the stewardship magazine | issue 41
Bringing help to Haiti Stewardship account holders share their generous journeys Online giving
transforming generosity
Dressed like idiots in the city... don't let it be in vain PLS DONATE!
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We’re Stewardship. We’ve been helping the UK Christian community to give and to receive since 1906, when we started out as stewards of church properties around the country. We love making giving easy and each year help over 25,000 individuals to give around £72 million to our database of over 19,000 charitable causes. By offering practical, tailored support, we are committed to strengthening the work of churches and Christian charities.
And we also inspire greater generosity from this community, thanks to our wealth of resources, courses and campaigns for individuals and churches alike, including the award-winning 40acts. For more than a century we have been driven by our desire to give the wider world the opportunity to encounter Jesus through the generosity of His people and the transformational work of the causes they support. We are Stewardship, and this is what we are about.
Contact us 1 Lamb’s Passage London EC1Y 8AB Tel: 020 8502 5600 Email: enquiries@stewardship.org.uk Web: stewardship.org.uk You can contact the editor by emailing editor@stewardship.org.uk Editor: Craig Borlase Design: adeptdesign.co.uk Stewardship is the operating name of Stewardship Services (UKET) Limited, a registered charity in England and Wales no. 234714 and a company limited by guarantee no. 90305
Editorial Welcome to our latest edition of Share. I hope like me you will be inspired by the stories of faithful and radical giving, told by Stewardship account holders from different backgrounds and circumstances. Look out too for the practical advice on how we can review our own giving journey (page 26), and an update about how we’re making online giving even easier (page 8). A vivid memory I have from childhood is sitting in church when the collection was taken. The offertory plate would be held high as the Minister offered it to God, and I presumed that the money would rise mysteriously up to heaven. That was the start of my giving journey, which then led into collecting money each week for the church’s mission fund. My understanding about giving has developed as I have grown older and my faith has matured. I am indeed blessed that my family and I have been on the receiving end of generous giving too. But I am not complacent! I know I have a lot more to learn when it comes to giving, and these articles challenge me to reflect on the amazing ways God accepts and uses the gifts we offer back to Him. Perhaps my childish image of money being transported upwards isn’t quite so silly after all. Frances Miles Chief Relationship Officer
Like what you read? Use your Stewardship account to lend your support.
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FEATURES 4
NEWS IN BRIEF
2018
News in brief
A YEAR OF GENEROSITY
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Stewardship in action: 40acts
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The new-look Giving Account
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Account holders’ generous journeys
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An opportunity in Haiti
We never fail to be amazed at the generosity of our clients. As we’ve just come to our year end here at Stewardship, we wanted to give you an overview of who your giving has helped to support this past year.
2,700 people in full-time Christian ministry, both here in the UK and overseas, were supported by nearly
£13m
£23m of grant payments boosted Church work.
OVER £414,000
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was given to support Bible college students in the UK training for ministry.
Legal and financial
Thanks to the generosity of our givers, last year Stewardship gave over
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Consultancy helpline
£30m
to Christian charities
£3.4m
to secular charities
Included in this sum is
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Why I give: Allan Plumpton
£195,000
to hospices across the UK.
THANK YOU! 4
WHERE THERE’S A WILL
was given to various charities in the UK through legacies and wills last year. THAT’S THE EQUIVALENT OF ALL THE MONEY RAISED FROM
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RED NOSE DAYS
That’s the highest amount on record. The British Heart Foundation and Macmillan Cancer Support appeared in the top five, while other popular choices included the RSPCA, the National Trust and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. You can check out our Briefing Paper ‘Where There’s A Will There’s A Way’ by clicking ‘Resources’ then ‘Briefing Papers’ on our website at stewardship.org.uk or email rachel.steeden@stewardship.org.uk
CAN YOU SEE ME? A21 have produced a new social media kit which aims to help all of us to spot the tell-tale signs of human trafficking and report them. a21.org/canyouseeme-UK
GREAT TIPS FOR GENEROUS KIDS In an age of instant gratification and pester power, it can appear difficult to encourage a generous attitude among kids. That’s why Child Mind Institute has come up with a handy six-step plan to help parents teach children about generosity.
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Teach empathy by talking about how other people feel.
Praise positive behaviours such as sharing, helping or offering assistance without being asked.
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Set an example. If you model generous behaviour to your children, they’ll naturally start to copy you.
