Generous Disciples
The Generous Disciples programme is one of the strands in our Mission and Planning reviews, aiming to support every church to become missionally healthy and financially sustainable.
During the Generous Disciples meeting, we cover the following;
- Why give generously?
- Five seeds to sow
- Suggested Priorities for your church
View the Generous Disciples booklet here.
Below, you can find the ‘Five Seeds to Sow’, with resources and suggested *Cornerstone Pathways to help you along with growing generosity and good stewardship in your church.
*Cornerstone is a Church of England resource website with step-by-step pathways to help you complete stewardship tasks, see data and insights from your financial return and access a bespoke grants database for fundraising. Scroll down to ‘Good Budgeting’ for support with uploading your church budget to Cornerstone.
Using the Parish Giving Scheme
The Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) is the most effective and efficient way to give regularly. It supports the regular planned giving that sustains our churches and the ‘first fruits’ at the heart of all generous giving.
In Liverpool 95% of parishes use the PGS with over 4,000 givers gifting over £4.5 million to their churches, every year. The PGS is a network of generosity.
Click here for actions and resources
| 5 things to consider | Resources & links | Useful Cornerstone pathways |
| “Our leadership team understand the many benefits of being registered with the Parish Giving Scheme” | Your church may have registered with the PGS, but your leadership team may have changed. Circulate this PGS PCC guide to your team to refresh their memory. | Launch, or relaunch the Parish Giving Scheme |
| “Our local leadership team members (or PCC) use the PGS and model what we invite all church members to do.” | Gently encourage, or remind, all of your leaders to join the PGS. We never pressure people to give, or give more than they can. | |
| “We have over 50% of our current givers using the PGS and we are encouraging folk to move from envelopes, standing orders and open plate giving to the PGS.” | Speak with your PGS Statement Reciever. If you’re not sure who this is, you can call PGS on 0333 002 1260 or contact the Resources Team. | |
| “We are offering the PGS as the first choice way to give regularly for all new church members.” | Imagine you have just joined your church and there has been an invitation for the congregation to review their giving. How would they know how to do it? (We would advise that you do not advertise giving by envelope or Standing Order, as these are less efficient for the church and the giver.) | Encouraging Generosity through Fresh Expressions of Church |
| “We explain the benefits and importance of PGS to our givers; – on our website and achurchnearyou.com page – through printed literature (visible for people to see when the come into our building) – and social media channels” | Check your website and giving page. Does it have more than 3 ways to give? Does it link to your Parish Giving Scheme page? Does it explain the benefits of the scheme and/or link to a testimonial? Templates for flyers on our PGS page |
Going Digital
Between 2020 and 2025 in Liverpool Diocese, digital gifts have grown by 515%. We know people of all ages, including pensioners, are using cash less and the option to make a quick and efficient gift is attractive as well as practical.
Churches must offer other digital giving options to make giving easy and accessible, online and in church. If not, we miss opportunities for people to give, every week.
Click here for actions and resources
| 5 things to consider | Resources & links | Useful Cornerstone pathways |
| “We have a contactless card reader in church for use on Sundays, midweek activities and the occasional offices. People know how to operate it and make sure it is working.” | If your church does not have a contactless giving station, or needs an updated device, please go to Parish Buying (parishbuying.org.uk) and browse their Contactless Giving page. If you are having rouble deciding or would like advice, please contact the Resources Team. | Getting Started with Contactless Giving |
| “We have made sure the contactless giving station is visible, accessible and attractive and that it connects with our worship and liturgy.” | Keep it simple! Tie your giving area into the liturgy if you can, with seasonal flowers or a coloured tablecloth. Print or design your own Giving cards for those who would still like to add to the offertory plate, but give digitally or via the bank. Download giving cards Design your own giving cards | Make Giving Visible |
| “We have a confident giving invitation from our clergy and all who lead our public worship, occasional offices and any special services.” | The Offertory has changed a lot in the last 10 years. Consider how digital gifts feature within your offertory. Offertory Prayers Offertory presentation slide template Offertory slide download | Giving at Life Events: Baptisms Making a Great Financial Ask |
| “Our church website and ‘A Church Near You’ page link to our online giving platform (e.g. Give a Little or PGS); we are familiar with options such as image changes and campaigns.” | See this guide for setting up a Giving Campaign, Step 6 shows you how to share your online giving campaign. | Getting Started with Online Giving |
| “We check our device for hardware and software updates. If we are having technical troubles we know how to contact the manufacturer, software provider or diocesan support.” | Device support: CollecTin: support@collectin.com Payaz: support@payaz.com GWD: support@gwd.team SumUp: partnersupport@sumup.com Resources Team: resources.team@liverpool.anglican.org |
Good Stewardship Practice
The financial challenges we face are rarely solved by fundraising longer, harder, better. We need good stewardship, biblically informed principles and practice to resource mission and ministry, abundantly. Church leaders are the architects of stewardship; we have the raw materials and creative resources to enable churches to design and build something sustainable.
