A message from Bishop David

Giving, generosity and thankfulness are essential aspects of our Christian discipleship. As children, we were taught by our families and church schools that this was a vital part of our Christian faith. This responsibility of teaching lifelong giving has now been passed to our church communities.

We need to equip our clergy and laity with the skills and confidence to do this well within our church buildings, and to share these messages within the communities where they are located. Here, we provide a valuable toolkit of resources for our churches to use. We recognise that a ‘one size fits all’ approach will not work, so the broad range of resources includes lots of options and ideas. You can select and choose what will work best for your church, and put the ideas into action within your individual context.

Training is vital if we are to equip people with the skills and knowledge to do this well on an ongoing basis. As a good discipleship model, we will also be encouraging successful churches to walk alongside their neighbouring churches, sharing their knowledge and experience in practical ways to help them to be successful.

Giving is changing rapidly. Our churches need to be equipped to offer the donation methods donors choose to use. One of the goals of our giving strategy is for all churches to be able to receive digital donations in some form. This is an aim we can all achieve.

Our diocese is implementing ambitious plans to grow. If we are to achieve these successfully it is vital that generosity and thankfulness are at their core.

Useful resources

Generosity Learning Hub

The Generosity Learning Hub is a training and resource-filled website funded by the Church of England as part of the National Giving Strategy. A simple registration is all that is needed to use the site, and anyone with an interest can complete this process. Examples of what you’ll find once you have logged in can be found below:

• Training courses (e.g. ‘Stewardship in the local church’ and ‘Theology of giving’)
• Worship materials (including morning prayer, service of the word, and eucharist)
• Case studies and inspiring stories

You can register to access the Generosity Learning Hub here.

Building a generous church

The ‘Building a generous church’ section of the Church of England’s website contains lots of useful advice and resources to provide assistance to parish churches of all sizes, including:

• Enabling giving
• Encouraging generosity
• Generosity resources
• Generous church blog
• Webinars and training