Gospel Giving
A Guide to Financial Giving at Gracefields Church
Financial giving is not always clearly taught about or explained in churches. You may also know examples of churches and church leaders being deceitful and corrupt in how they raise money.
We hope this booklet helps to clarify how we think about giving at Gracefields and helps you take some godly, prayerful next steps.
If you ever have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any of the church pastors, or ask your Fellowship Group leader to connect you to the right person to speak to.
Why should we give
Before anything else, our attitude to money and possessions is a discipleship issue – it’s an area of our lives that needs to come under the Lordship of Jesus who gave himself to save us.
We therefore shouldn’t be surprised to find, in His Word, a range of motivations to be generous with our possessions and, specifically, to support his church in the world.
Here’s a brief overview of some of them…
God’s generosity
God has been supremely generous to us in giving his one and only Son, to die for us. This amazing, eternal gift should be a primary motivation for our giving. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor 8:9)
God’s eternal priorities
Most people find it hard to invest their money in something other than themselves and their immediate families. But, as Christians, we realise that this life is short and the one to come is eternal. Our use of finances reflects our priorities. If we value the eternal priorities of God, this will be seen in our giving. This world is not our home, so let’s take these words of Jesus seriously: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19–20)
God’s mission
We live in the age of the Great Commission of Jesus: “to make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-20). God is accomplishing this through his church, by his Spirit today.
By financially supporting gospel work, we can start new ministries and free up the necessary people to lead and teach, to enable us to work together to grow God’s church. It’s easy to forget that it takes finances to make disciples.
Few people get excited about covering property costs, electricity, bills, staff salaries or office supplies. In many ways, these feel uninspiring and disconnected from the work of ministry. But we must not forget that they are a means to an end, and that the end is the urgent work of making and maturing disciples!
God’s commands
We give because we want our lives to align with the commands of the God who has saved us. The love of money has been a stumbling block for many and so Jesus warned that it’s impossible to serve both God and material wealth (Matthew 6:24). By obeying God’s commands to be generous with our resources (in the midst of a very materialistic culture) we show the transformation He has brought in our lives.
God’s glory
Everything we do, is to be done for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). We are called to give our whole selves as a living sacrifice to God (Rom 12:1). That’s how God is glorified! That’s what God is passionate about! His people – the church – growing, knowing, trusting, loving and generously living all for Jesus! More specifically, the Apostle Paul refers to the financial gifts of the Philippians as ‘a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God’ (Philippians 4:18). In other words, the act of giving our money away is a spiritual act by which we worship and glorify God.
Some biblical principles to help shape your giving
God wants our giving to stem from the kind of motivations outlined above. He wants our giving to be cheerful and sacrificial – flowing from thankfulness, faith, love for Him and a love for people.
Having said that, here are some important principles, from God’s Word, that can help us arrive at a wise, godly decision of how much to give…
Just always be wary of wealth’s deceitfulness…
God’s word constantly reminds us of this. As mentioned above, this is a discipleship issue. We can therefore be sure that Satan will be doing allhe can to deceive us in this area.
In our very materialistic society, those who are wealthy can be deceived to put their hope in their money and to look down on those who have less (1 Tim 6:17). Those who want to get rich can be deceived into doing stupid things to earn more (1 Tim 6:9-10). All of us will face the temptation to envy and covet what others have (Colossians 3:5).
As you plan your giving, know that you are engaging in spiritual warfare!
Don’t be a burden (if you can help it)
Money is one of the ways God expects us to fulfil certain obligations. We should pay our taxes, we shouldn’t steal, and we shouldn’t avoid working if we can earn a wage. There’s a clear principle in the Bible that we should try not to be a burden on others and rather earn our own living (2 Thess 3:7-10).
Sadly, in a sinful, broken world some people will find themselves in situations where they just need help from others. Also, there’s a stage of life when it might be possible to retire from earning wages. However, for those who are fit to work, as much as you’re able, try to bring money to the table yourself and try to plan wisely for the future, when you might be unable to earn.
Fulfil your responsibilities
One obligation we have is to make sure we don’t neglect our immediate families.
God calls us to appropriately provide for those we are responsible for: children, spouses, elderly parents (1 Tim 5:8). This doesn’t mean we have to give them everything they ask for (that would facilitate greediness), but it does mean we should use our money to make sure they have what they need.
Support your Church & Gospel Growth
Integral to our growth at Gracefields, over the years, has been the generous financial support of the church family. It’s been critical that so many have caught the vision to see those who are still lost in darkness be rescued and then established in the faith.
The Bible says we have an obligation to provide financially for those who lead God’s precious church (Gal 6:6, 1 Tim 5:17-18). As members of a church family, we’re all meant to make sure those who have been charged with the responsibility to lead, pastor and teach are being adequately provided for.
At Gracefields, the Church Council have set up salaries for our pastoral staff that attempt to be fair and reasonable for their roles and responsibilities. And our role as a church family is to ensure there is enough money to pay our pastoral staff.
