Resources

If you have not yet pledged your giving for 2020, it’s as simple as contacting the church office  with the amount you intend to give and how often you will be doing it.

When Propensity Meets Capacity

March 2020
 

To give away money is an easy matter and within any-one’s power, but to decide to whom to give it, how much to give, when to give, and to give for the right motive and in the right way, is neither in everyone’s power nor an easy matter. Hence, it is that such excellence is rare, praiseworthy, and noble. Aristotle

Recently a church asked me to help determine their con-gregation’s capacity for giving. Here is my simple answer: any congregation’s capacity to give is at least 10% (the tithe) of its annual income.

I usually estimate a church’s congregation-wide annual income as the median income within a 5-mile radius of the church times the number of giving units in the church. (So that I do not inadvertently overestimate con-gregational income, I usually work with 90 percent of this number.)

Ten percent of total congregational income is the tithe and is our best scripturally based estimate of congregational capacity to give. God proposed the tithe as a target for giving to support the church with other charitable giving to be over and above that amount. (Our denomination’s stance is that “tithing is the minimum goal of giving” (Book of Discipline ¶630.5e) and “God’s standard of giving” (¶304.1c)).
 

In Wisconsin, our actual giving averages 2.9%. We are spending much of God’s share on ourselves. How much could our churches accomplish if we tithed and had more than three times as much in giving?

In my talks with United Methodists around the state, I hear a lot of anxiety about the state of our churches, often because they are experiencing budget shortfalls. What they often propose is cutting more costs or get-ting new people to pay for the church.

Yet, we could reverse the trajectory of United Methodism by simply giving what God has asked us to give. That is the revitalization we need.

Jim Wells, Wisconsin United Methodist Foundation

Want to make Gift-Giving Easy???

SCRIP can make great gifts fo this Christmas season! Without it costing you any extra money, you can support the church by buying gift cards at church that you can give away or spend just like cash.

If you would like to order some specific scrip for gift giving please let Mark or Jen Johnson know. We are going to do a big order at the beginning of December for your gift giving needs. If you would like to see what is available, there are lists in the parlor. First Church pays a $10 fee each time we place an order to handle shipping costs. So we want to limit our orders to keep the costs down. (The exception is Trigs and Culvers. They are local business we work with and are able to get Scrip cards at anytime without a processing fee.) Please feel free to contact Jen or Mark Johnson at 715-470-2527 with questions. Thank you!

Amazon, iTunes, Dick’s, Bass Pro, Cabela’s, Bath & Body Works, Carnival, Delta, Eastbay, Land’s End, Royal Caribbean

Trig’s, Pick ‘n Save. Menards, Home Depot. Fleet Farm, Krist, Holiday, Kwik Trip, AutoZone

Dunkin’, Starbucks, Pizza Ranch, Dominoes, Pizza Hut, Subway, Culver’s, Burger King, Hardee’s, Arby’s, Panera, Taco Bell, Papa Murphy’s, Noodles & Co, Olive Garden, Red Robin, Buffalo Wild Wings, Texas Roadhouse

Barnes & Noble, Target, Kohl’s, Best Buy, Walmart/Sam’s Club, Walgreens, CVS, Great Clips, Hilton Garden Inn