Click here for actions and resources
| 5 things to consider | Resources & links | Useful Cornerstone pathways |
| “We have a planned, annual focus on generous giving in our worship, drawing on the diocesan Generous Seasons and/or national Generosity Week resources.” | For a light-touch introduction to generosity, see Generous Seasons Resources For a Full Stewardship Programme, see Giving in Grace National Generosity Week | Running a Generosity Week |
| “We hear sermons on generous giving and living regularly and we encourage and support our clergy and all preachers to preach about giving with confidence.” | Not so confident in preaching about giving? Need some encouragement from your team? There is training available with the National Giving Team, as well as support from within the diocese to make it easier. | Preaching and Teaching on Generosity |
| “We write a letter of appreciation to our regular planned givers annually, alongside thanking people in sermons, notices, magazine, website and social media.” | Personalise a Thank you Letter | Thanking Your Givers |
| “We plan a stewardship programme (e.g. Giving in Grace) at least every three years; we are aware of resources for Gift Days and Journey of Generosity days.” | For a Full Stewardship Programme, see Giving in Grace | Grow Generosity through the ‘Giving in Grace’ Programme |
| “We include a focus on generous giving to our church in any confirmation or nurture courses and welcome programmes for new church members.” | Journey of Generosity | Being Generous to Others |
Legacy Giving
Our legacy is a gift of life, made today and blessing our church tomorrow. Around £4.5 billion is gifted each year to UK charities in legacies. But while church giving outstrips many of our best known and loved charities, we generally don’t see the number or value of legacy gifts found in the wider charity sector. We are hesitant to ask, but there are simple steps every church can take and resources to help.
Click here for actions and resources
| 5 things to consider | Resources & links | Useful Cornerstone pathways |
| “We have started a serious conversation about legacy giving and are developing a well thought through legacy strategy and a legacy policy, tailored to our church.” | Intentially speaking about Legacy giving in church is new for many churches. Contact the Resources team to invite our Legacy Offer to your PCC or Leadership Team meeting See the Parish Resources website: Policies and guides for your PCC | Encouraging Gifts in Wills to Your Church |
| “We talk about legacy giving on our website and tell the stories about how legacies have made a difference to our church.” | Find out some of the legacy stories in your church and tell them on your website, in church and in take-away literature. See Sylvia’s Story | On Cornerstone, you can see a graph of your legacy giving stretching back eight years, showing how many gifts your church has received and their value. This should help paint a picture of how legacy gifts have impacted your church in recent years. |
| “We have attractive legacy literature available in print and online, with a named church contact and a link to the C of E free will-writing service in partnership with Farewill.” | We can support you to produce legay flyers and booklets to help you talk about gifts in wills. Template flyer – coming soon Contact Resources Team | |
| “We talk and preach carefully and sensitively: first, making a will as an act of wise and loving stewardship; second, a legacy as a natural part of generous discipleship.” | Sample Preach – coming soon | |
| “We have hosted or are thinking about hosting a legacy social event to talk about legacies, for our church, our parish or shared with others in our deanery.” | A legacy event can envelop an existing coffee morning, speaking slot at a fellowship group or Mothers Union, where people are invited to explore the importance of having an up to date Will, and the impact of a gift left to the church and or a global charity. Farewill Free Will Writing service Church of England Website Christian Aid FaithWIll campaign | Hold a ‘Gifts in Wills’ Event |
Good Budgeting
A budget is more than income, expenditure and monitoring money. A budget helps us paint by numbers a picture of our vision and our mission. A budget asks what does our mission cost and how can it be resourced. We want a mission shaped budget, not budget shaped mission.
First, we create our budget and then we share it creatively with the church. We know our numbers; we talk about the difference they will make. A budget takes thought and time, but there are resources to help.
It is a requirement of the Funding the Future grant application that each church produces and submits a budget. This can be done by going to the Diocese of Liverpool Only – Budgeting for Mission pathway and uploading the budget there.
Click here for actions and resources
| 5 things to consider | Resources & links | Useful Cornerstone pathways |
| “We have a small finance or stewardship group ensuring we balance our books, resource ministry and mission and grow generous disciples.” | Take a look at the Planning Group resources on Giving in Grace. | Diocese of Liverpool Only – Budgeting for Mission: STEP 2 |
| “We produce, or are working to produce, a robust budget each autumn focused on the coming financial year and looking to a 2 or 3 year horizon.” | Giving in Grace, ‘Gather the Data, Build the case’ section walks you through bringing together your historical finance and giving information to create an informed budget, with the ability to adapt to potential shortfalls, that you can be confident in. | Diocese of Liverpool Only – Budgeting for Mission: STEP 4 |
| “We discuss our budget in focused time at the Local Leadership Team meeting (or PCC) so that we can stand behind the budget we commend to the congregation.” | If you would find it helpful, one of the Resources Team can join your PCC conversation to help make sense of the budget. | Diocese of Liverpool Only – Budgeting for Mission: STEP 5 |
| “Our finance or stewardship group or Finance Assistant monitors progress against the budget at least quarterly and reports to the Local Leadership Team.” | Ensure this is a regular item in your PCC agenda, with time given to for meeting attendees to ask questions or offer comments. | Diocese of Liverpool Only – Budgeting for Mission: STEP 7 |
| “We communicate our budget on a Sunday early in the year, as creatively as we can; e.g. presentations, leaflets, video, social media.” | The Giving in Grace Knowing our Numbers spreadsheet gives you graphs and charts which you can translate into understandable ideas for your congregation. | Writing an Engaging Annual Report |