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Choose a family charity and start up a regular conversation about giving and values.
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Remind children that the little things matter too. Helping a brother or sister with a task, or comforting a friend after a bad day at school is just as generous as giving to charity.
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Spread a little happiness. Encourage your children to get involved with the local community. A simple act of kindness like visiting an elderly neighbour or baking cakes for someone who makes a difference is a great way to model generosity. 5
THE URGE TO ACT
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We’re all used to 40acts turning up plenty of great stories of generosity in action. But 2018 took things to a whole other level.
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ne participant – Alex Elsaesser – emailed us to share the journey that he undertook in the run-up to last Easter. He explained how when he read Act 2 and its challenge to give anonymously, he left a generous gift for someone he knew was leaving work that day. And when Act 5 encouraged participants to give away something precious to them, and then Act 10 urged them to act on the prompts that the Holy Spirit gives, Alex started thinking. Not long after, Alex was getting ready one morning when, out of the blue, came one of those Holy Spirit prompts: he knew he was being encouraged to give away one of his kidneys. “Shaking, I Googled ‘kidney donation’ and found a website started by kidney donors. There was a special category: altruistic living kidney donation. You give to a stranger anonymously. Live donations like this are the most successful. They can allow the recipient to live without dialysis and can save the NHS up to £20,000 a year. I also discovered that a person even in their 80s could donate. I am a healthy 72 and retired a few months ago.” Six months later, Alex is on his way to becoming a live donor, though the year-long process is appropriately thorough. “So far I have had an appointment with a clinical psychologist and a renal consultant. Then a chest X-ray, a renal ultrasound (to make sure I had two kidneys!), a lung function test, a CT scan (to make sure the renal arteries were long enough to snip one), a heart echocardiogram, a glucose tolerance test (no problem with my insulin), the injection
of isotopes to test my kidneys were working properly, and finally, in a few weeks, an exercise tolerance test on the treadmill. An amazing MOT to be sure. If I pass this test then I’m off to meet the transplant consultant and surgeon.” As well as being assessed physically and emotionally, Alex is aware of the spiritual aspect of the journey that he’s on. He’s become aware that God is using his testimony to encourage others to give – even those who, like one of his children, were not so positive at the start. “One said, ‘Isn’t giving your blood enough?’ “That same daughter later said she and her husband were signing up to go on the bone marrow register.” Though he’s preparing to give away a vital organ, Alex already knows that God is using the experience to deepen his faith. Speaking to his home church earlier this year, Alex reminded the congregation of the story of Philip and the Ethiopian in Acts 8. “Philip had no idea what would happen when he obeyed the Holy Spirit to ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.’ Do you know today there are some 45-50 million members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the majority living in Ethiopia? “So, what is my message about? Giving a kidney? Maybe. Or is it about as pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church calls it, radical generosity? Yes! Or is it about experiencing the Holy Spirit as a person, hearing Him and obeying no matter what the cost? Yes! Or is it about God having a purpose for your life no matter what your age? Yes!”
JOIN THE MOVEMENT Sign up now at 40acts.org.uk
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The Stewardship Giving Account is getting a brand new look. The complete redesign provides users with a smarter, simpler online giving experience. For the first time it offers compatibility across all mobile devices. When we launched the first version of our online account back in 2010 only a small number of our clients were using a mobile device to access it. Now nearly everyone who manages their giving online does so on a phone or tablet. The way people give has changed and that’s prompted us to change too. Very soon we’ll be launching the new-look Stewardship Giving Account. It will offer a much smarter and easier way to manage your giving online.
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SO, WHAT’S NEW? These are just some of the features we’re improving. UPDATED HOMEPAGE We’ve completely redesigned the account homepage for mobile use. You’ll be able to review and manage your giving in just a few taps.
LOGIN We’ve really improved the login process. There are fewer details to remember and you also have the option to use social media login.
TOP UP AND GIVE Quickly and easily complete a top-up and make a charitable gift from your account using any mobile device.
SEARCH Use our improved function to search 19,000+ churches, charities and full-time Christian workers registered with Stewardship.
HELP AND SUPPORT Our new chat function will provide you with a way to communicate instantly with our team.*
All our current Giving Account holders:
Churches, charities & Christian workers:
Look out for an invitation to access the new-look account within the next few months. Stay updated with how we’re progressing at stewardship.org.uk/newsandupdates
Our new-look Stewardship Recipient Account will be launching later in the year. Apply to join our Early Adopter Programme at stewardship.org.uk/eap
*Available later in the year.
