I began this series in early October.  I know that October and November are typical months where churches will talk about stewardship, tithing, giving, and generosity.  I want to provide information and encouragement to pastors and church leaders during this time as well as all year long.  Everyone has a list of the 3 things or 10 things or the like, but I have found that healthy/generous churches have senior pastors who do 5 things well.  They typically have their own flavor of each and put their personal touches on them, but they do these five things at their core.

I encourage you to scroll down to read 1 (Give), 2 (Teach), and 3 (Model) if you would like to catch up.

Senior Pastors must nurture generosity if a church is going to be generous.  Leaders must recognize and acknowledge generosity in their people.  Pastors can give, teach, and model generosity on a regular basis but without saying thank you to the people for being generous, resentment could creep in.  Without celebrating generosity, malaise could become a general mood among the people.

So, how do we keep resentment and malaise out of the hearts and minds of the people when it comes to the topic of generosity? It is actually quite simple; talk about it.  Say thank you when your people are generous and celebrate their generosity in public (worship).

Everyone:

• loves encouragement
• loves to be thanked (in public and in writing)
• loves “atta boys” or “atta girls”
• loves to be acknowledged
• loves a celebration
• loves to see a positive ROI from their giving
• loves a party
• loves gifts
• loves to see lives being changed for the better
• loves to see Jesus alive in people