Offering

Most tithing Protestants still prefer a physical collection plate to a digital one. A Lifeway Research survey of 1,002 American Protestants found that since the pandemic, more people are giving online—but still not most. Today, only 7 percent of those who tithe use a church smartphone app. Only 8 percent have set up automated bank payments.

Preferred Mode of Tithing:

62% Only cash or check

36% At least one form of electronic giving

02% Don’t know

Kindness can be addictive and one small gesture can start a chain reaction of kindness according to readers of The Wall Street Journal who have written to the newspaper to tell their story.

Theresa Gale was locking up her church recently after a long day of volunteering when a young woman approached her, asking for water and bus fare. It was late and Gale was alone. But she gave the woman a bottle of water and $15 and offered her a ride to the bus stop.

In the car, the woman asked about the church, and Gale explained that the members believe that they have a duty to help those in need. “Well, you are God to me today,” Gale says the woman responded. “I was touched,” says Gaile said. “It was as if I, too, had received a blessing.”

Possible Preaching Angl e:

“When we act kindly, the systems in our brain associated with reward light up, the same ones active when we eat chocolate. They make us want to do that same awesome thing again.” -Jamil Zaki, associate professor of psychology at Stanford University

When people at Onecho Bible Church talk about “the mission field,” they mean the many places around the world where Christians are sharing the love of Jesus. But sometimes, they’re also talking about a literal field in Eastern Washington, where the congregation grows crops to support the people proclaiming the gospel around the world.

The 74-member church, smack-dab in the middle of a vast expanse of wheat fields, has donated $1.4 million to missions since 1965. They’ve funded wells, campgrounds, and Christian colleges. This year, they want to provide food and shelter to asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. Brian Largent, Onecho’s volunteer farm manager said, “Being as isolated as we are, it’s our missionaries and this mission field that keeps us very focused worldwide. This church is a very mission-oriented church—always has been.”

The church started with Mennonite migrants in the 1890s and Methodist farmers 20 years before that. But the unique fundraising program started in the 1960s. One of the church elders passed away at age 65 and bequeathed 180 acres to the church. He supported missionary work his whole life and considered that his legacy. He asked Onecho to use his land to continue the work of spreading the gospel.

The church decided it wouldn’t sell the field but would farm it with volunteers. The proceeds from the harvest would fund various missions. The first year, the harvest yielded $5,500. Revenue fluctuates, based on the success of the harvest. In 2021, the field earned $39,000. Last year, it was $178,000. “We just put the seed in the ground,” Largent said. “Then . . . it’s all up to the weather and what God’s going to do to produce the money.”

When James Free looked inside the donation bin, he saw something that he normally sees: a pair of shoes. Free was volunteering with Portland Rescue Mission, the organization that helped him to stabilize and get back on his feet after a season of addiction and houseless living. In his role helping to sort donated goods, he’d seen many pairs of shoes come through the bin. But these shoes looked different. They looked special.

It turns out, they were. They were a pair of limited-edition gold-colored Air Jordan IIIs, which were specially designed at the request of film director Spike Lee to celebrate his first televised Oscar win at the Academy Awards in 2019. Somehow, someone at Nike’s global headquarters in nearby Beaverton, got a pair of these rare shoes, and instead of keeping them or selling them, donated them to Portland Rescue Mission.

After Free saw the shoes, he alerted director of staff ministries Erin Holcomwb, who reached out to some local sneakerhead experts who could help authenticate their value. Eventually Holcomb reached out to Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, who donated an original box and several other design artifacts to complete and legitimize the shoes as a collector’s item. In their final more glorified form, Holcomb personally escorted the shoes to New York, where they could be authenticated and auctioned off by the luxury auction firm Sotheby’s.

Holcomb said, “In my seventeen years of working at the mission, this is the first time we’ve ever decided to resell a donation.” She says those Air Jordans are a great metaphor for the work they do at the mission: helping people rediscover themselves as incalculable treasures of humanity, despite having been discarded or overlooked by others.

The shoes eventually sold for more than $50,000, which was donated to the mission to continue their work. Hatfield said, “I’m thrilled the shoes ended up here. It’s a happy ending to a really great project.”

True or false: In general, bigger donors to churches, ministries, and charities give more because they have more ability to give.

Answer: It’s a trick question. The correct answer, to some extent, is both true and false.

The true part is that people with more money do tend to give away larger amounts of money. Grey Matter Research studied evangelical Protestants in 2021. Among donors, they found median giving to church and charity in the past 12 months was $2,200 when household incomes were $100,000 or more, dropping to just $200 when incomes were below $30,000. Clearly, higher-income evangelicals give more.