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Last year we carried out some Share reader surveys. As well as telling us what you wanted from the magazine, the conversations we had reminded us how inspiring you are. So, meet Eileen and Nathan, two Stewardship account holders who encourage us to give, to live and to love.
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ileen had been taught well in her church youth club, so she didn’t have to think twice when she received her first pay packet in the 1950s. Instantly she gave away ten per cent – gross of course, not net. “Scripture tells us that one tenth belongs to God, so I put ten per cent into a separate account. This seemed to make the rest stretch further!” Throughout her working life as a bank clerk in London, Eileen continued to give. Her generosity received a boost decades ago when she was introduced to Stewardship (known then as Sovereign Giving). She discovered new ways to give, using her tax rebates to fuel further generosity.
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When you make investments like this you grow; everything I have belongs to God.
Now aged 83, Eileen has been with us for more than fifty years. Her Giving Account has become a vital tool that has allowed her to grow in generosity.
She has responded to all manner of disasters and emergencies and helped provide a car to a family that needed one. Most recently Eileen has funded a series of posters outside her local churches that aim to capture the public’s eye and invite them in. “The people I’m in touch with live by faith and are very reliant on what God brings in. For me, Stewardship is marvellous, particularly now with direct debits and online giving, which saves postage and often the gift is received just on time. It is great and so efficient – I love it.” The power of generosity to change people flows both ways. For if we are what we eat, and we become more like what we worship, then it stands to reason that the people and the causes we support will somehow leave their mark upon us.
“I understand that when you make investments like this you grow; everything I have belongs to God, I am trusted as a steward. God has made certain promises about honouring those that honour Him, that He would bless in order to be a blessing.” Since retiring, much of Eileen’s generosity has focused on causes in Israel. Acting on a suggestion that she should go and investigate what God might be doing, she took a trip to the Holy Land. In 1990 she helped establish Olive Grove Projects, a charity that works to alleviate poverty in Jerusalem.
Eileen knows this as well as anyone.
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We must underwrite our lives by prayer but I also like to do something practical! “It has been said of the elderly in Israel, ‘We cannot remove the smell of the gas chambers from their nostrils, but we can show them the Love of the Lord.’” By collecting good quality second-hand clothes in the UK and shipping them to Israel Olive Grove Projects has helped thousands of people in need in Jerusalem. Budgets are small, but the impact it makes on the lives of those it helps is tangible. “We are indebted to the Jewish people. God showed Himself to us through the life and death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus and He was born into the Jewish culture. I cannot live without my Bible – mainly written by Jewish authors. The Torah and the Maker’s guidelines are foundational to our Laws and a recipe for having a wholesome and healthy lifestyle. That’s why I would love people to support Olive Grove Projects.”
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There are no more weekly wage packets from the bank for Eileen, but there are investments and a pension and plenty of generosity. “I hold these things quite lightly, I hope. We must underwrite our lives by prayer but I also like to do something practical!” You can give to Olive Grove Projects using your Stewardship account. Or get in touch with them via… Olive Grove Projects Rob & Margaret Hearing Olive Grove Projects, P.O. Box 1116 Luton LU1 1WN olivegrove@ntlworld.com
Olive Grove Projects 20028450
W Seeing my parents and others working so hard for their congregation and community set a powerful example that I’ve tried to follow.
ith a bit of head scratching and delving into your memory banks, you might just be able to remember what started you off on your journey of generosity. Maybe your parents prompted you to drop a few coins into a charity box. Did you volunteer for good causes while doing your Duke of Edinburgh’s Award? Perhaps giving up your time for others was your thing. Giving Account holder Nathan Miles’ generosity memory goes all the way back to age five. “I recall sitting in church with my parents who gave me a few coins to put into the collection bag. We went to a small church where they were heavily involved. Looking back, I can see that the way they generously gave up their time to help with the church influenced my feelings around generosity and giving.” 15
Those childhood experiences informed Nathan’s giving patterns. “I’m passionate about the local church. Growing up and seeing my parents and others working so hard for their congregation and community set a powerful example that I’ve tried to follow. I go to a small church plant myself and that’s a significant part of my life. I give my time and talents by acting as the Church Treasurer. Intertwined with that is my love of generosity and giving, which I know started in early childhood.” Nathan went to university in Bristol and joined Nationwide’s graduate scheme at 21. He liked it so much he stayed and now works on the Savings Team, coming up with new product ideas. His specialist knowledge of the world of finance has influenced his own generosity and giving. “I feel very fortunate to work for Nationwide – it’s been 16 years now so I must be doing something right!” Nathan’s university days were where his regular giving began. “I was part of the Christian Union. People talked more openly about giving than I was used to and that started me thinking about how I gave.”
