Stewardship: Generosity Report 2026

The organisation Stewardship recently published their third generosity report, seeking to capture ‘fresh insights into the impact of faith on generosity and the factors shaping Christian giving across the UK today’.

The key highlights are as follows:

Trust and generosity

1. Trust in local church leads to greater generosity

2. Regular teaching on generosity helps build trust

3. Trust leads to gratitude and joy in giving

Giving habits

4. Fewer Christians are giving in response to appeals

5. Over 25% of Christians give from savings

The future of giving

6. The wealthy, the young and ethnic minority Christians expect to give more

7. Younger givers are more open to teaching on generosity and appeals to give

8. Younger Christians talk more about giving

Further information is available here, from where (with an email address) a pdf of the report can be downloaded.

Stewardship: Generosity Report 2024

The organisation Stewardship recently commissioned a report to understand better how to help their partners - churches, charities and Christian workers – invite generosity and grow support.

The key highlights are as follows:

1. Regular church attendance more than doubles propensity to give

Practising Christians, who attend church, and read their Bible on a monthly basis, are more likely to give to every type of cause including their church.

2. Engaged faith leads to engaged giving

Practising Christians are most likely to budget to give monthly donations to their chosen Christian causes.

3. An appeal or personal approach triggers spontaneous giving

The research showed that most giving is reactive, rather than proactive. People need a prompt to consider giving.

4. Those who trust the causes they support are likely to be more generous to all causes

We found that those who trusted their church ‘a lot’ were much more likely to be regular donors across all causes (giving at least once a month).

5. People will feel more driven to give if they feel connected to a ministry or cause that can make a difference

The decision to give again, sign up for regular giving digitally, or increase giving is often a result of seeing the impact of giving, as well as feeling appreciated and connected to the cause.

6. Fewer people give to Christian workers, but the donations made to them are higher than for other causes

One of people’s top reasons for giving to Christian workers in the quantitative phase was ‘I could see how my money would be spent to directly benefit someone’.

7. Two key barriers to giving are feeling unable to afford to give and a lack of trust that donations will be used well

50% of those surveyed said that they can’t really afford to start giving or give more (it is worth noting this research was conducted in November 2023, when the cost-of-living crisis was acute), but we should also consider other barriers to giving.

8. Those who discuss their giving tend to give more themselves

Over 1 in 5 (22%) of those who give more than 11–15% of their income discuss their giving with friends or family more than every few months. Over 3 in 5 (61%) of those that give less than 1% never discuss their giving.

Further information is available here, and a pdf of the report can be downloaded (with an email address) from here.

Stewardship on How Married Couples Make Decisions about Charitable Giving

The Christian charity Stewardship recently conducted a survey on how married couples make decisions about charitable giving.

They asked married couples about ‘how they manage their giving together, who they choose to give to and the challenges and opportunities they face when making giving decisions’.

750 married individuals took part in the survey, the majority of whom would define themselves as evangelical Christians.

The full report is available in exchange for an email address here.

The main findings are as follows:

3 out of 4 couples said they make giving decisions together

Most married couples choose to make giving decisions together with just 1 out of 4 respondents reporting that decisions are made by one spouse.

94% of couples agree with their spouse on how much they should give

Only 2% of couples would state that they ‘rarely agree’ on this subject. Money decisions are often considered a divisive issue among couples but giving to charity seems to bring couples together.

68% of respondents said that they thought their giving is set at the right amount

31% of respondents said that they would like to be giving more, with just 1% stating that they would like to be giving less than they do currently.

93% of married couples give to their local church

The most popular type of charitable cause that our survey respondents support is the ‘Local Church’ (694 out of 750 respondents). This is closely followed by ‘International Aid’ and ‘Global Mission’ causes.

Only 1 out of 10 couples said that they have a pre-agreed threshold amount for giving

Of this number, 38% of survey participants said they would discuss with their spouse any donation amount over £50.

60% of respondents said that they are giving more than 10% of their total household income

A further 37% of participants said they give between 1–10% of their income. These figures are above standard UK charitable giving statistics, where the average monthly donation in 2021 was reported to be £411.

As a follow up, Stewardship have also produced a ‘guide to giving for married couples’, which is available in exchange for an email address here.

The four principles outlined are these:

1. Appreciate that you are different

2. Agree on unity and mutual support

3. Pray and bring God into this part of your marriage

4. Take time to talk through the crucial questions

David Corbett on the Housing Crisis

The latest Cambridge Paper from the Jubilee Centre is available online here (from where a pdf can be downloaded), this one by David Corbett:

David Corbett, ‘“Birds Have Nests”: Biblical Reflections on the Housing Crisis’, Cambridge Papers 29, 1 (March 2020).

