Cultivating Generosity

Fiona Penny describes the stewardship work of two congregations in the north east of Scotland and its impact.

I WAS born and raised in rural Aberdeenshire and have remained in the area my whole life.

My upbringing on a farm in Buchan taught me a lot about responsible resource management, careful planning, continual nurturing and adapting to change. Those early lessons in practical stewardship stood me in good stead for my role within the Church of Scotland’s Stewardship Team. This work sees me supporting congregations to develop and grow their resources for ministry, mission and witness, often in a changing and challenging context, in order to bear fruit for God’s kingdom.

One of the particular blessings of my job is working with congregations on my home patch. I love speaking with folk and hearing about how they are living out their faith and expressing the good news of Jesus in our communities. A ‘blether’, as we might say in these parts, is often the first step towards a meaningful conversation around how we sustain the work of the church in these settings. Those conversations are futile, however, if they don’t lead to some action and subsequent growth.

For this article I have followed up with a couple of congregations with whom I’ve had the privilege to work over the last few years, to learn whether their stewardship initiatives have had any lasting impact.

“ Giving did go up as a result of our special events, but actually they were worth doing just to enable people to learn more about the different aspects of our church.

Mid Deeside

The Parish of Mid Deeside covers the villages of Kincardine O’Neil, Lumphanan and Torphins, and the surrounding rural area.

Back in 2017, the congregation invited me to work alongside them to support a special season of stewardship focussed around personal giving. It went very well at the time. Preaching and teaching sat at the heart of things and the congregation reflected and responded generously. There were very clear and measurable outcomes. Offering income rose by a third; around 100 members increased their giving; thirty new Standing Orders were set-up; and the same number of new Gift Aid declarations were signed.

Almost eight years on, I caught up with the Congregational Treasurer, Bob Auckland, to hear about what happened next. Here are Bob’s reflections on the congregation’s stewardship journey:

‘Thinking back to 2017, the congregation had already made a huge effort to put an extension onto our building. Now that we had the facilities in place, we needed to turn our focus to our spiritual and numerical growth.

‘One of the motivators for us taking a more intentional approach to stewardship was our desire to engage with the younger generations in our communities. Our longterm plan was to employ someone to help us build up our work with young families, children and youth, but we needed to be sure that we could support this financially, so our initial step was to try to increase regular income. We achieved this, largely through an increase in giving by standing order. This regular giving also helped us through the Covid-19 lockdown.

‘With the shared vision for growth, and with related teaching, communication and encouragement, our people were enabled to connect their offering with their discipleship and service and with resourcing the church to do new things and reach new people.

‘By 2021, we were in a position to employ the youth worker – and we still do. Through various endeavours, including Messy Church, Youth Connect, youth club and parent and toddler groups, we attracted younger people, bringing the age profile of our congregation down significantly. This came about as a direct result of the congregation becoming more intentional and generous in its financial giving.

‘We now enable cashless donations, through a digital giving device in the building, which possibly suits our younger members and more occasional attenders and visitors.

‘We had a ‘stewardship light’ focus earlier in 2024, primarily to address the impact of inflation on congregational income. Again, we set out our plans for the future and encouraged people to reflect on their giving – whether financial or in using their gifts within the life of the church. A 15% increase in monetary giving followed.

‘We have rarely focussed on costs. It’s always been about acknowledging that everything we have comes from God, and responding generously.’

Arbuthnott, Bervie and Kinneff

In 2024, I facilitated an income generation workshop for the Kirk Session of Arbuthnott, Bervie and Kinneff. One of the subsequent actions was to host a series of three ‘Giving to Grow’ events in the church to showcase the congregation’s work and inspire support among the church family. Sandra Wright, Congregational Treasurer, and the Rev Andrew Morrison, the parish minister, updated me on the impact of this work: Andrew said: ‘Giving did go up as a result of our special events, but actually they were worth doing just to enable people to learn more about the different aspects of our church. We have a number of newer folk, so they were able to see different opportunities for service, and to learn about the Church’s history and how we’re building God’s kingdom through our mission and ministry. A few people were prompted to find out more or get involved in a new area of service. The event also required each of the different groups connected with the church to take stock of what they were doing and why, and to present this in a way which informed and inspired people to partner with them.’

‘It’s not about simply paying the bills, but helping people appreciate the ultimate outcomes from their giving which helps us proclaim the Gospel. We had a baptism of one of our younger adults recently. I was able to remind the congregation that their giving to the church was part of the whole picture in terms of enabling and supporting someone’s journey of faith in Christ to that point.’

Sandra added: ‘In terms of measurable outcomes, monthly offerings have gone up by around £300, and some items of expenditure have reduced as a result of people committing their time to do certain jobs. Most of our regular attenders now give regularly and generously, and review their giving too, so from that perspective, it was an opportunity to remind, inform and inspire people to contribute to the life of the church. One of the learning points for me was that we need to do something fairly regularly – not necessarily on that scale – but addressing the issue of stewardship so that people are informed and up-to-date about the church’s finances and what their giving enables.’

It has been great to receive these updates from my near-neighbours, and to be reminded that God does, indeed, honour our stewardship endeavours. Let’s continue to encourage each other as we give of our best to the one who gave us everything. ¤

Fiona Penny is a member of the Church of Scotland Stewardship Team.