The Grumpy 10%

Churches that teach on giving end up with more money in their offering plates, according to a “Money Management” survey sponsored by Kingdom Bank. The more churches teach about giving, the more people give–an extra 26%, compared to members in churches that don’t teach about giving. (Religious Market Update)
I thought about that item when I received this note from a friend who pastors in a distant state:

We had a financial shortfall approaching the close of the year. We challenged the body to make up our remaining deficit so that we could enter 2006 on a strong footing and increase our mission outreach. Three weeks ago our financial officer informed me that during 2005, 90% of our congregation increased their giving by an average of 20% each! In my opinion, what happened in 2005 was that about 10% of the congregation was disgruntled (the old guard, not adjusting well to change). They voted with their pocketbooks and created a budget short-fall that prompted the need for the rest of the family to increase their giving. As a result of their faithful increase, a new spirit of joy and excitement came over us, as we witnessed God’s answer to our prayer.
Our needs were abundantly supplied and our missionaries were cared for. We were able to purchase $15,000 in new equipment (instead of leasing), and we put aside $6,000 for an evangelistic DVD project. The excitement over these answers was tremendous. We are looking at giving $30,000 of our cherished building fund to build a Bible College in Ghana. Even more important, in the past 4 months, 35 new families have started to attend regularly. For a church of 400, this is extraordinary. People who have been on our prayer list for years have come to Christ and we have a harvest of 10 souls in the past 2 months. We can hardly keep up with the discipleship needs of new believers and Christians coming who have never been discipled.

When I shared all of this with the congregation during my annual January teaching on financial stewardship, I thanked the 10% who created a financial need, thus prompting the 90% to give and to receive God’s blessings. More blessing continues to fall on us from the Father. We are so very thankful.

I wrote the pastor and congratulated him on the increased giving and the blessings that are flowing from it. Without that grumpy 10%, the 90% would not have experienced an outpouring of God’s blessings. Makes me smile just thinking about it.