Pentecost Challenge- Grow Your Giving by 1%!
The original challenge was put out by Bishop Sue in her May article in the Diocesan Times. There is a chart you can use to calculate your 1% target. One parish who started on the first Sunday in May to talk about growing your giving by 1% has shown a steady increase in giving every Sunday since then, so it does work! A member of Diocesan Council did some calculations (live link to Calculations document) to show what the 1% increase can do for your parish. If your clergy or wardens have not spoken about the Pentecost 1% Challenge yet, maybe you should! We are all called to help to make God’s dream of justice and joy come true. One mark of a healthy parish is having the resources to do the ministry to which God is calling you. This is one way to improve the resources available to your parish.
+Sue
The Pentecost Challenge! Are you up for it?
(Diocesan Times article for May 2010 issue)
On Page 555 of the Book of Common Prayer, you will find the outline of a RULE OF LIFE for Anglicans. It is intended to help us provide some discipline in our spiritual life. It includes the following:
- the regularity of attendance at public worship especially the Holy Communion;
- the discipline of private prayer, Bible reading, and self-discipline.;
- bringing the teaching and example of Christ into everyday life;
- the boldness of spoken witness to one’s faith in Christ;
- personal service to the Church and community;
- the offering of money according to one’s means for the support of the work of the Church at home and overseas.
Most people see the first five clearly as spiritual, but the last one they might argue about! Here is the author of the Book of Common Prayer putting money, our financial offering, into the spiritual RULE OF LIFE. Well, why not? Jesus was clear, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12: 34).
Many people make a concerted effort to accomplish the first five, especially during Lent, but most would say, “Don’t talk to me about my offering! That’s private.”
Well I’m about to talk to you about your offering. The Companions on a Journey Program has been emphasizing the shift from a mindset of scarcity to a mindset of abundance. The workshop leaders (including me) have emphasized the generosity of God and how we are created in the image of a generous God. They have encouraged us to remember all the blessings God has given us and to respond generously to God and to doing God’s work. Many parishes have experienced an increase in giving of time as volunteers, an increase in people identifying what talent they can offer in the church or in their community, and an increase in personal financial offering. We can celebrate this.
At the same time, many parishes still do not have the financial resources to do the ministry they would like to do now that they have a vision of where they think God is calling them to go. So some discipline is required.
The Pentecost Challenge is this:
Intentionally increase your offering by 1% of your income.
That means first you have to set out what is your annual income. Decide whether you will use gross income or net income. It doesn’t matter. Let’s say your net annual income is $26,000. So your weekly income is $500 ($26,000 divided by 52 weeks). Then take the 1% ($500 divided by 100) and you have $5.00. That is the amount you would increase your offering each week. If you can’t do the math for your own income, there are charts that do the work for you. You can find one on the Diocesan website under Stewardship, Growing by 1%.
Pentecost extends from May 23 to November 21, 2010. Make a commitment to be disciplined with the financial part of your spiritual life. Grow your offering by 1%! Enable your parish to do the ministry God is calling you to do!
Blessings.
+Sue
Back up for Challenge
- Nova Scotia average weekly income in 2006 was $707.83 (This is probably a little higher now).
- Based on an increase per person of 1% this gives you an average of $7.08 per identifiable giver. This assumes that average Anglican income is the same as average Nova Scotian income. In most jurisdictions one would expect it to be higher, I gather it is here but do not know by how much so I have stayed with the lower figure.
- There are 12,288 identifiable givers in the diocese according to the Benchmarking Data.
- Total weekly increase in parish income across the diocese from this scheme would therefore be $86,999.04
- Total boost to annual parish budgets across the diocese from this scheme would be $1,043,988.48
- Total boost to diocesan budget based on retaining the 19.25% apportionment rate would be $200,967.78
And hey presto there are the programs we have cut as the consequence of the gift of gratitude. Here are the resources for growth with healthy parishes and a flourishing diocese. Thank you for your leadership in this I hope that it gets taken up with seriousness. Thanks also to Janet for the benchmarking information that makes this sort of calculation so easy.
You will note that the figures are slightly higher than I suggested at Diocesan Council because at that point I did not have an accurate figure for identifiable givers and my estimate was a little on the low side. I would want to say that based on the average weekly income it would look as if current giving levels across the diocese are pretty good (around 7%). Although, as I indicated above I suspect that Anglican weekly income is significantly above this. Janet may have some more data to help unpack that.
The Rev. Canon Eric B. Beresford
President, Atlantic School of Theology,
660 Francklyn Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3B5
Phone: (902) 423-6801'
Fax: (902) 492-4048
