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    The Gratitude Path: Leading Your Church to Generosity
    The Gratitude Path: Leading Your Church to Generosity
    The Gratitude Path: Leading Your Church to Generosity
    Ebook124 pages1 hour

    The Gratitude Path: Leading Your Church to Generosity

    By Kent Millard

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    About this ebook

    The Gratitude Path is a five-session study designed for use by churches, leadership teams, and small groups. This step-by-step guide helps congregations grow in generosity by focusing on gratitude for God’s blessings. Chapters conclude with questions for personal reflection and devotion. The book includes a 12-step plan for pastors and other leaders to successfully conduct their own Gratitude Campaign in a church of any size or denomination.


    If you have ever cringed at the thought of the annual giving campaign, this is the book for you. With practical instruction for conducting a gratitude campaign, it will not only bring about positive stewardship but may very well shift the culture of your community to walk and live that path of gratitude.
    --Carolyn Scanlan-Holmes, Senior Minister, Avon Christian Church, Avon, IN

    This is a practical and accessible tool for developing generous givers, and an invitation into relationship with our bounteous God.
    --Bruce R. Ough, Bishop of the Minnesota Conference, UMC

    Kent Millard has helped countless other pastors and congregations conduct ‘Gratitude Campaigns’ with spectacular results. With this book his plan is now available to everyone. I hope many church leaders read and follow this pathway to improved stewardship.
    --Michael J. Coyner, Bishop of the Indiana Conference, UMC

    This wonderful resource helps us move stewardship from fundraising to an experience of God's transforming grace.
    --Rob Fuquay, Senior Pastor, St Lukes UMC, Indianapolis, IN

    The first five chapters of The Gratitude Path are spiritually energizing, personal, and thoughtfully devotional. Pastors could preach sermons based on each one of them. Chapter six is a pivotal organizational chapter for pastors and lay leaders. Here, Millard outlines his Gratitude Campaign step by step. This is a resource that we are happy to recommend to congregations.
    --Bill Enright, Senior Fellow, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University

    This book demonstrates how to develop an attitude of gratitude in each facet of the local church. Every leader in our church will read this book.
    --Jacob Williams, Jr., Senior Pastor, First Valparaiso UMC, Valparaiso, IN

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateAug 18, 2015
    ISBN9781630883201
    The Gratitude Path: Leading Your Church to Generosity
    Author

    Kent Millard

    Kent Millard is a Gratitude Coach for thousands of congregations in the Midwest and former senior pastor of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He has served as a member of the leadership team for the Academy of Spiritual Formation program sponsored by the Upper Room. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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      Book preview

      The Gratitude Path - Kent Millard

      9781630883201_Cover.jpg

      Half-Title Page

      15317.png

      Other Books by Kent Millard

      Other Books by Kent Millard

      Lead Like Butler

      The Passion-Driven Congregation

      T.I.M.E.: Together In Ministry Everyday

      Get Acquainted with Your Christian Faith

      Spiritual Gifts

      Title Page

      15826.png

      Copyright Page

      THE GRATITUDE PATH:

      LEADING YOUR CHURCH TO GENEROSITY

      Copyright © 2015 by Abingdon Press

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., PO Box 280988, Nashville, TN 37228-0988, or e-mailed to permissions@umpublishing.org.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Millard, M. Kent, 1941-

      The gratitude path : leading your church to generosity / by Kent Millard.—First [edition].

      1 online resource.

      Includes bibliographical references.

      Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

      ISBN 978-1-63088-320-1 (e-pub)—ISBN 978-1-63088-319-5 (print)

      1. Gratitude—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Generosity—Religious aspects—Christianity. 3. Christian giving. I. Title.

      BV4647.G8

      254’.8—dc23

      2015012465

      Scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by the Common English Bible. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.CommonEnglishBible.com.

      Scripture quotations marked NRSV are from New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Scripture quotations marked KJV are from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

      Dedication Page

      In memory of Bishop Rueben Job, who was my spiritual mentor, leadership coach, and model for living a grateful and generous life.

      Contents

      15350.png

      Introduction: The Gratitude Path

      Chapter One: Just to Say Thanks

      Chapter Two: Give Thanks in Every Situation

      Chapter Three: Give and It Will Be Given to You

      Chapter Four: God Loves a Cheerful Giver

      Chapter Five: Expect a Miracle

      Chapter Six: Leading a Gratitude Campaign

      Introduction: The Gratitude Path

      15383.png

      Then Jesus took the bread. When he had given thanks, he distributed it to those who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, each getting as much as they wanted.

      —John 6:11

      After taking a cup and giving thanks he said, Take this and share it among yourselves.

