Excelling in Giving [From Matt Evans]

Some exciting stuff from Matt Evans blog:

Last year our church approved a faith-based budget of $3.2 million dollars. This budget was born out of prayer and a vigorous pursuit of wisdom. We doubled the amount of money we invested in local and international missions. We sought to wisely and adequately fund our own ministries for worship, children, students, discipleship, and day-to-day operations.

Even with the troubles in our local economy, we have seen our weekly giving increase this year! However, we are still falling short of our budget by around $2000 per month. Because we have some reserve funds and some built-in margin, we are not in a crisis. We can easily adjust our spending to handle this shortfall, but that means cutting back on some investments to which we believe God has called us.

We believe this is an opportunity for us to “excel in the grace of giving” as Paul encourages churches to do in 2 Corinthians 8:7. So rather than back down and reduce our budget for the remainder of the year, our Elders believe we can rise up and exceed our budget by finishing strong in this last quarter of 2011! Here’s how:

The $10-$50 Plan

Our church currently has about 1400 giving units (a giving unit could be one person or an entire family). If each of those giving units increased their monthly giving by $10 to $50 we would easily meet and even begin to exceed our budget goals!

So we are asking anyone with an income to prayerfully seek to raise your current monthly giving by between $10 to $50.
Think about it this way: over 30 days that represents about 3-5 gallons of gas, 3 Starbucks’ coffee drinks, or 1 movie ticket!!

If you have never given consistently to God’s church, then would you prayerfully consider starting to give around $10-$50 per month? This is a simple way for you to begin giving regularly and begin to experience God’s leadership over your finances.

Remember: it is simple and easy to set-up online giving directly from your checking account (called “E-Give”). You can sign-up directly from our web site by clicking here.

If we as a church take this step together, a few things will happen:

1-We will meet and could even exceed our 2011 budget!!

2-We will be more like Jesus by becoming more generous (2 Corinthians 8:9).

3-We will resist the pull of complacency, instead experiencing the thrill and joy of being open to God’s direction and leadership in our lives (2 Corinthians 2:14).

4-God will be more glorified as we invest in His Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and kingdom work locally and globally.

Thank you for being a part of what God is doing at Rock Bridge! We know God is moving and we know that He is providing through the generous hearts of His people!

**If you have no income, are unemployed or under-employed and need assistance, please allow your church family to help. Financial counseling and/or assistance with groceries or other basic needs are available and part of our budget to minister to those in our church family who are experiencing tough times.