GENEROSITY – HOW

Giving is a journey.  It’s important to understand that there are different levels of giving and everyone starts somewhere.  Today is an excellent day for evaluating the spectrum of giving and identifying where you find yourself at this time.  There’s not a wrong way to start, but I encourage you to keep evaluating how you can progress through the levels of giving in order to serve the Kingdom.

DETERMINE WHAT STEP YOU’RE ON

The first type of giver is a spontaneous giver.  This giver didn’t wake up this morning with a plan to give but gives out of a reaction to an unforeseen situation.  You find these types of givers both in the church and the secular world, and they are often motivated by emotion.  

Examples of spontaneous giving include disaster relief, special offerings, or other one-time opportunities.  This could even include giving a dollar to a person on a street corner.  Spontaneous giving is an excellent first step on the giving journey because it provokes the giver to recognize the needs outside of their own lives and immediate families.  Because this type of giving is unplanned, it may or may not present an opportunity for financial sacrifice.

The hope is that someone who is awakened by an opportunity to give spontaneously can grow into a regular giver.  Regular giving involves pre-planned recurring gifts to a church or other organization.  This recurring gift could be weekly, monthly, yearly, etc.  It may involve a commitment to a percentage of the person’s income, such as 1-10% of gross income for a tithe.

Sacrificial giving, the final step, is a great place to be.  It has changed my life.  It’s incredible to join God on the giving journey and see how He will work in you.  

Giving sacrificially can be tricky when you achieve a certain level of wealth.  It may take some effort to make your giving sacrificial because you aren’t operating on tight financial margins.  One way that I evaluated this together with my wife Kathy was to create a set budget for our personal needs.  We agreed that we would not expand that personal budget regardless of how much our wealth grew.  In this model, we start with our needs rather than starting with our giving.  The needs are limited, but the giving is not.

Giving sacrificially takes on different meanings for different individuals.  For some, it may mean actually going without wants or needs in order to give funds to a greater need.  For others, the sacrifice is more of a mental reality.  Even when you are not wanting of any material thing, you may still feel a sense of sacrifice because it is “yours” and you have earned it.  Once you give it, you’re never going to get it back.  

THINK AHEAD AND PLAN TO GROW

When you are moving from one level of giving to the next, it is important to give yourself grace in the process.  No one else can determine what is right or wrong for you in this area – this is a conversation between you, your spouse, and God.  Make a plan (such as a personal budget or a regular commitment to a dollar amount), follow through with it for six months, and sit down with your wife and re-evaluate after that time is done. 

This is something Kathy and I did in our early days and it set a great foundation for our future.  Did we sit down after that first six months and find that we had discovered a bunch of profound answers to our questions about the best means and methods for giving?  Not necessarily, but I don’t know that you’ll ever truly make a lot of conclusions about what is right and wrong in this area.  The important thing is that you keep moving down the road.  You have to sort out what’s right for you as a family.

DON’T FEAR A FORMULA

I am a formula guy.  Formulas speak to me.  They an excellent tool to rely on as your income ebbs and flows because they adjust along with your circumstances.  Devoting a percentage of your income to giving is one way to begin, however, it doesn’t take into account a proportional devotion of your income when the income increases.  

As you make more money, and God has blessed you more than you need you will find that you’re no longer giving in a proportion that’s appropriate to your earnings.  This formula can serve as a benchmark that forces you to think through it.  Once you evaluate this, you might be surprised at your perceived versus actual figures. 

God would encourage you to re-evaluate this and adjust your percentage, which is where a formula can come in handy.   If you set your personal budget first and that largely doesn’t change over time, the formula can assist you in increasing your giving accordingly.

We did this a long time ago as sort of a covenant, or promise, I made with God.  I wanted to formally acknowledge that if He were to bless us with more income, our giving percentage would grow.  

TITHES AND OFFERINGS ARE NOT THE SAME

Understand the difference between tithes and offerings.  Tithes represent your “10%”, or whatever percent you’re able to commit to at that particular time.  Offerings are sacrificial – they go beyond the regular gift of a tithe.  In my view, the purpose of a tithe is to increase God’s Kingdom, which may or may not be defined as giving to your church.  Give generously where you feel led to give.

