Teaching and Preaching about Generosity

A short introductory booklet that looks at the theology which underpins what we teach about giving, plus practical suggestions in how to preach and teach well about generosity.

Giving and Mission

Giving and mission are topics so closely entwined within the life of the church. Each give reason for the other, grounded in our calling to grow to be the generous church God calls us to be.

Giving for Life: Encouraging Generosity in Your Church

Originally written for church council members in English parishes in 2009, this booklet still provides a good overview of the importance of giving - and the four key tasks of preaching and teaching, linking giving to mission and ministry, annually reviewing our giving and thanking givers.

Preaching Generosity through the Lectionary: A summary of short sermon idesa, drawn from one of that week’s Common Worship lectionary readings, helping preachers to become comfortable and confident in preaching about generosity.

Many of the resources above are from Preaching Generosity a weekly, bite-sized emailed preaching resource, produced by the Diocese of Rochester (UK) in partnership with St Augustine’s College of Theology and the National Giving Team of the Church of England. 

Giving in Grace from the Diocese of Liverpool (UK) includes extensive sermon resources with five different sermon tracks from Matthew, Mark, Luke, Exodus and 2 Corinthians. The Exodus and Luke resources also include all age worship materials.

The Diocese of Southwark (UK) has a selection of sermons as part of its Giving is God's Way stewardship programme.

Preaching Generous Giving: Five Sermon Ideas from the Diocese of Oxford (UK) covers 2 Corinthians 9, Exodus 35, Matthew 19, Acts 4/5 and 1 Timothy 6.

The Church of England’s Generosity Learning Hub brings together further materials from all traditions, for all settings. The resources are free, but registration is required.

Giving in Grace from the Diocese of Liverpool looks at the role that small groups can play in exploring the topic of generosity. There are a range of bible studies based on Mark, Luke, Exodus and 2 Corinthians, plus links to other materials.

Living Generously: These short videos from the Church of England are for small groups and individual study. They explore the simple, powerful moment in which Mary, a friend and follower of Jesus, displays the kind of astonishing generosity God Himself pours out on us. The wonder of the gospel is that this can be our story too as we discover the freedom of living generously.

The Church of England’s Reimagining The Offertory - From Collection to Offering offers guidance to enable churches to move closer to becoming both a joyful act of worship and a committed part of discipleship.

Giving in Grace from the Diocese of Liverpool has produced a useful guide to ‘Why Prayer Matters’, exploring the importance of prayer in the formation of discipleship around money for both individuals and for the church. The website also includes a number of ready-to-use prayer resources.

The Diocese in Liverpool's Giving in Grace website has an excellent section of resources for children and youth, including the Money Matters pack of activities.

The Church of England also has a resource called Generous Giants with activities for children and young people and a generic Generosity Week Challenge poster.

We also have a Generosity Week resource based on The Good Samaritan.

These Chat Mats from the Diocese of Bath and Wells allow children, young people and adults to read the Bible and have conversation together, whether around a meal table, sitting on the sofa or wherever works best. Topics include Harvest: Generosity, Spiritual Habits: Giving and Serving, and Christian Values: Generosity.

The Diocese of Leeds has produced this activities resource for children and young people on the subject of stewardship.

Some resources to help you to support any annual giving review during the Harvest season.

Church of England's Generosity Week

Generosity Week is an initiative from the Church of England in the UK. It can be used at any time of the year, but many of the resources can be used during Harvest, as we thank God for his generosity to us and think about how we might respond to that generosity – within our churches and communities.

A range of resources is available (though some may need adapting for the European context). These include Sunday services on themes of generosity and gratitude, morning prayers, evening prayers and compline, intercessions, podcasts and reflections, plus children’s materials.

Diocese of Winchester: Sermons 

A five sermon series from the Diocese of Winchester on Luke chapters 14 to 17; including “The Cost of being a Disciple”, “The Lost Sheep & The Lost Coin” and “The Rich Man and Lazarus”. 