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Youth work often lights a fire in teenagers and that’s exactly what happened to Nathan. “My old youth leaders left our church ten years ago and moved to Zambia to work in a school. They’re both teachers and they left with their two boys to teach in the school and to help be part of the Christian community there. I love supporting them partly in response to the generosity they showed me while I was growing up. Hopefully, through them, what I can do to help is blessing their local community too. We also sponsor 10-year-old Maribel from the Dominican Republic through Compassion.” Over the ten years since his church was planted, Nathan has never ceased to be amazed by the sheer force of sacrificial generosity within it. “There have often been times when we’ve struggled financially as a church. But our church family is so generous. On a few occasions when things have been really tight, a couple of gifts have turned up which have made a real difference. God’s been really faithful to us through the generosity of his family.”
On a few occasions when things have been really tight, a couple of gifts have turned up which have made a real difference.
Nathan is clear about his underlying reasons for giving. “It would be so easy to treat my giving like a gym subscription; it’s your membership ‘fee’ for being part of church, which I know does me good and it’s a habit. But that’s not how it works for me. I know that what I give supports people and causes which are helping to build the church and hopefully genuinely helping people, whether in my local community or around the world. I like to have a mixture of social action and church-based help in my giving and to be intentional.” Nathan is passionate about the local church and its generous impact on the local community. “My church, the Stowe Christian Community, models God’s love to our area through organising events for them, putting on community trips for those who can’t afford holidays and offering pastoral support to anyone who needs it. Stowe encapsulates everything I love about the local church and generosity. It’s why I give.”
Over the years, Nathan has used his Giving Account for a number of regular gifts but he loves the flexibility it gives him to be spontaneously generous. “If I see a need and I want to give there and then, often I’ll use some of the Gift Aid which has built up in my account. It’s cool! It feels like free money and it means that I can respond to an appeal, or something I feel really strongly about without having to ask myself if I can afford it. The account supports me in intentional and planned giving and with those spontaneous impulses which strike us all from time to time. The Giving Account has supported me on my generosity journey and I’m sure will continue to do so as my life goes on.”
Stowe Christian Community 20146572 17
Photos: Craig Borlase
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October 8th, 2018. Less than forty eight hours after the earthquake has killed three, injured dozens and left whole streets homeless, life in the town of Gros Morne has almost returned to normal. Almost. ike every other place in Haiti – a country where a quarter of the population live in extreme poverty and almost two thirds live on less than $2 per day – Gros Morne’s version of normal is a long way from ours. Yet much of the rubble has been cleared. Impromptu roadblocks have been set up, allowing faded tarps and tents to occupy the streets. And the last of the funerals – this one of a boy young enough for his father alone to lift his coffin from the back of the car – is taking place beneath the heat of the late Tuesday morning sun. Haitians are loud by nature. Car stereos and church speakers always sound like they’ve been turned up to eleven. When Haitians talk, even the most mundane of conversations can sound like an argument. But today people stand in silence as the white coffin is laid down and the lid peeled open. There are no cries, no sobs. Just silence. The buildings are like the people. You have to study hard to find the story of the earthquake’s impact. On some streets as many as one in three homes have sprouted wide cracks that snake down supporting pillars or stretch across lintels. From the outside, it doesn’t look too bad. But appearances can be deceiving.
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Madame Anora outside her home
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“We were inside when the first earthquake hit on Saturday night,” says Gideon Fresnel as he stands at the side of his home. Along with his sister and his two young daughters, he ran outside. There he saw the deep crack open up across the front of his single storey home. He was worried, but decided to take a risk and sleep inside that night.
