Financial Giving In The Sojourn Community, 2009 And Beyond

By God’s grace, despite the struggling economy, our giving has been steady and we are on pace to finish 2009 on budget! Not only that, we have been able to increase the budgeted expenses three times throughout 2009. However, rather than coast into 2010 we desire to be a church marked by sacrificial and consistent giving.

Though this has been a remarkable year of growth (attendance increase of 30% and giving of 25%), it has not been an exceptionally generous year (in 2009 the percentage of members that gave $0 all year increased by 6.9%, for a total of 18.9%). In other words, nearly one out of five members gave nothing, all year long.

The increase in attendance is what led us to the increased giving numbers – bottom line, more people has resulted in more tithe instead of our people (called by God and committed to the gospel mission of this church) truly growing in their generosity as a group.

“Be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God” (2 Corinthians 9:11).

What we have as a church, we count as pure grace from the Lord.  We recognize that as the church, we must consistently remind one another of the truth that everything we have is a gift from the Lord. Scripture says that we “know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 8:9) and this refers not only to an informed mind but an inflamed heart. It is an experiential understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

“…though [Jesus] was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Jesus’ death on the cross represents the most generous gift ever given—when the King of Glory gave up everything in order to reconcile us to God. When we are generous with others, we are reminding one another of the great generosity of our good God.

With that we see that there are three levels of giving:  we can give

1. Less than our ability
2. According to our ability
3. Or beyond our ability.

For the most part, at least here in North America, Christians give less than their ability. Some give according to their ability and very few give beyond their ability. For most of us, giving according to our means would stretch us.  We think that giving beyond our means would break us – but in the end it won’t, because God is faithful

Sojourn’s End of Year Goals:

• make budget for the rest of 2009

• exceed 2008 year-end gifts of $150,000 to establish a firm financial foundation leading into 2010

• 25% of all revenue from December goes to missions

2010 Challenge:

• Increase average giving from $775 per adult to $1620 per adult (match National average given to charities)

• Increase average giving for members to $2200 (From $1920 per family in 2009)

• End 2010 in the black

• Every member that has given nothing is seeking help in financial coaching and is growing in generosity.