I want to give, but who should I support?

Take a look at our six tips to consider when deciding which charitable cause to support.

1. Pray!

The Bible calls us to present ourselves as “cheerful givers” (2 Corinthians 9:7) but also to be faithful stewards of the resources that God has given to us. While we may understand what the Bible teaches us about giving, putting it into practice isn’t always easy. If you are struggling to decide what, how much, when and where to direct your resources, hand it over to God and ask that he guides your big, booming generous heart.

2. What are your priorities?

Perhaps you feel led to give primarily to your local church? Or perhaps you view giving to the Church as supporting a whole multitude of ministries, at home and abroad? Maybe you care about the environment? Have a heart for a particular country or want to support the work of a Christian mission worker linked to your church? It’s important to choose a cause whose work you value so that, ultimately, you become an advocate for that cause and encourage others to get involved. Make a list of issues or areas that are important to you and go from there.

3. Draw on your own personal experiences

It’s likely that at some point in your life you have personally encountered a charity who has worked with you, a family member or friend.

Perhaps at some point in the past you have been in debt, suffered an illness, or have experienced loss. A charity came alongside you and made a real difference to your circumstances. You may not, at the time, been able to ‘give back’ to the charity financially, but now feel in a position to do so.

4. What sort of work does the charity do?

Many charities operate in order to respond to an immediate need. Soup kitchens, for example, are set-up to care for the day-to-day needs of the homeless.

Other charities often look to prevent and respond to long-term issues. There are many charities, for example, who look at the root problem of homelessness, and work to help individuals off the street altogether. Likewise, there are charities who work to make a difference in both the long-term and short-term, however most charities usually have a particular emphasis to their work.

In your giving, it may be helpful to consider whether you looking to make a different to the needs that exist in peoples lives NOW or are looking to contribute to longer-term change.

5. Do you want to give to a small or large organisation?

Large charitable organisations can often be very well run, forward-looking and efficient with their money. Just because large charities can have bigger overheads, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider supporting them. Giving to large organisations can often ensure that your money is being put to good use in targeted areas that have been well-researched as a result of the work that has gone on behind the scenes. That said, you may feel it important to research a charities overheads before you start giving to them.

On the other hand, when giving to a smaller charity or individual Christian worker, your gift may constitute a considerable percentage of their annual budget. It may feel that your money is making a bigger impact to the work that they do. You may also find to easier to interact with a smaller charity set-up and even have the chance to get involved yourself with voluntary work.

This leads us nicely onto...

6. Volunteer

Volunteering for a charity can be a great way to get to know a charity more and understand the day-to-day work that the charity puts in to accomplish its mission. If you don’t have time to regularly volunteer, why not dedicate some holiday time to volunteer either locally or abroad? Some charities even organise teams of volunteers to visit other countries; learn about life in disadvantaged communities and encourage you to provide practical help to particular causes.

Churches: The role of trustees and spiritual leaders

One of the frequent questions that we are asked at Stewardship is about trustees in churches, and how that role interacts with those of the spiritual leaders; ministers, pastors, elders etc. This issue can create confusion and even at times tensions between people. As a result it is an important issue for those involved in church leadership to understand.

The confusion and tension comes out of what the church is; not only a community of Christians working together to evangelise, love and disciple principally governed by the teaching in the Bible but also, very often, a charity governed by UK law. The Charity Commission has guidance for trustees and the Bible has principles for good leadership. These need to work together if the church is to be well governed in both aspects.

It is important in each church setting to work out how these leadership principles are best achieved. This will depend on the type of structure a church has, and who the individuals are in the team. We find that when these are understood and there are good relationships between the people on the team, the different roles work well to support each other and achieve good spiritual direction and good legal governance. Where there is misunderstanding or poor relationships (and one tends to lead to the other), there can be gaps or frictions leading to problems in either or both of the spiritual and legal leadership of the church.

If you want to read more on this area, please refer to our free briefing paper entitled 'Guide to churches on spiritual leadership and trustees'. If you think your own church could improve in this area we do recommend you humbly ask God for help, seek to understand the others in your team and work to see this resolved in line with the teaching of Ephesians chapter 4. If you would think it may help to speak to one of Stewardship’s Consultants, who have practical experience of being involved in both spiritual leadership and trustee roles, please contact enquiries@stewardship.org.uk

the generosity of our resolutions

New year, new you! Lose weight, feel great! Ditch the smokes! It’s everywhere at the moment, isn’t it? As soon as the indulgence of Christmas ends, people start wagging the finger of resolution, promising it’ll make you happier. And we all know that a hastily-made resolution to give up chocolate only lasts until M&S slash the prices of their Yule logs. Surely real resolution – real transformation - ought to last longer, and have more of a domino effect, than that? Is it really just about how we as individuals transform?

Over Christmas I sit and evaluate all that has happened during the previous school term. Hard work, exhaustion, receiving verbal abuse, physical assault and very little thanks! Then I remember the lives of those kids; the broken homes and disappointment they carry. I remember with a warm glow that those same kids are now moving forward, feeling loved and beginning a life of transformation.

