Let’s face it. As a pastor, there is very little we can do to control income in our churches. Even pastors and churches that make giving and generosity a part of their church still struggle with giving.
Truth is, its not you.
Giving is such a step of spiritual development and most churches do a poor job of addressing it. We’re already against a misperception from churches that mis-use funds as well as other excuses people can find for their lack of faithfulness.
As pastor, one key to understand is the 5 types of givers in your church. Pretty much everyone will fall into one of these categories.
- Tippers
- Givers
- Donors
- Tithers
- Generosity
I’ve written already an article on the 5 stages of generosity in your church but let’s give a brief recap here.
Tippers
These are the folks that reach in their wallet and pull out that $5 dollar bill they have and throw it in the plate. The see the offering time as a negative and are just going through a motion because they feel they have to. These are generally the people that have a negative perception of church giving or they equate the church with the local non-profit standing at the 4-way stop with a bucket asking for change.
Givers
Givers are a step up from tippers. The good thing is that they generally don’t have a negative perception of giving, however, they haven’t quite reached the stage where they see giving as a spiritual discipline. For them, there’s still a level of skepticism, but they do see some value in giving.
Donors
These people are giving because they know it’s the right thing to do. They haven’t quite reached the stage of seeing giving as a spiritual discipline but do see that giving to a cause is valuable. These people will generally give in larger amounts, but not quite on a consistent basis. Their amount is still arbitrary and they still have not put together a full tithing discipline.
Tithers
Now we’re getting into the faithful givers in your church. As spiritual maturity increases, these people are realizing the act of worship that comes with tithing. Some in this area will still be giving out of legalism, but for the most part many here will be on that path to spiritual maturity.
Generosity
The top tier group are those that give above and beyond.
These people will be your most committed individuals. While there will be a few that still give out of pressure or obligation for the wrong reason, for the most part this group will represent your most faithful stakeholders in your ministry.
While this post is brief, check out a much longer description we wrote about 5 stages of giving in your church.
What are you doing to encourage giving in your church?