Generosity is an important act of worship that helps Christ followers live obediently and grow in their faith. As people give generously through the local church, greater impact can be made to further ministry and outreach. If you want to encourage and inspire your congregation to give, you must regularly emphasize this significant act of worship within and through your church.
Often, when churches communicate about generosity, they lean toward a strategy that involves showing the congregation the facts and figures and letting them know what’s needed. Many times, these updates are given on a monthly or quarterly basis. And while they may involve stories of the work that’s being done, they often feel like a formality—like a presentation given in a conference room or a report for a class project.
What would happen if instead of simply showing your congregation what you need, you started by emphasizing why you needed it? What if your leaders integrated a spirit of generosity into the communicated mission and vision of your church? What would happen if you led communications about generosity with compelling stories, shining a light on how people are impacted by the ministries your church funds?
Communicating about, teaching, and inspiring generosity can become a key part of your church’s overall tiered communications strategy.
Tiered communications is a structure that creates more space, time, and attention for the messages that are the most strategically aligned with the vision and priorities of your church. On a weekly basis, your communications leader/team can establish three “tiers” of communication:
- Tier 1 = Your most important messages that are for the whole congregation.
- Tier 2 = Messages of secondary importance, typically tied to your key ministry areas.
- Tier 3 = Targeted messages, for your smaller, specific audiences.
Integrating generosity into your tiered communications strategy is often a combination of thinking about your audience and about the mission of your church. If generosity is a Tier 1 priority/value at your church, then consider an ongoing communications effort that involves sharing inspiring stories of your ministries and members of your congregation living generously. Highlight how an individual or family was challenged, grew spiritually, and/or was blessed as a result of their giving.
If it’s a Tier 2 priority, think about how you can use targeted tools to show the impact generosity has had on certain areas of your church and invite people to get involved.
And if you find it’s in your Tier 3 communications, find ways to inspire your smaller, specific audiences to make deeper connections with the ministries they can support.
As you think about how to incorporate your message of generosity into certain, or all, areas of your tiered communications strategy, try following these 7 steps:
7 Steps to Communicate Generosity
- Help people celebrate how God is at work by sharing about the opportunity, progress, and impact of gifts instead of simply talking about financial needs
- Inspire and encourage your church to give and support the vision of God at work
- Start by telling compelling stories on a regular basis
- Share frequently through video, during the sermon, as the offering is taken, images via social media, or as a focus in your small groups
- Create the connection that life change is happening because of the generous people who serve and give at your church
- Give a few key facts and figures after sharing the story
- Make it easy for people to be generous by providing them multiple options for giving. This should include online and texting options.
Finally, keep in mind that not all stories of generosity involve stories about money. You can also highlight that it takes every person serving and using their talents, along with financial giving, to grow in their faith.
Consistently using your communications to inspire and encourage your congregation to give generously as an act of worship is a great opportunity! What a blessing when your church can see more people impacted for Christ and each person growing spiritually as a result.
Want to learn more about how to implement the three tiered system at your church? Download our Tiered Communications Planning Worksheet!