The false part is that when you evaluate giving amounts as a percentage of household income, they saw almost no difference in generosity between more affluent and less affluent evangelical donors. (Generosity is simply the proportion of household income that is given away.)

Donors with household incomes below $30,000 give away a median of 1.5% of their pre-tax income. The median is a nearly identical 1.56% when incomes are $30,000 to under $60,000. It does rise slightly to 1.85% with incomes of $60,000 to under $100,000, but then falls again to a median of 1.56% among donors earning six figures.

In other words, evangelicals who give money generally do so at a pretty consistent (and consistently low) rate, no matter what their income is like. But 1.5% of $100,000 is obviously twice as much cash as 1.5% of $50,000, so the amount of money rises as income rises.

Regardless of whether you consider tithing to be a biblical mandate or guideline, the chances are you’re not close to it: only about 13% of evangelical Protestants give anything close to a tithe.

Michael heard from a neighbor about a charitable cause that he wanted to support. So, he found the GoFundMe website and began the donation process. Michael intended to give $150, so those were the first three digits he entered into the “amount” field on the website. However, he began typing the numbers to his credit card before he remembered to move the cursor to the next field. So, what remained in the “amount” field was, instead of $150, more than $15,000 – about a hundred times what he intended to give.

He said, “It was just a complete typo. I was so bewildered.” Michael quickly canceled the transaction with his credit card company so that he could do it again properly. But a huge problem remained: the GoFundMe website still showed the original amount of $15,041, which was giving people the wrong idea.

Michael recalled, “I was like, ‘Oh no, that’s a problem.’” But before he could alert anyone, he began receiving an outpouring of thankful messages from Shohag Chandra, the Bangladesh-based charity’s program manager. Michael said:

The man had sent me a video of himself from Bangladesh, surrounded by dozens of impoverished and hungry people holding bags of food, thanking me BY NAME. It was picture after picture after picture of poor Bangladeshis thanking me for my kind donation. I felt so bad about the mistake that I made. I was definitely stressing about it.

Once his original contribution was refunded, he decided to donate $1,500. But more than that, he decided to tell others about his mistake. “The least I could do was take the time to post this story online and see if I can inspire other people to donate to this cause.”

Somehow the awkwardness of the situation combined with word of the poverty-stricken people needing help generated an unprecedented outpouring of donations. In just a few weeks, the Bangladesh relief organization received over $120,000 in donations, more than eight times over Michael’s original mistaken donation amount.

Michael said he was overwhelmed with gratitude when he saw some of the lighthearted comments online. One GoFundMe donor wrote, “We’re all here to make up for Michael’s mistake.” Sarah Peck, senior public affairs director for GoFundMe, said “We love that Michael’s story inspired others to rally behind this fundraiser and multiply his generosity.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is a real-life example of God redeeming our mistakes and using them to bring about good for others.

Charitable giving went up nearly five percent during the economic trouble caused by record inflation in 2022, according to a Fundraising Effectiveness Project study of American nonprofits. The number of donors, however, declined by about seven percent—fewer people gave more money.

Number of megadonors -0.4%

Number of medium donors -1.4%

Number of small donors -13%

Money given +4.7%

Who are the most generous givers? As a nation, America tops the charts. The three most charitable cities in America are all in Idaho. On average practicing Christians in those Idaho cities give $17,977. That beats out the giving from people in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, which averages $3,308 per person.

Age also makes a big difference in giving. Eighty four percent of millennials give less than $50 to charity per year even though charitable giving ranks high on their priorities.

Today, the average church attender gives 2.5% of his or her income annually. During the Great Depression, that number was 3.3%. Thirty seven percent of those who consider themselves evangelical Christians don't give at all to their churches. Only 2.7% of evangelical Christians practice tithing.

Editor’s Note: You can read this fascinating Barna survey with all the stats here.

Even crows and ravens seem to understand the importance of giving gifts. John Marzluff and Tony Angell, in their book, Gifts of the Crow, detail the intelligence of birds which results in them behaving like humans. The authors relate many accounts of people routinely receiving gifts from crows, thought to be in response to kind actions such as providing food for the birds. Crows are known to give gifts such as coins, bits of colored glass, flowers, a blue plastic Cap’n Crunch figurine, shiny rocks, keys, and even false teeth.

This gift giving could be accidental, intentional, or perhaps a form of reciprocity. The authors write:

Reciprocity may not be a practice exclusive to humans. The ability to quickly associate behavior with reward that is so prevalent in (crows) may underlie their innovative gifting behavior. Leaving gifts suggests that crows understand the benefit of reciprocating past acts that have benefited them and also that they anticipate future reward. In their case … it is a planned activity; the crow has to plan to bring the gift and plan to leave the gift.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Giving and receiving gifts are well known as one way we show love for others. However, there are those who avoid these activities to the detriment of their relationships.

