Giving, Growing, or Going? What Your Church's Data Reveals About Engagement
What if your giving data could tell you more than whether your church is meeting budget?
Over the last six years, we’ve seen a noticeable shift in how people engage with the church. The traditional path often looked like attending, serving, and then giving. Today, we’re increasingly seeing people attend, give a small amount, and perhaps eventually become consistent givers, without necessarily taking deeper steps into serving or community.For many people, time has become one of their most guarded resources. Giving a small amount can feel like enough participation, while serving, joining a group, or becoming more deeply engaged requires something they may be less willing to give: their time.
We’re also seeing people give once and then seemingly walk right out the back door.
So what can those giving patterns tell us about the people behind them?
In this prerecorded conversation, DeWayne McNally and David Thoroughman are joined by Frank Bealer, CEO of Generis, to explore how church leaders can use generosity data to better understand, disciple, and care for their people.
You’ll hear practical insights on:
- Recognize the difference between a financially healthy church and a truly generous church
- Use giving data as a window into engagement, discipleship, and pastoral-care opportunities
- Understand what first-time, recurring, and lapsed giving patterns may be telling you
- Respond when a regular giver suddenly changes or stops their giving pattern
- Move beyond simply getting a second gift and focus instead on helping people become more deeply connected to the church
- Avoid treating recurring givers like “subscribers” while missing signs of declining relational engagement
- Better understand your church’s generosity capacity, not just its current giving
- Prepare your people for asset giving and the significant transfer of wealth happening across generations
- Use data, forecasting, and generosity strategy to support long-term vision rather than simply building next year’s budget
- Whether you’re preparing for a generosity initiative, thinking about year-end giving, or simply trying to better understand how engagement is changing in your church, this conversation will challenge you to look beyond the dollars.