Gideon Fresnel shows the damage to his house
On Sunday night it was different. When the earth shook for a second time, a main supporting wall collapsed. They ran through dust and falling rubble. Instantly, their house became uninhabitable. Their home became a place of fear. Like almost everyone else in the town, since then they have slept outside. Gideon doesn’t feel safe sleeping on the streets – there’s a fear that leaving his home or garden unoccupied will invite thieves. So in their tiny garden beneath a third-hand gazebo which has corroded joints and a leaking roof, they do the best they can. But they’re exposed to the wind and the rain. Worse, though, is the two storey building to the side. It has its own deep cracks along its walls. If that goes, none of Gideon’s family will be able to outrun it.
Further along the street lives his neighbour, Madame Anora. She says she’s too old to run, so when the earthquake hit and the powdery mortar walls peeled away in chunks, she got to her knees and prayed. “I prayed that God would save us,” she says. “I am still praying.” Like Gideon’s family, Madame Anora and her children and grandchildren have been too scared to sleep inside ever since. Rebuilding is the only option here. But it is also a fantasy.
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“Everybody knows what needs to happen,” says Yvrose Telfort, founder of Hope House Haiti – a charity working across the country to provide children living in extreme poverty with access to free education. “But the government won’t help. They’ll come and tell people which houses must be abandoned and which ones can be repaired, but that’s all.” In this town of seven thousand, that means that hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of residents will be left permanently homeless, with zero support. Few people expect any of the major NGOs to visit. Compared to the 2010 earthquake which claimed 300,000, this disaster simply isn’t bad enough. “Everyone has problems,” says Gideon. “Nobody will help us.” He’s right. But also wrong.
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Yvrose Telfort with the director of Gros Morne hospital
“We call it sweat equity,” says Yvrose. “We don’t have money but we can tell our supporters in the US and UK about the impact here in Gros Morne. If they can donate funds we can visit and work on their behalf.” Two weeks before the earthquake, Hope House Haiti opened a new school in a village a mile outside Gros Morne. Though their budgets are already tight and they push the notion of living by faith to the max, they have come to Gros Morne to do what they can to help. They have brought tarps and water. They make a tour of the town gathering information on the extent and impact of the earthquake. They listen to people’s stories and sit beside them as they cry.
So, how about it? Would you like to prove Gideon wrong? How about being the answer to Madame Anora’s prayers?
Hope House Haiti give.net/20238271 25
Legal and financial
In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul encourages the Christians at Corinth to give generously, cheerfully and also thoughtfully, having decided in advance how to give. Yet our research suggests that many of us do not review our giving for years at a time, especially if that giving is done by Direct Debit.
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7
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How should I review my giving? For most of us, it’s a healthy habit to review our pattern of giving at least once a year. God has given us freedom to decide how much we should give and who we should give it to, so the aim of this article is not to provide a set of rules. Rather, we hope that this list of questions will help you as you prayerfully review your giving. Has my capacity to give changed? Has my income gone up or down and have my other financial responsibilities increased or decreased? What proportion of my income am I currently giving? Is this in line with what I decided when I last reviewed my giving? Have the needs of my recipients changed? For example, have my overseas recipients suffered a drop in their funding because of changes in exchange rates? Do any of my friends in Christian ministry need more support because of (for example) the birth of a child or extra medical or travel expenses? Bear in mind that if any of your recipients operate on the principle of a faith mission, they might not tell you about their financial needs unless you actually ask.
Time for a review? But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. What new giving opportunities have I come across since I last reviewed my giving? Are these things I should support? How balanced is my ‘giving portfolio’? How am I dividing my giving between my local church and other charities or individual recipients? How about between different areas of the world or between different causes or issues? Do these proportions match the priorities that I have prayerfully set? What does my overall use of money (not just the amount that I give) say about where I’m putting my treasure and therefore my heart (see Matthew 6:21)? How can I partner in ministry with my recipients beyond just giving them money? Am I faithful in praying for them? Do I keep in regular contact with friends in Christian ministry and training? Could I volunteer my time and skills to serve an organisation I support financially? Am I giving with the aim of bringing praise and thanksgiving to God rather than to myself (see 2 Corinthians 9:11-15)?
Matthew 6:20-21
How can Stewardship help me to review my giving? The Stewardship Giving Account allows you to support your church, friends in Christian ministry and the charitable causes you care about, all in one online account. When you’re ready to review your giving, you can simply log into your account to view your regular donation requests and adjust the amount going to each recipient. There’s no need to contact each recipient individually or to complete new Direct Debit forms.
