Willow Creek raises $2 million in 2 days for African children

Daily Herald – Despite the uncertain economy, an annual Willow Creek Community Church fundraising campaign benefiting starving African children managed to bring in $1.3 million more this year than in 2008. Officials from the South Barrington church said they’ve raised $2 million for the Feed My Starving Children, a Minnesota-based charity which provides meals and sends them to countries including Sudan and Zimbabwe. Last year the same campaign raised around $700,000.  Patrick’s 2 cents – what recession?  $1.3 million more over two days.  I’ve heard over and over again similar stories of churches focusing externally and raising more money.

http://tinyurl.com/willowcreek2mill

Filed under: Church

Church gives homeless couple dream wedding

Touching story of generosity from a small church in D.C.   Sometimes small acts of kindess to those poorest in society speak loudest.   The church is also helping the couple get on their feet once they get back from their two day honeymoon.
http://tinyurl.com/homelesswed

Filed under: Church , creative

America’s poor are its most generous givers

America’s poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What’s more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does. “The lowest-income fifth (of the population) always give at more than their capacity,” said Virginia Hodgkinson, former vice president for research at Independent Sector, a Washington-based association of major nonprofit agencies. “The next two-fifths give at capacity, and those above that are capable of giving two or three times more than they give.” Patrick’s 2 cents – Great stories in this article about the poor giving.  Blows me away.

http://tinyurl.com/poor-giving

Filed under: Giver , testimony

John Calvin – The Real Prosperity Gospel

I thought this quote by John Calvin from a CT article was excellent and relevant to our day.

“Nothing will more effectively preserve us in a straight and undeviating course in this economy than a firm persuasion that all events are in the hand of God, and that he is as merciful as he is mighty. This should lead us to gratitude in prosperity, patience in adversity, and a wonderful security respecting the future. Prone to blame God in adversity and praise ourselves in prosperity, we murmur against God if he does not grant us quiet nests. We imagine that adversity can only come from Satan—as if he were a second god—and thereby fail to recognize that nothing that happens, even when intended by Satan for evil, isn’t turned by God to the wider purpose of our salvation. Nothing can thwart God’s gracious purposes toward us in Christ. Paul does not say that all things are good, but he does say that God works all things together for good for his people (Rom. 8:28).”

For the entire article, click on this link -  http://tinyurl.com/calvinprosperity

Filed under: Church , sermons

In honor of tax day – the Obama’s 2008 tax return

The Huffington Post - The White House released the filings for both the President and the First Lady on Wednesday. Combined, the family brought in an adjusted gross income of $2,656,902, mostly from the sale of the President’s books. The Obamas paid $855,323 in federal income tax. And they donated $172,050 – or about 6.5% of their adjusted gross income – to 37 different charities.  Follow the link to see the list of charities the Obamas gave to during 2008.

http://tinyurl.com/obamagiving

Filed under: Giver , testimony

One pastor’s exhortation to his people – Tip Well, Don’t Be Cheap

Great 2 minute by Mark Driscoll on generous tipping by his church members.  My wife taught me how to tip generously and I think it has been one of the greatest examples  for my kids.  I love to give $50 or $100 every so often on a $30 meal…..it feels so good!

Filed under: Church , testimony, video

Church raises $19 million in 24 hours

New Creation Church in Singapore raised a whopping $19 million for the construction of its  new church in less than 24 hours.  In a show of support, a record number of 22,000 people turned up for services at the Rock Auditorium at Suntec City Mall three weeks ago.  Patrick’s 2 cents – If this is true, sort of makes a 3 year capital campaign seem weak.  The article makes it sound like almost all of the 22,000 people in attendance gave which would mean the average gift was around $850.  I know of one church, Antioch Community Church, in Waco who follows the same model.  They avoid debt and tell everybody to give as much as they can and use cash to buy and build new facilities.  Thanks to my friend Ben Stroup at Do More Ministry for the heads up on this.

http://tinyurl.com/19in24

Filed under: Church , testimony

Andy Stanley sermon on money and your heart

Do you want to know where Andy’s heart is?  Don’t look at how many passages he’s underlined in the Bible or how he leads a successful church.  Rather look at Andy’s checkbook, his Visa statement or Quicken.   That’s how God measures it according to Matthew 6: 21.  This is the first talk from Balanced, a recent 6 week series at Northpoint.

Filed under: Church , sermons, video

A historical look at church giving in the US

From Church Marketing Sucks:

“Christian History has an interesting little article exploring the recent history of the church offering in church services. The article covers government-supported churches (that’s right, here in the U.S. of A. until 1833) and explains how the weekly passing of the collection plate during worship services didn’t become common practice until 1900.  It’s a little bewildering to me that a staple of the modern church service is such a recent addition. But it’s also freeing, considering how that staple so often trips people up and prompts finger-wagging over churches only wanting your money.”  Patrick’s 2 cents – fascinating article that makes me consider the cultural context of church offerings and the motivations for taking them.

http://tinyurl.com/cmsgiving

Filed under: Church , statistics

Trying to give $1 million away – a story of one Executive Pastor’s giving

From the blog of Tim Stevens, Executive Pastor of Granger Community Church.

When Faith and I first were married, we spent a lot of time talking about goals for our life together. One of our seemingly outlandish goals was to give $1 million to the church. “Wouldn’t that be cool?” we said. Now…get the picture: Together we were making $17,000 a year. We had one car that had been given to us. We had purchased a bed (pretty important for a new married couple), and had been given a couch and couple of chairs. That’s all we owned. We lived in a small apartment and paid $250 a month for rent. Oh, and we had $20,000 in college debt.

Granger is the same church that gave away over 7 semis during a recent food drop.  I think Andy Stanley was right – the culture of giving in your church will reflect the personal giving of those who lead it.

http://tinyurl.com/give1mill

Filed under: Church