All those years ago I was one of those kids, worse than most of them!

After a life of crime and drug addiction I found myself in prison, serving five and a half years for armed robbery, but God had a transformational plan for my life that I could never have seen coming and it was much more powerful than any resolution I’ve ever tried to stick to by myself. While in HMP Wolds I attended an Alpha course and Jesus broke into my life. From that day on I have lived for Him and use my testimony to reach those who think they are beyond reaching and inspire the Church to reach further than they thought possible.

I joined Hope Corner Community Church on the 4th August 2000 and I am now a minister with Assemblies of God. I am responsible for running Xcel Youth Ministries and The Progressive Social Inclusion Project (PSI) - our award winning and highly successful social action project, working with excluded and marginalised young men and women in Runcorn, Cheshire. We are currently building a new centre to house the growing project and congregation. The new building will also house the Hope Corner Academy - a church-run independent SEN school.

I am married to my beautiful wife Rebekah and I have two children – Benjamin and Lydia-Grace. I graduated Mattersey Hall (bible college) and received full ministerial status with Assemblies of God (Pentecostal) in 2009.

If you had told the man I used to be that such a transformation would happen, I would have thought you were mad. All this has come about because of the faithful, generous believers coming into the prison, with their testimony of transformation on their lips. Through them Jesus found me and through me Jesus is reaching others; what an incredible domino effect!

God is now using His story in me through my book ‘Unreachable’, and in just two months since its launch 100s have responded to God’s invitation. They have begun their story and I’m sure they will pass it on too, but will you? You have an opportunity this New Year to allow God to help you make a worth-while resolution, and in doing so, achieve a transformation that ripples beyond what you could ask, hope or imagine.

The generosity challenge:

Spend the start of the New Year in prayer. Ask God to show you how you can show His love in your community, with the aim of creating lasting transformation not only in your life, but in the lives of those around you. Use the topic of New Year’s resolutions as a talking point with your colleagues, friends and family, and share your vision of a resolution that leaves a legacy far beyond the cold mists of January.

> If you would like to support our ministries you can find more details at http://www.hopecorner.co.uk

> Or join me on the journey through twitter http://twitter.com/PastorDHCCC

online giving reaches record high

Image source: Flickr: Easterbilby

Did you know that online giving among the good people of Great Britain experienced an increase of 75% between 2008 and 2011?* Pretty good hey?

A survey published this week by the Evangelical Alliance also revealed that within the UK evangelical Christian community, over half of those respondents surveyed said they had made online donations to a charity or ministry in the last 12 months.

The survey also reports that direct debits, standing orders, traditional cash or cheque donations still remain much more popular whilst another pioneer giving technique – texting – remains low in the popularity stakes with just 13% of survey respondents saying that they have given in this way in the last 12 months. Text-giving was, however, more popular among women and the 35-55 age group.

Here at Stewardship, we have been encouraged by the popularity of our own online giving service, successfully launched a year ago. During this time we have seen over 8591 people logging on to use their Stewardship giving accounts and in just 12 months, £7 million in online account donation requests have been fulfilled.

Over a third of all one-off gifts made into Stewardship accounts are now made online and last year £6,000 of online donations were made on Christmas day! Take a sneaky peek at how YOU could join the ever-growing generous bunch of online givers at www.stewardship.org.uk/give-funds.

So how do you like to give? Do you prefer the good old traditional giving techniques or have you dipped more than a toe into the ever expanding cyberspace giving community? Leave us your comments!

*Source: www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sites/default/files/clickable_UK_Giving_2011.pdf

VAT for churches - an updated guide

Our popular Guide to VAT especially written for churches has been completely re-written and expanded to provide a useful, readable reference guide for various interactions that churches have with the VAT system. There have been a number of major changes to the VAT system which affect churches and this Guide is up to date as at 31 October 2011. Whether the church is VAT registered or not, there are tips on how to avoid paying VAT unnecessarily which, in the case of building projects and property rents, has saved some readers many thousands of pounds.

Whilst this 38 page Guide is detailed, it seeks to distil the complexities of VAT whilst avoiding being overly technical. Rather than cover VAT as a topic, it covers only those areas that will typically be faced by churches (and Christian charities).

Separate sections cover: Introduction and General Principles, VAT Planning, VAT Registration, Property Acquisition, Use and Maintenance, VAT Reliefs for Charities, Churches Registered for VAT and Frequently Asked Questions, plus a useful contacts and addresses section. Six Appendices provide copies of the Pro Forma VAT Certificates that your church may be asked for, or may be required to provide (for example in order to gain VAT Zero rating).

We are grateful to the senior VAT Consultants at Crowe Clark Whitehill for their help in producing this Guide and ensuring that it remains an authoritative text for Churches and Christian charities.Click the link below to order the new guide.

VAT for Churches – a detailed guide