Support Gospel Growth, more broadly
On top of these good obligations, God loves it when we help share the burden other Christians face (Gal 6:10). And he loves it when we share the costs involved in proclaiming the gospel, more broadly. This could be expressed in thousands of different ways. It may be helpful to know that, as you give to Gracefields, you are also supporting God’s mission in other contexts – through the money we pass on to our church plants, our missions partners and our denomination (who use much of the money to support poorer churches across the country). In fact, in recent years, Gracefields has given more than 25% of its income to these initiatives.
Working out how much to give
The New Testament never names a specific amount that we should give. Rather, it simply tells us to be generous in proportion to our income (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). This means that a widow’s coin can be more generous than a rich person’s gift, even if the widow’s coin is a smaller amount (Luke 21:1-4).Christians are meant to give a percentage of their income. That way, everyone can be generous out of what they have. Once you choose a percentage of your income, plan to share that for the sake of the gospel.
In the Old Testament, God’s people were encouraged to give a tithe (10%) of their income back to him. But the tithe isn’t a law that applies to us, under grace. As those who have been enriched in every way by the generosity of Jesus, the New Testament helps Christians to see the tithe as a guide from which we can launch into sacrificial generosity. In other words, if you want to know what generosity looks like, why not try starting with a tithe and work from there?
Some people will be able to give a larger percentage than others. A rich person giving 1% might result in a larger amount than a poorer person giving 10%, but the 10% may well be a sign of real Christian maturity – the result of God working in someone to sacrificially share with others. In fact, for some people, sharing their money is a primary way God has gifted them to serve the church (Rom 12:8).
So, everyone in God’s family is able to give something. And it doesn’t matter how much in total, because God knows our hearts and our bank accounts. He calls us to share a proportion of what we have; giving generously, cheerfully, sacrificially and with maturity.
God has promised to build his church, no matter what. Jesus rules and, one day, he will gather his people to be with him forever. That final victory is secure. It’s certainly not dependant on whether or not we contribute some of our money. Ultimately, God already owns everything anyway (Deuteronomy 10:14). But how bizarre would it be if the lives of his followers today were not in any way affected by the knowledge of that victory? Our view of money and material things should be utterly transformed by the knowledge that God’s King wins and we get to share in that victory forever.
So those are the basics. We have a generous and loving God who has commanded us to play a role in his eternal priorities and as we do that, it resounds to his glory. With that in mind, we look to be generous with our money, in proportion to what we have and remembering the words Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)
How does giving work at Gracefields?
We encourage everyone who considers Gracefields their spiritual home, to think carefully and prayerfully about what they are able to give. This should be shaped by the biblical principles outlined above. In the past we’ve also asked everyone to identify an amount for the coming year as a “pledge”. However, if someone’s circumstances change in the course of a year and they are unable to give that amount, the pledging terminology can start to feel quite burdensome and perhaps even guilt-inducing.So we’ve made a change…
Really what the church leadership needs is a rough idea of what income will look like over the coming year, so that we can budget accordingly across the various ministries. These ministries try to estimate what expenses will be. It would therefore be really helpful if everyone can also estimate what they might be able to give.
From now on, we’ll express this as a “best guess”, rather than a “pledge”. Taking the time to submit a “best guess” creates the space to pause, plan and prayerfully consider an important aspect of your Christian life and then inform the church as to what you think you will be able to give.
This might be the first time you’ve thought wholistically about giving, or this might be something you’ve done many times before. Either way, it’s an opportunity to reflect on God’s generosity, while also helping our church plan wisely and make the biggest impact we can for the gospel.
Your best guess is between you and God (you don’t have to attach your name to it), and yet when everyone participates, we celebrate together the joy of partnering in God’s work.
How is the money spent?
The reality is that, most years, about 90% of expenses are pretty fixed. That means we have a certain number of staff who serve wholeheartedly and we pay every month, we have commitments to keep on supporting our church plants, our missions partners and our denomination. We have rates, utilities and office costs that are pretty well set every month.
On top of this, we have all the various programs that just cost money to run: The Life Series, Friday Youth & Kids, three Sunday services with associated Kids & Youth, Holiday Clubs, Exploring Gracefields and Joining In, our training materials for Fellowship Groups, various community events through the year…and more!
Many of these ministries are aimed at newcomers or unbelievers who we want to share Jesus with, so we don’t want to charge them if we can help it!
This chart gives a rough breakdown of different expense categories at Gracefields.
Next steps
1 Simply get out a calculator, work out all your income streams (weekly/monthly pay package, bonuses, windfalls and other sources of income) and then figure out the percentage you can give, taking into account the principles outlined above.
(We’ve included a very simple spreadsheet tool below that might help with your budgeting.)
2 Once you’ve worked out what you want to give, you could complete the digital “Your Best Guess” card:
If you have any questions about any of the above please don’t hesitate to contact the church office:
office@gracefieldschurch.org.za or 021-7856682