Four Anxieties About Stewardship Preaching (And How to Overcome Them)

Few pastors look forward to preaching the annual stewardship or generosity campaign. When we step into the pulpit during this season, most of us feel discomfort with the subject matter. We also feel burdened by the sense that this is a high-stakes moment in the preaching calendar. Let’s address four big sources of preaching anxiety when the subject turns to money.

1) We are anxious about our own stewardship.

This is my first fall as the father of two college-aged children and a new homeowner. If I told you those big financial changes haven’t affected our giving, I’d be lying. Maybe your family is dealing with similar changes, such as medical bills or student loan debt.

Remember that giving is a spiritual discipline. In that sense, it’s like prayer, forgiveness, or anything else in the spiritual life, a journey, not a destination.

What can you do starting this Sunday to bring your giving more in line with the goals you, your family, and the Holy Spirit have prayerfully set together? There is no shame in being in a tough spot on your journey. The growth process is about owning the gap between where you are and your ideal, offering it to God, and then taking the next faithful step toward the vision. Then be ready to tell that story in your preaching. Preachers aren’t required to have already arrived; we just need to be willing to walk the journey alongside our people.

2) We feel uncomfortable being the ones “asking for money.”

In many churches, the clergy compensation package looms large in the budget. That can turn stewardship preaching into an icky-feeling exercise in self-interest. Most of us have experienced that twinge while preaching the annual campaign.

The church’s budget includes the pastoral compensation package, yes. It also includes all the other things that make it possible to serve the community and the world: the facility costs that allow 12-step groups to meet for free, the outreach budget that cares for neighbors in need, and the apportionment dollars that touch lives around the world. Remember that people’s generosity is the very thing that allows the church to reach beyond itself, so preach into that.

That helps, but you can take the thought further by reframing your feelings with a theology of giving. Giving is primarily about the giver’s faith, my need to trust God’s provision while supporting God’s work in the world. I’m inviting my hearers to put their faith in God and grow in their discipleship. In that sense, it’s not about my compensation package, or even about the budget at all.

Practically, itis important that the pastor isn't the only one talking about giving. So, by all means, enlist some folks to share their testimony during this season. A three-minute witness from a layperson is often more effective than a twenty-minute sermon from the pastor.

3) We haven’t integrated our own theology of stewardship and generosity into a broader understanding of discipleship.

It’s important that we think deeply about how we understand generosity, both as a matter of theology and practice. One problem in our stewardship preaching is that it tends to focus on the soundbite rather than the whole picture. We easily slip into a focus on the giving rather than the goal of the giving, which is changed hearts and lives.

In this season, we often try to preach the “money texts” that we won’t touch at any other time. As a result, we often feel boxed in by them. What if we explored themes of hospitality or forgiveness as a way of getting at the open-heartedness that is the true end of our giving? My favorite text to illustrate this might be Matthew 5:43-48. Because what’s more generous than learning to love our enemies?

4) We think our message is make-or-break.

One commitment Sunday, I was preaching what I thought was the most amazing message on giving when I was jolted by an intense WHUUUP-WHUUUP-WHUUUP. Someone accidentally tripped the fire alarm. It struck me as an overly dramatic way to avoid the stewardship sermon, but as the fire engines rolled up, I admitted defeat. I never got to finish the message. I pronounced the benediction from the parking lot to the handful of folks who hung around until the firefighters declared the “all clear.”

I was disappointed that I never got to the sermon’s punchline, but the interruption didn’t affect the campaign's outcome.

You’ll never hear me say that preaching doesn’t matter; of course it does. But like everything else in the church’s life, this is ultimately about what God does, not what we do. The best we can strive for is to be faithful in sharing the message that generosity isn’t an add-on to the spiritual life, but its very heart.