Embezzlement is a special problem in churches and Christian ministries because trust is so important. That shows the power of trust. And trust is good, but if it’s misused … that’s really a problem. After someone had been convicted of embezzlement … there were church members who still said, “I don’t believe (they) could do this.”

Brock Bell of Brotherhood Mutual writes:

It doesn’t take a hardened criminal to steal money from a church. In fact, those who embezzle are often well-known, well-liked, and completely trusted by fellow church members. They don’t set out to steal hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. But ample opportunity and a lack of financial controls enable them to do just that.

Yearly timeline of embezzlement from churches and ministries:

1970 $5 million

2000 $19 billion

2022 $59 billion

2050 (Projected $170 billion)

6% of Christian giving is lost to embezzlement

1 in 3 churches suffer embezzlement

27% of embezzled churches don’t report

Possible Preaching Angle:

Unfortunately, the pattern of Judas who stole from the money bag (John 12:4-5), has been copied in many churches and ministries. To avoid this problem, make more than one person responsible for handling and accounting for the money, reconcile bank statements monthly, and schedule regular audits by an outside organization.

After surveying more than 16,500 donors to 17 Christian ministries, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability discovered that most give based on internal values, not on who asks them or how they are asked.

Why Would You Support a Ministry?

45% - I’ve been blessed, so I give back

23% - My gift makes a difference

15% - It’s the right thing to do

9% - I know someone working there

6% - God will bless me for it

4% - Other

How likely are you to support ministries that works to:

96% - Tell others about Jesus

95% - Make God’s Word available to all people

86% - Care for orphans

77% - Aid in disaster relief

66% - Address injustice or oppression

48% - Benefit my own community

More than a quarter of American evangelicals do not give any money to church. About 11 percent of evangelicals (defined by belief) never attend a church, so perhaps it makes sense that they don’t give to one either.

But according to a survey, another 15 percent attend church but never put money in the plate. Giving, historically, increases with income and age, but the study notes that millennials and Gen Z are much more likely to give directly to family, friends, or even strangers than to support institutions.

Percentage Of Income Evangelicals Give to a Church:

10% give more than 8%

23% give 2% to 8%

26% give 0%

42% give less than 2%

According to Lifeway research, among Protestants who attend church monthly or more, four out of five say tithing is “a biblical command that still applies today.” Here’s where they say such giving can go:

47% Can only go to a church

48% Can go to other Christian ministries

34% Can go to an individual in need

18% Can go to a secular charity

How many smells are there? It’s an odd question, but give it some thought. Mentally flip through the pages of your personal smell catalog. You find burnt toast, shaving cream, Grandma’s kitchen, and pine trees. With a little effort you can come up with a lot of smells, but putting a number to them is difficult. How does one count the odors of a lifetime, much less all the odors in the world?

Author Avery Gilbert explores estimates from various scientists, fragrance manufacturers, and chemists who suggest that humans can detect anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 different smells. Researchers have found that no two people smell things the same way. There’s a scientific reason for it, and it all has to do with your DNA. There are about 400 genes coding for the receptors in our noses, and there are more than 900,000 variations of those genes. These receptors control the sensors that determine how we smell odors. A given odor will activate a suite of receptors in the nose, creating a specific signal for the brain.

Possible Preaching Angles:

Scripture often speaks of the uniqueness of fragrances. For example, 1) Christians spread the fragrance of Christ to others. Some people will be attracted and others will be repelled (2 Cor. 2:14-16); 2) Our prayers and sacrifice are a pleasing aroma to God (Ex. 29:18).

A thriving stock market (measured by the S&P 500 index) doesn’t translate to more charitable giving. According to a decade of data collected by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability:

• When stock value increased nearly 30 percent in 2013, giving to charity decreased by about 1.5 percent.

• Stock value went up more than 11 percent in 2014, and charitable giving from individuals and organizations increased by nearly 6 percent

• Stock value declined slightly in 2015, while giving increased another 5 percent.

• Rates of giving also appear to be disconnected from changes in median household income and gross domestic product.

Well-intended patrons arrive every day at 10:00 am at Goodwill locations with truckloads full of cast-off items. Goodwill spokesperson Heather Steeves says, "We hope everyone brings great things that help our programs, but we know some people make some questionable judgments about what is good to donate.”

She holds up a lampshade, which is stained and disgusting and literally falling apart. There's also a small table missing a leg, cracked purple food-storage containers and a used sponge. They're just a representative sample of the useless stuff dropped off the day before.

Along with simply being gross, these items cost Goodwill money. Steeves says, "All this trash adds up to more than $1 million a year in a trash bill, and it's been growing every year for the past five years.” And that's just for the 30 stores she oversees.