Rachel Steeden Rachel is our in-house legal advisor, working with the Gold team to serve Christians making large charitable gifts. 27
Ask Steve
Professional advice for churches and charities
Q: We are seeking to make better use of our website and social media as publicity and communication tools. What should we be aware of? With each generation the importance of using social media and web-based materials grows. Failing to embrace this fundamental social change risks overlooking a raft of people with the message of love, salvation and redemption. However, as many high profile cases have demonstrated, social media is not without its problems. Communication is instantaneous, potentially widespread and almost impossible to withdraw. It is therefore wise to have a communications policy which covers: CHURCH WEBSITE cA ppointing somebody to have overall responsibility for the website and its content. cE nsuring the website is safe from viruses and malicious alteration. cS ecuring consent for photographs used. cE nsuring the church is happy to be associated with sites for which it provides links. cC onsidering whether the website (including podcasts and sermons) contains defamatory material. cE nsuring the website and any data-collection forms are GDPR-compliant.
SOCIAL MEDIA cA ppointing someone to control content. cS etting profanity filters on public pages and profiles. cF inding ways to protect or quickly remove malicious or inappropriate responses. cC onfirming that copyrights have not been breached by publishing third party materials. cE nsuring all accounts are protected by strong passwords.
Modern communication media provides considerable potential to reach a wider audience, but a robust policy is wise as we all know someone who wished they had done something different. Christian Publishing and Outreach have created the church comms toolkit. It’s full of links to lots of helpful (and in many case free) resources around websites and social media – see toolkit.cpo.org.uk
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Q: My long-standing fellow trustees are proving resistant to some of the changes in governance procedures which I am seeking to introduce. Am I right in thinking more is expected of trustees now than was the case in the past? The short answer is yes. The Charity Commission, other regulators and the general public expect higher levels of professionalism from charity trustees than ever before and that is leading trustees to re-think some aspects of charity governance. Simply doing what you have been doing for the last ten years no longer really cuts it, with the Charity Commission guidance setting out what is now expected of trustees as the norm. Aspects of governance which may require a re-think include: Operating policies – It has long been the case that charities were expected to have policies regarding working with children and vulnerable adults, but good practice now suggests that a charity’s policies include: c Risk management c Grant-making c Conflicts of interest c Complaints handling c Volunteer management Risk management – Trustees are expected to understand what the key risks are to their charity and to have a plan to address them. This may mean: c I ntroducing suitable controls to mitigate risks cW here a risk is financial, transferring it to another party (e.g. insurance) cA ccepting a risk and documenting the reasons for doing so Subscribe to Stewardship’s consultancy helpline service, visit stewardship.org.uk/consultancy Subscriptions for churches and charities start from as little as £50 per year. If you have a question you would like addressed in a future edition of Share, please write to us at editor@stewardship.org.uk
Reserves – The Charity Commission has very recently raised the profile of ‘going concern’ with reserves playing an integral part in any going concern assessment. Understanding the purpose of reserves and having a sound methodology for calculating a reserves figure is part of the trustees’ responsibilities. Grant-making – For charities which make grants, particularly overseas, there is a greater expectation that trustees understand how those grants are being applied: cD o they meet the grant maker’s own charitable purposes? cW hat is the method used for transferring funds, especially where this falls outside of the regulated banking system? cH ave the trustees considered the possibilities of money laundering, terrorist financing and bribery, and considered having policies in place that deal with these issues? Conflicts of interest – Trustees are expected to have in place policies and procedures which deal with conflicts of interest. These may be pertinent when discussing remuneration levels, working arrangements or when procuring goods and services. Conflicted trustees should take no part in discussions on areas where the conflict exists. Whilst this increased level of professionalism may be readily absorbed in large resource-rich charities, for many churches that are already struggling to recruit and retain trustees this increased level of expectation can be difficult to manage. Stewardship recognise these difficulties and as a result have made available to churches resources, many of which are free, to help trustees better fulfil their governance role. These can be found in the resources section of our website.
Stephen Mathews Stephen heads up the Stewardship consultancy helpline team, a specialist service offering expert knowledge to churches and charities.
Visit stewardship.org.uk/blog for links to all the briefing papers mentioned 29
which had been instilled in me somehow. When I was nine I befriended a lonely boy at school and invited myself round to his house. I couldn’t believe the circumstances he was living in – we marched up endless concrete stairs and entered an empty flat with barely a stick of furniture. It just seemed so unfair to me that I had so much and he had so little. This sense of injustice has always been at the centre of my giving – giving out of a heart of thankfulness and compassion.