Here is the summary:

‘UK housing prices have risen faster than wages since the mid-1990s, leading to a reduced ability of young people to live in secure homes, and a housing affordability crisis. This paper argues the dominant supply and demand model misdiagnoses the causes of the crisis, and evades difficult questions. Biblical categories prompt a searching critique and can offer insights economics alone cannot provide. By emphasising the concepts of “stewardship” and “home”, there are opportunities for Christians to make a significant contribution in addressing the housing crisis.’

A Prayer About Time

I came across the below prayer about time in Robert Banks, The Tyranny of Time (Homebush West: Lancer Books, 1983), 200-201:

God our Father,

you are the Maker of everything that exists,

the Author of the world of nature

and of all living things,

the Creator of both space and time.

Without you there would be no past, present or future;

no summer or winter,

spring or autumn,

seedtime or harvest;

no morning or evening,

months or years.

Because you give us the gift of time we have the opportunity

to think and to act,

to plan and to pray,

to give and to receive,

to create and to relate,

to work and to rest,

to strive and to play,

to love and to worship.

Too often we forget this and fail to appreciate your generosity:

we take time for granted and fail to thank you for it,

we view it as a commodity and ruthlessly exploit it,

we cram it too full or waste it,

learn too little from the past or mortgage it off in advance,

we refuse to give priority to those people and things

which should have chief claim upon our time.

Help us to view time more as you view it,

and to use it more as you intend:

to distinguish between what is central and what is peripheral,

between what is merely pressing and what is really important,

between what is our responsibility and what can be left to others,

between what is appropriate now and what will be more relevant later.

Guard us against attempting too much because of

a false sense of our indispensability,

a false sense of ambition,

a false sense of rivalry,

a false sense of guilt,

or a false sense of inferiority:

yet do not let us mistake our responsibilities,

underestimate ourselves,

fail to be stimulated by others,

overlook our weaknesses,

or know our proper limits.

Enable us also to realise

that important though this life is, it is not all,

that we should view what we do in the light of eternity,

not just our limited horizons,

that we ourselves have eternal life now.

God our Father,

you are not so much timeless as timeful,

you do not live above time so much as hold ‘all times... in your hand’,

you have prepared for us a time when we will have leisure

to enjoy each other and you to the full,

and we thank you, appreciate you and applaud you for it.

Amen

The Gift of Power

The below article was written for the WorkForum at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ So says Uncle Ben to his nephew, Peter Parker, at least as the line appears in the 2002 movie version of the Spider-Man story. That’s good advice for superheroes, perhaps, who might be tempted to use their powers for personal gain, fulfilling Lord Acton’s famous dictum that ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.

But we don’t have to look too far to see the corrupting tendency of power. In Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power (London: Penguin, 2013), David Priestland offers an intriguing account of history as a competition for power between the three major groups of his title. These ‘castes’ (as he terms them) – symbolic of capitalists, militarists, and the intelligentsia – are locked in a struggle for power which triggers a crisis (war, revolution, or economic collapse) when any one of them gains prominence. Hence, according to this account, the West is now paying the price for succumbing to the values of the ‘merchants’ with their belief in the market and their pursuit of profit.

Inevitably, whether and how far Priestland has overplayed his hand is up for grabs. In addition, there is a yet bigger story against which we, as Christians, might understand power. According to Andy Crouch, in Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power (Downers Grove: IVP, 2013), Christians often see power as a danger to be avoided rather than a gift to be stewarded. But we best understand power, Crouch says, as we see ourselves made in the image of God, called to cultivate creation, to ‘make something of the world’ – building houses, designing software, writing poetry, baking cakes, teaching children. In this way, all of us – not just those thought to be ‘powerful’ – have ‘great power’ and are responsible for using it well.

For instance, we image God when we manage people. When we do that well, and in a way that reflects our union with Christ, we’re countering the argument that power and authority can’t be trusted. If I use my authority as a boss or a leader or a manager well, I’m painting in a positive light God who is the source of all authority. It’s no surprise that in Ephesians 6:9, Paul connects the master’s authority with God’s authority: ‘you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven’, he tells masters. In stewarding well what God gives us – including our leadership roles – we say something of who God is and what God is like.

