How can we help our children become responsible, generous, unselfish people? This question is critical to the church as it looks to shape the next generation of faithful givers. It is even more critical to families confronted with the “gimme-gimme-gimme” mindset our consumeristic culture pushes onto their children from the most tender age.
It makes no sense to talk to a kindergartener about giving ten percent when children aren’t typically taught percentages until the fifth grade.
While the need to instill generosity in younger generations is more critical than ever, it is also more challenging than ever before. Some of us are old enough to remember when Sunday school children filled cardboard folders with nickels, dimes, and quarters and when offerings were taken up in every Sunday school classroom. These time-honored ways of teaching stewardship have fallen out of favor. But in many churches, nothing else has sprung up in their place. Moreover, we now face the new challenge of teaching children about money and value in our cashless society.
This situation begs the church to think anew about how we foster generosity in our children. These five principles can guide our efforts.
1. Nurture the joy of giving.
Children are innately generous because they bear the stamp of their generous Creator. Teaching the joy of giving is more effective than teaching the obligation to give for people of all ages.
2. Teach giving in age-appropriate ways.
The concepts of stewardship and tithing, frequently used in church conversations about giving, are too complex for young children. Instead of stewardship, use the language of caring, sharing, and giving. Instead of tithing, use a “three jar system” to help children prioritize spending, saving, and giving. School-age children can be taught to distinguish between wants and needs and how money functions in their lives and in the church. Older school-age children and teens benefit from being given agency and responsibility in raising funds for projects they care about.
3. Motivate and equip parents.
Faithful stewardship is often rooted in lessons children learn at home, so successful stewardship education for children enlists parents as key allies. It reminds parents that the most powerful lesson a child will learn about stewardship and generosity is the example set by their parents’ spending and giving practices.
4. Make stewardship a holistic aspect of your overall children’s ministry.
Strive to integrate themes related to stewardship and generosity throughout every aspect of your children’s programming — children’s messages in worship, Sunday school lessons, Vacation Bible School, music, and mission and service activities. This also means motivating and equipping your children’s ministry leaders and teachers to give appropriate emphasis to stewardship.
5. Encourage children to participate fully in congregational stewardship.
Take some time to think through how children in your church are being invited to participate in the offering. If they are seated with their parents in the pews when the collection is taken, help parents understand that what they put in the plate sets a powerful example for their children. And encourage them to help their children give their own gifts, whether it is offered in worship, during a children’s time, or in the Sunday school classroom.
excerpt from a story by Ann A. Michel, Senior Consultant and co-editor of Leading Ideas e-newsletter, the Lewis Center for Church Leadership
United Methodist Church Giving is about people working together to accomplish something bigger than themselves. In so doing, we effect change around the world, all in the name of Jesus Christ. To read stories about the generosity of United Methodists click here.
