Unlocking Generosity
What is the PAT answer to ministry funding issues?
Preach.
Ask.
Thank.
It seems simple enough. Yet four years ago, I had never considered it this clearly when I was invited into a conversation about lagging stewardship discipleship at a mid-sized church in Oklahoma.
I sat in a meeting with church leaders and elders who were wrestling with a familiar challenge: how to encourage a generous congregation to participate broadly—across families and generations—rather than relying on the same top 20 percent of members. What they did not yet realize was that their giving mirrored the national norm. The Pareto Principle was alive and well: roughly 20 percent of the giving base was funding 80 percent or more of the ministry.
I was not looking for a job. I did not feel called to return to my former career in fundraising. But God placed an urgent question on my heart: Has the Church (capital C) actually progressed in stewardship discipleship—what the secular world calls development?
After months of reading dozens of books, combing through research, and speaking with pastors and ministry leaders across the country, I came to a sobering conclusion. The church had not progressed. In fact, it was quietly losing ground—sliding toward a future where giving increasingly favors secular nonprofits and social justice initiatives that resemble the work of Jesus, yet often lack the local church’s essential role in discipleship, community, Biblical teaching, and worship.
The ground was not completely lost – not yet. But the trend line was unmistakable.
As someone who grew up atheist in an atheist household and came to faith as an adult because a local church existed just a few blocks from my first home, that realization sparked a wildfire of research and conviction.
Over the next three years, I worked alongside that Oklahoma church. Together, we moved the needle from being 22 percent behind budget—the context of that initial meeting—to 25 percent over budget the following year, 27 percent over the year after that, and ultimately to the successful completion of a capital campaign annual initiative in July 2025.
That journey forced me to distill everything I had learned into a single, 60,000-foot question:
How do you move the needle on stewardship discipleship in the church? How do you unlock generosity?
The first answer is preaching.
It sounds obvious because it is. The Silent Generation was the last generation broadly discipled in the Word when it came to giving. Boomers received partial instruction. Then the thread largely unraveled—leaving Gen X underserved and subsequent generations increasingly disconnected. Today, Gen Z has often bypassed church giving altogether in favor of social justice causes they encounter outside the church.
Their skepticism is not irrational. It reflects decades of social unrest, institutional failure and distrust, COVID, and political volatility. And yet, Gen Z is showing up to church in numbers larger than several generations before them.
If we want to disciple them fully, we must preach the full truth from the pulpit—and that includes generosity.
Preaching one giving-related passage a year, without ever asking people to give, is not enough. You must connect the dots. You must ask.
This is where the work becomes layered, but the principle remains simple. Giving must be presented as an invitation—an invitation to join the great gospel adventure with joy, at whatever level someone is ready. The ask should be clear, gracious, and directly connected to ministry impact.
Donors need to know they are making a difference.
Too often, we withhold stories for two reasons: humility and confidentiality. Both matter. Neither must be violated.
But well-placed testimonials and ministry outcome stories are powerful. They motivate generosity—and they also minister personally to those who are struggling. Stories matter. Outcomes matter.
Every single weekend, members should be invited to give. And every single weekend, they should see the fruit of generosity—through slides, videos, stories, or brief testimonies that reveal the passion behind the calling to ministry. What moves the pastor’s heart will move the congregation’s heart. When people can see the impact, the gap between non-giving and joyful giving begins to close.
Once gifts are received, thanking becomes mission-critical.
Within the church, we rightly say that all resources flow from God. But somewhere along the way, that truth became an excuse to neglect intentional gratitude toward the people God uses as stewards.
It takes a remarkably mature disciple to give repeatedly without ever hearing “thank you” and without ever seeing outcomes. Generationally, that level of maturity cannot be assumed.
Secular nonprofits understand this well. They tell stories relentlessly. They connect the dots. And they thank donors—promptly and personally. A thank-you within 24 hours is standard. Meaningful gifts often receive handwritten notes.
At a battered women’s shelter where I worked, we included drawings and notes from children staying in the shelter. When donors received those, something shifted. They didn’t just feel appreciated—they felt connected. They could see that their gift mattered.
At the end of the day, every human being wants to know they make a difference.
When I look back over my own life, the highlights are not accomplishments or accolades. They are moments when I gave of my time, talent, or treasure.
That is deeply Biblical.
Jesus’ directive is simple and profound: “Love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another” One of the greatest acts of love in ministry is discipling good stewards.
May we use our time, our talent, and our treasure for His glory.
Amen.
Bren Brown is a Managing Director at Kingdom Architects in Southlake, Texas. The firm is an investment banking firm that specializes in M&A and business advisory for Christian owned/led businesses, but also church advisory. She seeks to shepherd churches, schools and organizations to higher levels of stewardship discipleship by strengthening the business acumen of the church and improving development toward the annual fund and through capital campaigns. Please visit: www.kingdomarchitects.com for more information. Or, bren.brown@kingdomarchitects.com.