Stewardship in our Parishes

You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” — John Bunyan (1628-88), English Puritan writer and preacher

Our Relationships - Money

All
Regularly Attending

18-20%, one in five, give literally nothing to the parish they attend. 60% of givers give less than 2% of their income; 13.6% give more than 10% of their income. 4%, give literally nothing to the parish they attend. 40% of givers give less than 2% of their income; 22% give more than 10% of their income.

What does the above statistics tell us? You have heard the old saying that 20% of the members of the church community do 80% of the work. The same applies to Stewardship. 20% of the pledging units supply 80% of the parishes operating income. As a former parish treasurer, our ten top giving units provided over 50% of our total operating income.

So why aren't people giving more? The top income providers still give about 2%-4% of their income even though their income has multiplied many times since they joined the parish. So why the amount of their giving in dollars increases. the percent of the income stays the same. The answer may be that as we earn more money we acquire more expense. The $60,000 home 20 years ago is now a $200,000 home. 20 years ago you may have done your shopping at Wal Mart or other bargain store, and now you shop at Macy's. The cost of the goods you purchase have increased to similar percentages 20 years ago, but the expense in $ is quite a bit more. The more we earn, the more we feel entitled to spend to "make a better life for us". After all is that not the American way and work ethic, The more we earn, the more we get to keep and spend on ourselves and are family.

Finally, in working with your parish community, you may not be able to do much with the high income families or the low income families, but the 80+% in the middle , whose income is increasing, but may still giving at the 2% as they did when they joined.

The key to helping you parish increase its giving is three fold; help develop their understanding of stewardship from the perspective of the Bible and their individual spiritual growth, their relationship with the parish's community by helping them develop their own ownership in your community; finally, dealing with individual's relationship with money, helping them find a balance between giving to God, supporting their family, and helping them in making choices about "needs" and wants". In your parish, you need to provide information so that each individual or family can keep each one of these three issues in perspective.

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