What do you know about giving that you didn’t know ten years ago?
WHY I
GIVE Allan Plumpton
Account holder since 1967 What were you taught about generosity when you were a child? I feel that generosity and saving are linked. From a very young age, probably as a fouryear-old, I was given money each Saturday for helping around the house, and I distinctly remember Mum taking me to open a National Savings Bank account. She also said, “I think it would be a good idea too, if you put one of your Saturday pennies into a jam jar each week, so you can put it in the collection bag at Sunday School.” I remember feeling a great sense of injustice
This sense of injustice has always been at the centre of my giving – giving out of a heart of thankfulness and compassion. 30
That the act of giving releases an enormous sense of pleasure and ownership of a project. Having said that, I also recognise that ‘undesignated’ giving is at least as important as ‘project funding’ – something that some folk don’t like to acknowledge. Having worked in the charity field for 25 years I realise every organisation has a back-office to run and undesignated giving gives the officers and trustees a more realistic prospect of balancing the books and ensuring that essential ongoing, but unglamorous, work is still doable.
What’s the hardest thing? When we were first married, 60 years ago, money was really tight and it was tempting to pull the odd shilling out of the charity jar to feed the gas meter when the weather suddenly turned cold! More recently, it is sometimes hard to determine what to support with ‘extra’ gifts – the appeals for one disaster after another keep coming in from all over the world. You look at the balance on your Giving Account, see that it is only just sufficient to cover next month’s tranche of standing order gift commitments, and realise there is only £5 left and they’re asking for £25. So we ask ourselves – “Do I send what I’ve got or dig another bit out of our main bank account?” – which is what quite often happens.
And the easiest thing? To phone Stewardship’s office! When I was a charity trustee/officer, at times I needed legal advice about some of the organisations I either formed initially, or became involved with. Advice was always forthcoming quickly, and at very modest cost – mostly covered by your consultancy helpline service. This saved me a huge amount of time and research when the rules and procedures kept changing for charitable organisations.
What Biblical passages inspire generosity in you the most? There are so many. I noticed from the Stewardship website a comment that there are over 2,300 verses on the subject of money. We are only God’s caretakers of what is His anyway for just our lifetimes – you can’t take it with you! Very early we were taught about the principles of tithing at Crusaders and how, in Israel, the tithes were used and distributed to those in their time of need [Deuteronomy 26:12-13]. Later it became apparent to me that 1/10th of income was not a limit but a useful guide. I remember observing one of my clients who was tithing absolutely every penny that came in, regardless of what it was for or who it came from – it struck me as a bit excessive, especially when someone gave you a designated gift for the Christian ministry in which you yourself were involved. For example, when I was given £500 for my fare to Kenya by a friend just before my first assignment out there in 1993, I did not hesitate to use it all for just that. Then there was the chap who stored all his gains in ever larger barns [Luke 12:1621] – this made me realise I couldn’t ‘take it with me’ and also that it didn’t seem a very useful or neighbourly thing to do either for society, so I deliberately tried to live unostentatiously. I’d rather repair, recycle and adapt old stuff than lash out cash on
new replacements or the latest gadget every time some piece of kit went wrong or a new model came out. Although Proverbs 13:22 says: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.” This is a challenge but I think we have taught our three children the value of money, and in any case they have all now got themselves reasonably established in life.
What’s the best example of generosity you have seen in action? My friend Nigel Hyde, who is also a chartered accountant like me, and gave up a well-paid job in London to move into the Christian charity sector. After a few years, having got to understand how the charity sector operated, he decided to set up his own charity [Mission Direct] with the primary purpose of recruiting young people to go out to the third world with discarded used kit from the UK which could be recycled., After a recce, they would bring things like old school equipment and hospital kit out in containers and get it back into use in places where it was needed such as in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. He has recently set up a similar charity in Sierra Leone. He has just witnessed the fruit of his labours in the establishment of a whole new township [named Destiny Village], which was opened by the SL State President in July 2018 and is now operating on similar lines to an Israeli kibbutz! Both Nigel and his family have been and still are an inspiration to the hundreds of volunteers who have joined him out there and enabled that to happen. My guess is that had he remained in mainstream business in London, he would have been heading up a multinational institution by now, on an annual salary of over £1m, and living in a huge house. Instead though, he has a modest house in the Hampshire countryside where we visited him recently.
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