Books in brief Exploring giving as a spiritual discipline Growing a generous church. A year in the life of Peach Blossom Church By Lori Guenther Reesor (Selfpublished, 2021. 220 pages, $25.20 CDN plus shipping, available through Winnipeg’s Common Word bookstore https://www.commonword.ca or www.lgreesor.com ) Stories can be incredibly powerful teaching tools. Nowhere is this truer than when it comes to tackling taboo subjects such as money and giving. In Growing a generous church, Guenther Reesor artfully weaves Christian theology, church best practices and believable stories of people’s questions, hopes and fears into the tale of the fictional Peach Blossom Church. Peach Blossom is a small
congregation that isn’t sure they can afford a full-time pastor when a longtime leader retires. But they hire one anyways, giving their new shepherd the mandate of helping them talk about money and generosity. The author’s life journey gives her a unique perspective. A math graduate who did marketing analysis with World Vision, she later served as a pastor. Her Doctor of Ministry research, which included interviewing donors at churches across Canada, inspired a book that should be required reading for congregations large or small. During monthly meetings of the Big Hearts Breakfast Club, Peach Blossom members discuss gratitude,
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how they learned about giving, fear, tithing, and why churches need to treat supporters like horses, not cows. They discuss ways of making it easier for younger attenders to give, plus the importance of regularly talking about money and providing proper thank yous to donors. Some of the ideas the church agrees to are controversial. Bringing pastors into the circle of confidence around individual giving patterns is something that many pastors aren’t even comfortable with, despite studies demonstrating that giving is stronger in churches where the leader is so informed. Growing a generous church is a welcome gift to communities of faith.
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The Marketplace September October 2021
