Helpful Hint – Encouraging Word – March 2016

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Celebrate Gifts!

“Some of the best publicity [encouragement] for planned giving is . . . actual gifts! Share when gifts are received or endowment distributions made—how much is going to help which ministries. Share joyful testimonials of members who have made gifts. Hold and share coverage of a ‘thank you’ event for those remembering your congregation in their estate plans or with planned gifts. Mention in an after-service announcement the ministry goals that could be achieved through a certain amount of gifts (this may tie in particularly well to certain church year seasons, e.g. End Times). ‘The service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God’ (2 Corinthians 9:12).”

Congregational Planned Giving Program. Waukesha: WELS Ministry of Christian Giving, 2015. Page 9.

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Words of Wisdom – Encouraging Word – March 2016

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The Sacrifice of Christ Encourages Our Offerings

“Why will [the Corinthians] want to ‘excel in the grace of giving’ just as the Macedonians are doing? ‘For,’ says Paul, and then he gives the reason why the Corinthians will want to do this. They have personally experienced the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ . . . ‘For your sakes,’ says Paul, Christ, though he was in a continuous state of being rich from all eternity, became poor. Paul uses a form of the same word he had used to describe the abject poverty of the Macedonians (2 Corinthians 8:2). But it was a much deeper poverty than that. With these words all of Christ’s state of humiliation is projected before our eyes, culminating in his suffering and death. Its purpose? ‘So that you through his poverty might become rich.’ ‘We are rich, for he was poor. Is not this a wonder!’ Christ, who traded unparalleled riches for abject poverty so that we might become rich, is a wonderful example of giving for the Corinthians; but he is much more than that! He is first of all Savior. We love, because he first loved us. We give, in fact, we cannot help but give, because he gave first.”

David J. Valleskey. Laying the Foundation: The Scriptural Basis for Godly Giving. Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Essay File. Pages 6-7.