Goodwill does recycle lots of what it can't sell. The nonprofit reuses textiles and refurbishes some broken electronics. But last year, it threw away more than 13 million pounds of waste—technically other people's garbage—and that’s just in its locations in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

One cause of this growing trash problem is a phenomenon called wish-cycling, where people are hoping that something is recyclable and therefore they put it in with their recycling. Steeves said, "We have seen comments on our Facebook page recently that are like, 'If you wouldn't give it to your judgmental mother-in-law, don't donate it.' "

Possible Preaching Angle:

Offerings; Tithes – Christians are sometimes guilty of giving their second-best to God, while keeping the best for themselves. God wants our best, not our leftovers.

Kirk Cousins, starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, makes more in a year than many people make in a lifetime. But NFL careers have an expiration date. In fact, an old joke is that NFL stands for “not for long.” So, Cousins is committed to giving and saving in a way that will enable his family to continue giving generously for the rest of his life.

Back in 2005, when he was in high school, Cousins heard about the ministry of International Justice and their work fighting human trafficking and slavery. Cousins was moved. Instead of traveling with the organization or joining the staff, he had in his mind that he wanted to support IJM financially. Cousins said. “I walked out of the service that night and prayed, God give me more to steward, give me an opportunity to help some day.”

That didn’t happen immediately. But after college, Cousins was drafted to the Washington Football Team in 2012 as a backup quarterback, signing a $2.5 million four-year rookie contract. In his fourth year, the team promoted him to starting quarterback and he signed a one-year $20 million deal. When his contract expired, the Team signed him for another year for $24 million. Going into his seventh year in the NFL, Cousins and the team weren’t able to agree on a long-term deal, and he signed a three-year fully guaranteed $84 million contract with the Minnesota Vikings in 2018.

He quipped, “There aren’t many starting quarterbacks who are 50 or 60 years old. At some point, unfortunately, what I’m doing ends—earlier than I’d like—and the income stream gets cut off.” With that in mind, Cousins is learning to save so that even after he is no longer playing professional football, he can increase his giving percentage each year.

Usually, at Easter, Wichita’s Pathway Church spends money on TV ads and direct mail to promote their Easter Sunday service. But in 2019 the church used that money (as well as money allocated to help families in need) to pay off medical debt of families in the state.

The church paid the debt through a non-profit called RIP Medical, which has cleared medical debts for more than 200,000 Americans in recent years. As lead pastor Todd Carter explained to his congregation, “What RIP does is that they go out there and they buy that medical debt, a penny to the dollar.”

The church ended up spending about $22,000 to clear $2.2 million in debt. Carter told the church:

I want you to imagine for a moment what those 1,600 people felt like last week when they got that letter in the mail. What was going on in those houses when they got that letter … and all of a sudden, they realize that their debt, this debt that has been hanging over their head, has been forgiven? … that’s exactly what God in the person of Jesus Christ wants you to feel each and every day – that your debt has been forgiven.

A Conyers, Ga., resident is out $6,500 after his plan to hide a wad of cash backfired. After 27-year-old Devon Silvey sold his car, he took the cash to his mother’s house for safekeeping. Rather than tell his mom about the money, Silvey hid it in an old Mickey Mouse tumbler. When he returned days later, Silvey discovered the mug missing. Silvey’s mother had put the mug and other clutter in a box and taken it to a Goodwill store.

“That mug had literally sat in our cabinet untouched for about 15 years,” the mother told Newsweek, adding that she felt like “the worst mom in the world.” Goodwill apparently then sold the mug without checking the contents. Silvey’s mother is now asking the person who bought the mug to return the money.

Possible Preaching Angle:

When it comes to handling our money, some of us are careless, giving little thought for the future. God is most pleased with those who handle their money wisely and give deliberately (1 Cor. 16:2) and joyfully (2 Cor. 9:7) to God.

Spellcheck is a saving grace for many of us. But what about when you type out a word that is an actual, correctly spelled word—that's just not the right word?

That's what happened to the French football team Montpellier HSC. The team had ordered new jerseys, but they came in with a tiny error: only one "l" instead of two in the name.

So what did the team do? Thankfully, there was another town that could benefit from the mistake—Montpelier, Vermont.

The team plans on sending the jerseys to Montpelier High School's soccer teams "for a game or two," after which they might be sold locally to "turn this all into a good thing."

The high school's athletic director expressed his gratitude for the gift: "We have nice things for our students here but certainly not the level of professional jerseys. I'm sure the kids will just be ecstatic."

Potential Preaching Angles: This story might offer a whole new kind of application to Luke 3:11: "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none." When faced with something they couldn't use, the French team wasted not; rather, they sought out who might benefit from their "two shirts" (or, in this case, many misspelled jerseys).