      —Luke 22:17

      After taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them.

      —Luke 22:19

      The Gratitude Path is the path in life that Jesus followed.

      Five thousand people once came to hear Jesus preach, teach, and heal. When the evening came and the people were hungry, Jesus invited them to sit down and receive a meal. A young boy brought five loaves and two fish to Jesus. Jesus received the loaves and fish from the boy and gave thanks to God for them, and when they were distributed to the crowd, there was more than enough for all (John 6:1-11).

      Later in his Gospel, John referred to the place where Jesus fed the five thousand as: . . . the place where they had eaten the bread over which the Lord had given thanks (John 6:23). The place where Jesus fed the five thousand is remembered by John as the place where the Lord had given thanks (John 6:23). Before Jesus raised Lazarus from death to life he looked up and said, ‘Father, thank you for hearing me’ (John 11:41).

      On the last night of his life, Jesus took a cup and a loaf of bread and gave thanks to God before he distributed them to his disciples.

      In the Gospels, Jesus frequently gave thanks and praise to God. Jesus lived his life with an attitude of gratitude toward God in all the different circumstances of his life and called his followers to give constant thanks and praise to God as well.

      When we follow Jesus along the gratitude path of life, we discover that we too live closer to God and experience God’s abundance and blessings in our lives.

      Unfortunately, rather than counting our blessings we are often people who ignore God’s blessings in our lives and count our problems instead. Jesus did not spend his time counting his problems but rather trusting in God and giving thanks to God regardless of his circumstances. The Gratitude Path is the path Jesus followed in life and the path he invites us to travel with him.

      This book is designed to help pastors and congregations focus on counting our many blessings and giving time, talent, and treasure to God out of gratitude for all God has first given to us. This is a stewardship resource based on the idea that we give to God not out of obligation, guilt, or a need to meet a church budget. Rather, we give thanks to God with a grateful heart because God has first blessed us in abundant ways.

      After graduating from seminary with two advanced degrees, I went eagerly to my first appointment to serve God and the people of that parish. I knew a great deal about the Bible, church history, pastoral care, and theology. However, at my first church board meeting, I was not asked anything about the Bible, church history, pastoral care, or theology. I was asked what my plan was for the stewardship campaign in the fall.

      Now, in my whole seminary education I had never had a course on stewardship campaigns or given a moment of thought about how to lead one. I told the board I would have to give their request some thought and would bring back a plan at the next meeting. The next day I visited a nearby experienced pastor and asked him what he did in a stewardship campaign. I copied everything he said and took it back to our board meeting, and we followed his stewardship campaign plan to the letter with good results.

      I expect that my experience is not unusual. Few pastors have much experience in leading a local church stewardship campaign, and many pastors and laypeople are very uncomfortable in even talking about giving in a local church.

      I have served as pastor in a two-point parish in a rural area, a suburban congregation, two downtown congregations, and a large regional church of over six thousand members. In every congregation the issue was the same: How do we best enroll people in giving time, talent, and treasure to support God’s work through the congregation?

      Since I retired from appointment to a local church, I serve as the volunteer Gratitude Coach for the eleven hundred United Methodist congregations in Indiana. This means I coach pastors and stewardship or finance committees in how to change the paradigm about giving to support God’s work.

      Frequently, I am invited to work with congregations who have financial challenges. I discover that many of them have no plan for giving and don’t want anyone to talk about pledging or being generous in support of God’s work. They simply receive an offering every Sunday and hope that it will be enough to cover their expenses. But as the congregation declines in membership, income goes down and they have to go to a part-time pastor and reduce their mission giving because they don’t have the necessary resources.

      I invite congregations not to start the conversation about giving with the needs of the congregation. I encourage them to start talking about the blessings God has already given each of us. I ask finance committee members to mention some of the ways God has blessed them with family, health, resources, and the ground we walk on and the air we breathe. I ask them to consider the blessing God gave all of us when God sent Jesus into the world to offer us unconditional love and forgiveness and to give us an eternally meaningful life now and forever.

      When people begin to count their blessings, they realize that God has blessed us abundantly. And if we feel any sense of gratitude for these blessings, we want to give to God in appreciation for all God has first given us.

      When a child receives a Christmas or birthday gift from someone, the parents will say to the child, What do you say? And the child will remember to say thank you to the person who gave the gift.

      In a similar way we have all been given countless gifts from God and need to be reminded to say Thank you, God for all the gifts we have been given by our gracious God.

      However, we are often reluctant to invite people to give generously to God out of gratitude. Consequently, giving in local Protestant congregations has declined as a percentage

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