Robert comes to mind as an example. When he was promoted and made head of his department, Robert was concerned that his opportunities for evangelism would disappear. Most of the people he worked with would be working for him, and he’d have to be sensitive to this and not abuse his position. As it turned out, he found he had more opportunities to share the gospel, and it almost always came from using his authority for the benefit of his team instead of his own benefit. Robert’s way of exercising power was different, and people would talk to him about it.

To be sure, in a damaged and distorted world, power has the potential to be misused and misdirected, abused and abusive, leading to idolatry and injustice. But true power is exercised on behalf of others, and is concerned with cultivating the best environment for someone or something to thrive – in line with God’s original design for his world.

Here as elsewhere, Christians take their cue from Christ himself, in whose image we are being recreated. In this way, we exercise the gift of power every day, often in mundane ways, but infused with love and seasoned with confidence in God’s plan to restore all things.

Every Square Inch, Every Waking Hour, Every Good Thing

I wrote the following mini reviews for EG, the quarterly magazine produced by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

Bruce Riley Ashford, Every Square Inch: An Introduction to Cultural Engagement for Christians (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2015), Benjamin T. Quinn & Walter R. Strickland II, Every Waking Hour: An Introduction to Work and Vocation for Christians (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2016), and David W. Jones, Every Good Thing: An Introduction to the Material World and the Common Good for Christians (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2016).

How far does the lordship of Christ extend? Answer: to every square inch. How much of our day can be spent glorifying God in our everyday callings, including work? Answer: every waking hour. How much of the material world are we to take care of as those entrusted by God to be his stewards? Answer: every good thing.

These three small-format books, individually and together, offer short primers on what it means to be a whole-life disciple of Jesus in God’s world. Every Square Inch briefly outlines a theology of culture and calling before exploring how we can engage with the arts, the sciences, politics and the public square, economics and wealth, scholarship and education. Every Waking Hour offers a concise perspective on work and vocation, looking at what the Bible says and in the light of the wisdom Christ brings and the kingdom he proclaims. Every Good Thing reminds us of the goodness of the material world and the significance of economics and stewardship, work and rest, and wealth and poverty in God’s design for human beings.

All three books tackle truncated views of Christianity which have been hindered by an adherence to a sacred-secular divide. All three understand that believing the gospel brings with it a comprehensive worldview which carries implications for every area of existence. All three root this perspective in the story told in the Bible, from creation to new creation. With action points and recommended reading at the end of each chapter, the format would work well for discussion in a small group, with the books being beneficial for those just starting out on the journey of discipleship as well as those further down the road.

Walter Brueggemann on Money and Possessions

Walter Brueggemann, Money and possessions (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016).

Since I saw it announced, I’ve been looking forward to seeing this volume by Walter Brueggemann in the ‘Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church’ series.

Westminster John Knox has made available a pdf except here.

Here are some paragraphs from the Preface:

‘The purpose of this book is to exhibit the rich, recurring, and diverse references to money and possessions that permeate the Bible. While we might conventionally assume, as we do in practice, that economics is an add-on or a side issue in the biblical text, an inventory of texts such as I offer here makes it unmistakably clear that economics is a core preoccupation of the biblical tradition.

‘In writing the book I have, in ways that have surprised me, come to the conclusion that the Bible is indeed about money and possessions, and the way in which they are gifts of the creator God to be utilized in praise and obedience. In such a frame of reference, money and possessions are of course intensely seductive, so that they can reduce praise to self-congratulations and obedience to self-sufficiency. Whatever is to be made of this expansive inventory of texts, it is clear that the economy, in ancient faith tradition, merited and received much more attention than is usual in conventional church rendering.

‘It is my hope that this exhibit of textual materials might evoke in the church a greater attentiveness to a keener critical assessment of the extractive economy around us in which we are implicated and a more determined advocacy for an alternative neighborly economy congruent with and derived from the gospel we confess. It is clear enough that voices that may champion and legitimate such alternative policy and practice are minimal in our society; the voicing of such alternative urgently requires the recovery of the tradition of neighborly money and possessions that has been entrusted to us.’

Christian Reflection on Generosity

The latest issue of Christian Reflection, published by the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, is available online, this one devoted to ‘Generosity’. The whole issue is available as a pdf here, and an accompanying Study Guide is available here. The main articles, with their abstracts, are as follows:

Robert B. Kruschwitz

Introduction

Since generosity echoes God’s love, practicing it in our lives and congregations is essential. Our contributors explore the distinctive features of Christian generosity, its central role in discipleship, and why its practice is so difficult in a consumerist culture.

