles in tithing and of the relationship between what we have (time, talent, and treasure) and how those gifts should be given back to God. By all means, teach tithing to minors. But from middle school age kids up to 120 year olds, tithing takes a back seat to generosity. Big G is now the ruler - nothing trumps generosity. Tithing has the pitfall of becoming a scorecard - generosity has no negative connotations!

Well, how much is generosity? It is giving of all that you have in a way that makes you feel like you are indeed imitating God. Paul commended the Philippians for their eagerness to be generous; he taught the Corinthians the basis of generosity. Even Paul, that legalistic first century Christian, never focused on tithing but always on being generous. Imitate God in giving things away.

Generosity for some is just 1%,  for others it is 50%. For most of us it falls in the 5%-20% of our income. Generosity is not about keeping score of how much you've given away - as if you could ever compete with God, ha! Generosity is about seeing how much you can rely on God by imitating him in giving away anything and every thing you have. Let me challenge you to look at everything you have and ask if you'd be willing to give it away tomorrow if asked for it.

I challenge pastors and educators to start the conversation with tithing but to move quickly to generosity and ask yourself, "Am I being generous? Or stingy?" Stinginess is not a Christian concept - generosity is. And I can assure you that if every Christian lived up to his own definition of "generous" - the world would be utterly amazed. Teach, live, and love generously and generosity - and watch things change!

Lead On!
Steve

Telling Stories

Here are two secrets - people that give money to churches and other non-profit organizations really, really want to know what their money was used for. AND, if you tell them and it is a compelling and life-changing story, they'll give you more money.

Most churches do a poor job of telling stories to their constituents. Churches just presume that people will continue to give "because that's what the Bible teaches." Sorry, that doesn't cut it any more. Our society has trained people, especially the under-40 crowd, to ask questions about "what happened to my money." They want to know - they expect and demand to know. There are two consequences:

• Tell people where their money went
• Once people see the good things that happened as a result of their money, they will tell others about it and, very often, give you more money. Telling stories is a game-changer: people will step up to the plate like they've not done before and they'll tell others the stories they are hearing. Telling stories is huge!
• Don't tell people where their money went
• If you do not prioritize telling people about how their money was used and you just presume that money will continue to come in, then you continue to operate as you are now. You may not see a decline in giving but you will probably not have an increase either.

How do you tell people? That's easy. Every way you possibly can.  Use every medium possible from print to social media to illustrations in sermons to my favorite, completely altering the offering time.

Telling stories during offering time
The offering time has changed in the past couple of decades. It used to be a time for special music to show off some piece the choir or a soloist worked on and wanted to fit in the worship service. Not any more. Offerings need to be interactive and here's how.

• Every Sunday of the year, have a story about how the offerings have been used. You'll need to coordinate the stories - don't just insert stories - make them relevant to the message and/or to something going on in the life of the church at that time.
• If you don't have 52 stories, you've got serious problems and they're not financial - your church is dying because you're not aware of how at least 52 lives have been affected by your church.
• Take 3 or 4 minutes each week during the offering to tell a story in different formats
• Use videos of different things, slide shows, live interviews on stage, narratives, songs by children, conversion and baptism stories, etc. 
• Alter the format each week to keep the story-telling time fresh and interesting
• Give each ministry of the church (missions, education, worship, fellowship, care, and administration) two or three times during the year for them to tell an interesting story about their ministry and how people's contributions made all the difference.
• If you're doing a live interview, rehearse with the people you're interviewing so that you'll know their story and can help them get over their nerves about standing in front of "the whole church."
• When planning a story, think about the end first. What do you want people in the pew to hear and take home? Then backtrack till you come to an appropriate place to start the story. But always, always think about the end of the story first and then decide how to start the story.
• Tell stories about 
• The youth mission trip that you're raising money for, that is going out next week, and that just came back. That's three times to tell the same story with different angles each time.
• The Vacation Bible School that is coming next week and that happened last week. Two times for stories.
• People!!! Every story is about people - every story must be centered around a person or group of people. Stories should have names (first name is enough) of lives that have been changed because of what people gave. I can't emphasize this enough - even if the story is about how members gave money for a building, then talk about who will use that building and why!

Critical Elements
There are two things that need to be in every story-telling time. These two things need to be used every week and they need to be said in different ways so that these words are honest and genuine, not a refrain that everyone tunes out.  Here they are:

• Thank you
• Say thank you every time you can. People like to be thanked, even if they only gave a couple of bucks. If people are shown appreciation and not taken for granted, they're more like to give next time. Say thank you as often as you can and be innovative in the ways that you use those words.
• Generosity
• Use the words generous and/or generosity as often as possible. Generosity has replaced "stewardship." There are no negative connotations to generosity while stewardship can have some minor misunderstandings. Use these words - generous is a more accurate depiction of what God has done for each of us in opening his hand to share with us his wealth of love and in spreading his arms out to die for us and in holding us close to him in times of our distress.

We need to encourage our constituents to be generous, like God, and thank them for their generosity. Tell them stories about how generous God has been with us and how their own generosity has changed the lives of so many people.  So please, TELL STORIES!!


Lead On!
Steve