The Two Major Reasons Why You Must Preach on Giving

32 percent of American church members reported that they had heard a sermon on the relationship between faith and personal finances in that previous year. The author of that study concluded, “clergy often tiptoe around the topic of money as if they were taking a walk through a minefield.”¹

The American Church is facing a giving crisis that existed before the pandemic and if it not addressed will lead to hundreds of churches closing their doors in the next few months. One way to assure your continued existence is to begin thinking and planning now for a series on biblical stewardship and generosity. I want to give you,

The Two Major Reasons Why You Must Preach on Giving

1. It’s biblical! Jesus talked more about money than any other subject. Don’t let a few people talk you out of preaching the whole counsel of God. Jesus talked about it so much because he understood its power upon the lives of people. It truly is the god and idol of our age.

Consider that the New Testament has about…

• 500 verses on faith
• 500 verses on prayer
• Over 1,000 verses on giving
• 19 of Jesus’ 38 parables deal with giving
• 1/10 of the book of Matthew deals with stewardship and giving!

If the Bible talks about it so much why are you not preaching on it?

2.   It brings results. George Barna, in his book How to Increase Giving in Your Church, found that churches in which pastors preach…

• Single messages about giving raise more money than do churches in which no stewardship takes place.
• Two or more nonconsecutive messages do not have any advantage over churches that only preach on stewardship once a year.
• Two or more consecutive messages about stewardship raise more money than do those churches that only hear one message a year.
• Churches in which pastors preach two or more consecutive messages about stewardship matters raise significantly more money than churches that hear two or more nonconsecutive stewardship messages.
• A series on giving is nearly two and a half times more likely to experience an increase in giving than preachers who only talk about stewardship once a year or on two nonconsecutive times in a year.²

The bottom line is that the more you preach on stewardship the more dollars you will raise. Don’t shy away from preaching on stewardship. The challenge is to do so effectively. I have a recommendation for you!

Ten Percent: A Call To Biblical Stewardship by Dr. Ronnie Floyd, contains six sermons and six supporting small group studies and it’s FREE! httpss://www.sbc.net/stewardship/  10 Percent: A Call to Biblical Stewardship focuses on six main principles:

1. God is the owner of everything
2. We own absolutely nothing
3. Honor God with at least the first ten percent
4. Bring the full ten percent to the church
5. Practice over-and-above giving
6. Focus on the Great Commission always

This is a great tool to use to start planning out your next generosity series.

Start planning now for your next series on generosity!

Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach

Check out my book, “The Forgotten Sermon: How to Preach Effectively on Giving.” https://acts17generosity.com/shop/the-forgotten-sermon/

1. Smith, Christian and Michael Emerson. Passing the Plate. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 2008. 83.
2. Barna, George Barna. How to Increase Giving to Your Church. Ventura, CA: Gospel Light, 1997. 92, 93