Douglas V. Henry

Generosity of Spirit

Generosity names not merely something we do, but an admirable quality of character, something we are. Undergirding the character of truly generous people is a special awareness of themselves, others, and God’s gracious provision for the world, and this understanding inspires genuinely generous activity.

Kelly D. Liebengood

Paul’s Expectations of Generosity

True generosity requires us to give to those in need and make a place for them in our gatherings. Such generosity, Paul reminds us, is enabled by the transforming grace of God manifested in the self-emptying life of Jesus Christ and made accessible through the life-giving Spirit.

K. Jason Coker

Subversive Generosity

God’s reign, founded on God’s subversive generosity, opposes Roman oppression in the New Testament. Today it provides the moral vision to see through the distortions of consumerism and gives an alternative way to understand our obligations to one another and to God.

Patricia Snell Herzog

Solving the Riddle of Comfortable Guilt

Most of us admit that our giving behavior does not match our personal or our religion’s ideal of what it should be. Yet we are oddly content with this. Why do we have this comfortable guilt, and how can we change our habits to be rid of it? 

Ruben Swint

How Congregations (and Their Members) Differ on Generosity

Not every church member responds to the same message about giving. Not every congregation’s culture supports the same approach to developing faithful stewards, or generous givers. What variables in congregational life foster giving differences in members and congregations?

Heidi J. Hornik

Imperial Gifts

Heidi J. Hornik

Stopping to Help

Anthony Carl

All Who Thirst

Sharon Kirkpatrick Felton

Worship Service

Jonathan and Elizabeth Sands Wise

In This Old House

While generosity typically involves donating money or goods, it includes giving less material things. In this way, hospitality is a species of generosity, a making room and giving space to others in your own place, or in your attention, or in conversation. 

Richard Stearns

Time to Tithe

In our culture, the chief competitor to dependence on God is money – what it can buy and what it symbolizes. We need to give generously in order to inoculate ourselves from the virulent cultural diseases of materialism and consumerism. Unfortunately, we are not getting our vaccination shots. 

Allen Walworth

Unlikely Champions: A Widow’s Might

Scripture tells many stories about unlikely generosity champions, men and women who play out their lives, often in obscurity, except for the watchful eye of the biblical narrator – and God. They are champions of the human spirit. Upon their faithfulness the world turns, and the kingdom of God advances. 

Jo-Ann A. Brant

Generosity in the Bible

Most of us wish to be more generous. The four books reviewed here not only demonstrate the centrality of the call to generosity that runs through the biblical canon, they also provide practical advice about how we can turn our well-meaning intent into action.

Arthur M. Sutherland

Toward a Theology of Generosity

Americans long have wrestled with how God gives, the obligations of the rich toward the poor and the poor toward the rich, and how generosity shapes public life. Three recent books continue the struggle by surveying, probing, and depicting generosity as an orientation toward life.

The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 19, 2 (2015)

The latest issue of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology is devoted to ‘Theology and Economics’, with an interesting line-up of essays indicated below.

Stephen Wellum writes in the Editorial:

‘Living as we do in an increasingly secularized and relativistic age, the church, for a variety of reasons, has too often dichotomized the Christian life. Too frequently, we have artificially separated our spiritual life from our everyday life, and one of its consequences is our disengagement from society. But given that God has created us to rule over his creation, to work, to be salt and light in the world, and to apply God’s Word to our entire lives, Scripture reminds us that our Lord is not only interested in our spiritual lives, he is also interested in us as whole people. Biblical salvation involves every aspect of our lives in relation to God, the world, and to others.’

Individual essays can be accessed from here, or the whole issue can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Stephen J. Wellum

Editorial: Living All of Life to God’s Glory

R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

Economics and the Christian Worldview: 12 Theses

David Kotter

Greed vs. Self-Interest: A Case Study of How Economists Can Help Theologians Serve the Church

Mark Coppenger

Stewardship of the Wetlands below the Golan Heights: A Study in Judeo-Christian and Muslim Contrasts

Gregg Allison

Why Are You Here? Heavenly Work vs. Earthly Work

John Wind

Not Always Right: Critiquing Christopher Wright’s Paradigmatic Application of the Old Testament to the Socio-economic Realm

Jason Glas

The Gospel, Human Flourishing, and the Foundation of Social Order

Pieter DeVries

Living in Truth: Unmasking the Lies of our Postmodern Culture

From Dust to Glory

I contributed this week’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

What is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honour.

You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:

all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild,

the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8:4-9

The presence in the current paperback book charts of Human Universe by Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen, and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, is a small indication of our continued fascination with issues of human identity and purpose.