PAY CAESAR HIS DUE BUT ENCOURAGE HIM TO FUND MINISTRY

It’s scriptural.  You owe taxes, and you must pay them.  Any time I can get Caesar to fund a ministry, I’m jumping at the chance.  When my whole dollar goes to ministry, versus paying 50% in taxes, I’m getting every dollar I can get from Caesar.  Following this plan allows me to be a better steward by giving in the year the money was earned.

STEWARDSHIP IS THE KEY

There’s no wisdom in giving blindly – stewardship is the key.  Be educated and deliberate as you choose where and how to expand your giving.  I have prepared a list of 9 Rules of Thumb for Donors for you to consider as you determine your path forward.  

DON’T FORGET YOUR FAMILY

Taking care of our biological families is another area of responsibility that the Bible calls us to.  These types of gifts would most likely be outside any sort of regular giving commitment (and not considered a tithe), however, they are still important.  This will be another area you will have to evaluate when you make a financial plan and a plan for growth.  Do you have regular family needs?

Making an estate plan for your children is something people have different philosophies on, but we have chosen a route that prioritizes our Kingdom giving over trying to set up our children with a lot of money.  This was not an easy decision, and we weren’t sure how they would respond when they got old enough to understand that we were blessing ministries around the world with what God has given us.  We found, however, that they were actually very supportive of our decision.  They’ve learned a lot about financial responsibility by not having everything handed to them, and they seem to be grateful for that.

We’ve somewhat involved our kids in our giving from day one.  However, after I went through my cancer experience, God made it clear to us that it was time to fully engage our adult children in every decision and gift.  We wanted them to know the details of every gift.

GET WISDOM ON YOUR SIDE

This journey is not easy.  If you give Satan an ear, he has a lot to tell you.  You have to stay the course.  Surround yourself with some wise Christian counselors and friends that can hold you accountable to the giving commitments you’ve made.  It’s important to have someone that you can be vulnerable to when you start to doubt your decision-making or negotiate compromises about your sacrifices.  You are always going to need support.  Satan is pulling at you every single day, from every angle, trying to get you to go in the opposite direction than the one you’ve committed to.  It can be easy to entertain these thoughts and make financial decisions that are based in fear rather than faith.

In all things, of course, be cautious of pride.  It is easy to look at a large dollar amount and feel great about it.  Remember: there’s no reward for you in that.  I’m just like anyone else and I’ve learned a lot of these things the hard way.  I’ve discovered that the reward comes when you can truly identify what you’ve traded in order to give.  The key principle remains: we are Blessed to be a Blessing.

Conclusion

Over the years, Kathy and I have received many requests from friends and mentees to share information about the ministries Servant’s Heart foundation supports.  It has been important to us to choose organizations that we see being efficient and effective stewards of the resources they have been entrusted with.  It has been our honor to work closely with each ministry’s leadership and witness firsthand the great Kingdom impact they are having.  We are glad to share these organizations with you on the Servant’s Heart blog, found at https://www.servantsheartblog.org/

This post is the second in a three-part series on generosity.  In the final post I share my thoughts on the “when” of giving and share some additional resources to support your journey.

If you’re new to the blog, we heartily welcome you.  My name is Paul Neff, and I have devoted the latter part of my life to mentoring younger men who desire to live further into God’s purpose for their lives.  This blog is an extension of my heart for helping others grow.  God has richly blessed me, and my hope for my life is that I could make good on the investment He has given me by offering something to the next generation of leaders.  

ACTION STEPS:

• This week, take a hard look at your finances and determine where you’re at on the giving spectrum.  Are you giving at a level you desire?  Have you determined a set budget for your basic needs?

• Have a conversation with your spouse about how you see your finances changing in the next six months.  Are you ready to make some changes?  Are you unified in your marriage on this front?

• Write out your plan, bathe it in prayer, and gather the courage to take the plunge.