Generosity is...
...about more than just what you want to give.
It’s almost stewardship season for those who celebrate! Many pastors and lay leaders are drafting letters and pledge cards, figuring out how to invite people to offer their time and talents as well as their treasure, lining up church members to share during worship about why they give to the church, and selecting a Sunday for a consecration service. I pray blessings upon you as you do this important work.
I also want to note that this is a good time to define generosity. In cultures and communities that prize individuality, generosity is often thought of primarily in terms of “what I want to give.” The desire to share is a good one! It’s only half of the equation, though. True generosity is giving…in ways that meet the needs or wants of someone else.
Let’s consider some popular mission efforts. At the holidays some churches send trinkets halfway around the world to children living in poverty. That sounds great, right? People enjoy shopping for these items, earnestly hoping to put smiles on the faces of the recipients. On the other end, though, the children opening these gifts often don’t know what they are. The toys get set quickly aside while more basic needs (and bigger ones, like systemic change) stay unmet.
When disasters strike, such as tornadoes that decimate whole communities, often truly tender-hearted individuals rush in with chainsaws to cut down felled trees (even before insurance companies have been able to assess the damage so that those affected can file claims). They donate clothes that sit in warehouses because other survival needs are more pressing, like sheltering newly unhoused people and getting drinkable water to those whose residences sustained extensive damage.
This even happens closer to home when congregations have parsonages, manses, or vicarages for their clergy. These can be the places where church members’ cast-offs go to die. “We don’t want this couch anymore, so we’ll give it to Pastor.” The reason said couch is no longer wanted, though, is because it’s broken and stained. Having lived in four parsonages myself, I can assure you that Pastor does not need or want to sink all the way down into a couch because its springs are busted.
But how does all of this relate to stewardship? Sometimes we give, even sacrificially, to our churches. But are we being generous? I’d submit that if we’re donating money so that we can have our say about the church’s direction, then no. It’s also a no if our giving has strings, which can happen in establishing a designated fund that can only be touched for specific purposes.
Instead, the first step in true generosity is listening to others. Hopefully the people putting together the church budget have already done their work around this: “How is God calling us to show up for others? Who does our community need us to be? What does that mean for how we create the mission statement that is our budget?” (Yes, your budget reflects your actual mission, not the tagline a committee spent months developing.) These questions cannot be answered without talking to God and talking to the people who live around us.
With this holy work done, a congregation can trust the asks of a pledge drive, then respond generously by giving time, talents, and treasures according to those requests.
This is how we make the world better, by using curiosity and empathy to seek understanding and by responding according to what we learn. In doing so we break down the barriers between us, realize that there’s plenty when we’re all clear on what we have to share (all of us - because we’re never only a giver or a recipient) and what we need (because it is human to have needs), and experience the joy of both helping someone else and feeling seen and valued when we get what we require.
Invite true generosity from your people this season and beyond and watch what happens. Spoiler alert: it will be the Church being Church.