Diocese of Liverpool: All-age service materials and prayer station materials.

There is also some guidance notes which suggest some ways in which harvest festival can be integrated into an annual giving review programme.

Messy Church has a good Pinterest page with lots of ideas for children.

Christmas is a time of remarkable generosity and God gave the most generous gift of all when he sent Jesus to us as a baby. On this page we have inspiration, suggestions and resources to help us all experience the joy of generosity this Christmas, whether that is in giving, receiving, or both. 

The Dioceses of Liverpool and York in the UK have been working on some great resources for Advent and Christmas on the theme of generosity, which they are happy to share.

So, if you are looking for some inspiration - liturgical materials, sermons/preaching notes based on the Book of Haggai, or all-age prayers/activities - visit the Diocese in Liverpool website here.

A particular mention for this resource guide on all-age prayer stations and activities, including ‘Stir-Up Sunday’ (based around the English Christmas pudding), the Traditions of St Lucia, and The Jesse Tree stations.

The Diocese of York has just uploaded a Generous Advent bible study to its website.

The UK organisation 'Stewardship' has produced some reflective blogposts over the past few years, which may be useful to include in sermons, magazine articles etc.

The Diocese of Bath & Wells also has a nice ‘Chat Mat’ for families to colour in as they think about the Christmas story.

The Church of England has produced an online Follow The Star calendar (you can also download a PDF file of all the daily activities) which contain activities looking at generosity. The Diocese in London has also suggested some Advent Calendar activities on its website too. At this stage, you may just want to pick out one or two ideas to include in your services, events or children's talks etc.

'Messy Church at Home' has a family/children's resource (written during Covid but still relevant) focusing on God’s gift to us in Jesus.

Enabling generosity through the season of Advent

If you are looking to encourage generous online giving, then here are some easy-to-adapt Christmas posters for giving via QR codes. These are in Word format - so just download them and add in the QR code to your church's online giving page on your website. You can then use them as posters in your church – or add them to your Christmas service sheets or newsletters.

NEW: For those of you who are promoting JustGiving there is a ready-made template for you. Just insert your church logo at the bottom of the page.

Alternatively, if you use the free Canva Design programme, you can download this template and adapt it for your chaplaincy.

NEW: The Church of England has also produced some Canva templates to tie in with its Follow the Star campaign for this year, to encourage generous donations. 

• Poster
• Pew card

Living Generously Through Lent poster

The aim of the poster is to encourage people to do one thing differently this Lent. You could use it as an image - or just pick out one activity a week from the list and include it in your newsletter, notices or sermons. The poster above was created in the free Canva design programme. 

If your chaplaincy uses the Canva design programme and you would like to adapt this poster, you can access the template here. 

The 40Acts Challenge was an annual initiative from a UK Christian organisation called 'Stewardship' during 2014 to 2019 to encourage people to take up a daily 'generosity challenge' during Lent. It is no longer running but they have archived all their resource packs from each year. You may just want to pick one or two activities from the packs as an example for people.

Video resources

A Handful of Rice: an inspiring story of daily giving from Mizoram in North East India

Life is a Gift: a simple teaching video about Christian Generosity.

General resources

Generous Lent on the Diocese in Liverpool’s website includes sermon notes, liturgical and prayer resources for two Sundays.

Individual study resources

Generous God, Generous People is a 5 week course of daily reflections covering Generous God, Generous people, Generous giving, Generosity towards others and Principles for generous people to live by. It was produced by the Diocese of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich.

Living Generously is a booklet of 7 days reflections on the story of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet and how this illustrates seven different ways to live generously. It was produced by the Diocese of Oxford.

Generosity and the inheritance of Lent is a series of reflections/activities produced by the Church in Wales. It is bilingual: English = odd-numbered pages and Welsh = even-numbered). It is for individual study – but you could pick out one or two of the activities here for use in sermons or newsletters.

A reflective resource for church leaders as you start a new year. A time for reviewing the past year - and for prayer and renewal for the year ahead.