Planned Giving

When you read the title of this blog post, you might have thought I was writing about what you plan to leave in your estate, right? Wrong! Conventionally, those two words are used together almost exclusively in determining who gets what when you die.

At the close of the year, Cheryl and I were talking about our contributions during the year, and she reminded me that we had not given to Send Relief. I looked at a file I have in Evernote and realized that not only had we not given to Send Relief, but there were two other ministries that we had not given to during the year.

In this file I can look back at previous years to see what we gave to a particular organization, and then we determine each year if we will continue to give to that nonprofit. Then we decide how much we will give. The system has worked well in the past, but I had not been consistent with our “planned giving.”

The name of the file is “Stewardship.” Such a great word, but one that is rarely used today. Most people could not give a definition of the word, but many would say something like this: “It has something to do with money.” Oh, but it is about much more than just money, but that is another topic for another day.

Planning is important, but giving spontaneously can also be a good thing. The Lord brings things and people to our minds because he wants us to act—to pray for them, to help them with a need, to give to a Christian ministry, to help with a special emphasis at our church, or to help a needy person or family.

If we give spontaneously, it should not be haphazard. Second Corinthians 9:7 states, “Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.” The fact that we make our decision from the heart suggests that our gift should be carefully and prayerfully planned.

The way we steward our resources should be planned and intentional. First Corinthians 16:1-2 says, “Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. Paul taught that every time the church gathered, they should set aside money to give. We should follow Paul’s teaching and reserve money to give according to our income.

I have talked about setting aside money for ministries and urgent needs of others, but giving to our local church is primary in planned giving. What I give to nonprofit ministries and people in need must be above and beyond my regular giving to my church.

It is not a question of whether I should give to a world catastrophe, support an orphanage in a developing country, help a struggling family or give to my church. All of those are worthy causes, but my first gifts should go to my church. God ordained the church in establishing Jesus Christ as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20), but no ministry that I support was ordained by God.

It is good to include in your planned giving gifts to ministries that operate outside the structure of your local church; however, this giving should not substitute our giving to our local church. Giving to parachurch organizations should be above and beyond.

The Lord commands our giving to be decided in the heart, so our gifts need to be prayerfully inspired and wisely planned.