Like David, here in Psalm 8, we’ve been asking the question ‘what is mankind?’ for centuries. And from David comes the encouragement that we will answer it best in the context of praise for the greatness of God.

But here’s something we might not expect. The majesty of the Lord – his glory – is reflected in human beings who are themselves ‘crowned with glory and honour’ and given dominion over the works of God’s hands. This affirms what Genesis 1:28 says, when God calls men and women to the tasks of ‘filling’ and ‘subduing’ and ‘ruling’, to extend the blessings of Eden to the whole world.

Cultures surrounding Israel told stories of people being made as slaves of the gods, with the language of ‘image’ applied only to kings. In Genesis, however, all human beings are created in God’s image, giving men and women a status and responsibility not found in other worldviews. We are made from dust, yet made for glory. Compared with the immense greatness of God, we are tiny specks; but in God’s good design for all things, we matter. God declares his creation to be very good, but chooses to cultivate it through the activity of human beings created in his image.

An incredible identity aside, God’s first great commission provides a basis for the whole of life – for family, for ecology, for work, for economics, for culture. And it applies to all people. We do any number of ‘mundane’ things every day – looking after children, going to work, cooking a meal, weeding the garden, walking the dog – not because we’re Christian but because we’re human, designed to represent something of his oversight in spheres that lie within our influence. Of course, that we are such stewards raises all sorts of questions about how we do this appropriately. Still, these are the ways in which we, this very day, embody God’s gracious rule in our various activities, in relationship with others, and in a way that reflects God’s own loving hand – that his name might be majestic in all the earth.

Greg Forster on Christian Joy and Cultural Influence

Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014).

Greg Forster covers similar ground to others on cultural engagement, but is distinctive in naming ‘joy’ as Christianity’s central contribution to society – where joy is ‘the state of flourishing in mind, heart, and life that Christians experience by the Holy Spirit’. Looking first at how we are formed through an integration of doctrine, devotion, and stewardship, he then explores three areas – sex and family, work and the economy, and citizenship and community – reflecting on how Christians can bring the gospel to bear on every dimension of life. As Forster says: ‘Seeking to have an influence in our civlization does not imply captivity to the culture. It just means we’re answering the call to be good disciples within our spheres of influence.’

Greg Forster on Joy for the World (2)

Greg Forster, Joy for the World: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It (Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), 313pp., ISBN 9781433538001.

I mentioned this book in an earlier post (here), and thought I’d link to a 20-minute interview with the author by Justin Taylor (here). Justin doesn’t get to ask many questions, but what Greg Forster says helpfully provides a concise overview of the main concerns and contours of his book.

Great Power

I contributed this week’s ‘Connecting with Culture’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ So says uncle Ben to his nephew, Peter Parker, at least as the line appears in the 2002 movie version of the Spider-Man story. That’s good advice for superheroes, perhaps, who might be especially tempted to use their powers for personal gain, fulfilling Lord Acton’s famous dictum that ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.

We don’t have to look too far to see the corrupting tendency of power. In Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power (Penguin, 2013), David Priestland offers an intriguing account of history as a competition for power between the three major groups of his title. These ‘castes’ (as he terms them) – symbolic of capitalists, militarists, and the intelligentsia – are locked in a struggle for power which triggers a crisis (war, revolution, or economic collapse) when any one of them gains prominence. Hence, according to this account, the West is now paying the price for succumbing to the values of the ‘merchants’ with their belief in the market and their pursuit of profit.

Inevitably, whether and how far Priestland has overplayed his hand is up for grabs. As it happens, however, there is a yet bigger story against which we might understand power. According to Andy Crouch, in Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power (IVP, 2013), Christians often see power as a danger to be avoided rather than a gift to be stewarded. We best understand power, Crouch says, as we see ourselves made in the image of God, called to cultivate creation, to ‘make something of the world’ – building houses, designing clothes, writing poetry, baking cakes, teaching children, managing people. In this way, all of us – not just those thought to be ‘powerful’ – have real power and are responsible for using it well.

To be sure, in a damaged and distorted world, power has the potential to be misused and misdirected, abused and abusive, leading to idolatry and injustice. But true power is exercised on behalf of others, and is concerned with cultivating the best environment for someone or something to thrive – in line with God’s original design for his world.

Here as elsewhere, Christians take their cue from Christ himself, in whose image we are being recreated. In this way, we exercise the gift of power every day, often in mundane ways, but infused with love and seasoned with confidence in God’s plan to restore all things.