Generosity Sunday - St Katharine's
Liz Mullins Giving Adviser from the Diocese of Rochester gave a presentation to the congregation of St Katharine's Church, Knockholt at the Sunday morning service on 14th May 2023.
The first big message was one of thanks as we often take people, and all the things they do for granted – so thank you! Where would we be without your generous, regular giving and contributions of time and skills?
Money is important because it funds the mission of our church, and the ministry on which that mission depends. We don’t receive any funding from the Church of England or Government. The responsibility for paying for our church running costs and our Tim, falls entirely on us.
The message is clear; it costs significant money to enable us to do all the things we do. Our biggest outlay is to the Common Fund. This fund is contributed to by all the churches and helps pay for all clergy, including the training of new ones. This helps some of the extremely poor parishes that otherwise would not have a vicar.
The cost of our Tim is shown below, but the cost of ministry is more than a moderate wage; there’s housing and all the costs associated with that and pensions, as well as ongoing training.
Our income is nearly £8K per year short of the expenditure that goes out. This means that we struggle to operate day-to-day, let alone achieve the big plans that we have going forward.
We are meeting with the Diocese to discuss the best use of space in the Church, which is exciting, but also woodworm and damp issues, which are far from exciting, but absolutely necessary.
Of course, this is all rather pointless without an influx of additional income that stems from your generosity.
Forget our Church for a moment and think about our own finances.
Billy Graham (above) described a cheque book as a theological document, because nothing shows where our priorities are, or illustrate our values as much as where we put our resources.
All of this is particularly relevant right now, with the cost of living crisis, but are you prepared to think about it, pray about it and make changes if you can?
There are three ‘Ps’ here:
Firstly, priorities.
How important is God in my life?
Do I recognise that everything I have comes from God and when I give back to God, I am only giving what is his anyway?
Is God that thing I do on a Sunday morning and forget for the rest of the week?
The second ‘p’ is about planning.
When it comes to finance we generally have a fairly good idea of where our money goes. We plan and budget.
If we don’t, our finances are likely to be a mess.
When we plan how to budget our resources, do we think about God?
And just as we pay the gas and electricity by direct debit, do we have a standing order to give to God in an orderly, intentional way?
Many members of this church give each month by standing order. Would you consider joining them?
The third ‘p’ is about proportion.
Some churches teach and preach on tithing, and for many people that is the right thing to do. However, all of our circumstances are different.
We do ask you to think about it though. Work out how much you give now as a % of your income. Is that the right amount for you? Sometimes what feels like a generous gift turns out to be a very small % of our income.
There will be many people in this church who are struggling – energy costs have really hit us all; some may have big mortgages and small incomes. Nobody expects anyone to struggle even more.
There will be others, however who are much more comfortable and could easily do more.
If you went into a café with a friend and realised that friend couldn’t afford a cup of coffee would you drink yours in front of them, or would you offer to pay for theirs?
It’s all about balance, proportion and ultimately love and care for one another.
Now here’s the practical bit.
Please think and pray about what you currently give now. What proportion of your income do you give now? Can you increase it by 1% or 2%?
We cannot expect an equal amount from each person.
We can expect each person to make an equal sacrifice
We can expect each person to budget to give generously, to indicate that God has priority in their lives.
We have joined the Parish Giving Scheme
If you don’t already give by standing order, joining the Parish Giving Scheme is absolutely the best thing you can do to help our finances. You can do so via the website and it is ridiculously easy to do, and also quick.
Some existing givers by standing order have not reviewed their level of commitment for over 10 years. This hurts the Church because all the costs are certainly increasing!!
With the Parish Giving Scheme, you can choose to keep your payments can be up to date with inflation (based on the Retail Price Index) but even if you choose this option, the increased amount is checked with you each year.
The Gift Aid comes in automatically (if you tick the box) every month. This saves our Treasurer no end of time, but also helps with cashflow.
If you currently already give by standing order, it would be great if you could make the switch. You can join the scheme via the website, and then having done so, ask your bank to cancel the standing order, or otherwise you might give twice!!
We can also provide a paper form if you prefer.
We will give you a brochure (see link below) which will summarise what was have said in this presentation.
Please make your response using this form (see link below) and put in the box at the back of church by Sunday 28th May.
We will offer our responses up in thanksgiving to God on Sunday 25th June.
Please fill in the form and return it whether you make any changes to your current giving or not.
By thinking about your giving, and being as generous as you can, you will make a real difference to the finances of St Katharine's, and what we can do here, in Knockholt.
THANK YOU.