July 14, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode of the Elim Leaders Podcast, Elim’s General Superintendent, Mark Pugh, tackles one of the most difficult and least talked about topics in church life - money.
Joined by Elim minister, fundraiser and author Wendy Pawsey, this timely conversation confronts the awkwardness leaders often feel when teaching on generosity, tithing, and financial discipleship.
With warmth, courage and biblical insight, Wendy shares her own story, the vision behind her new book Generous with a Capital G, and why now is the time for leaders to embrace bold conversations around money and mission.
Whether you’re a church leader unsure where to begin, or looking to cultivate a culture of joyful giving in your church, this episode will challenge, equip and encourage you.
Why is generosity so important?
Join the discussion in the episode comments on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0LvKL4A8CMLqZX0yDfU54U
Purchase the Generous with a Capital G book, download the reading plan and discussion questions: Generous with a Capital G - The Big Church Read
View the show notes on elim.org.uk
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Hi and welcome. To the Elim Leaders Podcast,
great to have you with us today.We've got a great show lined up
and I hope you're going to find this really informative because
we're going to talk about one ofthe most difficult topics to
talk about. I wonder if you can imagine what
that is. Will it be death?
Will it be sex? No, the answer is money.
(00:22):
Apparently, we don't like to talk about money, but that's
exactly what we're going to do today.
And we're going to do so with aninterview with one of our
ministers, Wendy Palsy, who has written a great book on
generosity. But before we get to that, if
you've not yet subscribed to these podcasts, whatever
platform you get your podcast from, if you click on the
subscription link, you will be one of the first to get these
(00:44):
when they come out. We're also looking for your
help. We would like to encourage all
of the members of our Elim churches right across the
country and beyond the other nations with regular updates of
the exciting things that God is doing through our churches and
ministries. And so we would like to produce
a monthly newsletter. In fact, we wouldn't like to.
We are producing a monthly newsletter and that we would
(01:07):
love you to encourage your members and those attending your
church and your leaders to subscribe and to make sure that
they get this to their inbox. So can I encourage you to go to
elim.org.uk/your Elim? That's YOURELIM, and you look
forward to giving regularly encouraging stories of all gods
(01:29):
doing around the country. But for now, let's get straight
into our podcast today with Wendy Palsy.
One of our Elim ministers also works for the Evangelical
Alliance and has written a fantastic book that you'll be
hearing more about in a moment all around the difficult topic
of money and generosity. So let's go straight in.
(01:50):
So. Wendy, one of our ministers in
Elim. Has written a brilliant new book
called Generous with a Capital GGood morning Wendy, tell us, why
have you written a book around generosity?
Morning Mark. Gosh, it is a really long story
which I will condense and make incredibly short.
But pretty much for the last 30 years I've been involved in
(02:12):
financing one way or another as a financial advisor, then as a
minister and now as a minister and a fundraiser.
And I've, I've seen the amazing stuff that generosity can do,
the way that it can impact life,change lives, and also the
impact it has on the giver, which tends to be absolutely
immense. I've seen that and I've shared
(02:34):
it with people verbally, but I haven't really known what to do
with it. And then many, many years ago,
we was at a conference and I wassitting in the caravan with
Freya, who's our little girl. She was 5 at the time, She's now
14. So we're going through the joys
of the teenagers, and the speaker said that there's
(02:55):
someone who's listening, and Godwants them to move creatively by
doing duh, duh, duh, duh. And he mentioned writing a book.
And I was sitting and I thought,oh, no, that's me.
And Marcus, my husband, when he came back to the caravan, he'd
been in the meeting, The first thing he said when he walked
into the caravan was there was aword for you.
And this is what it was. And he repeated what I'd heard.
(03:15):
So I knew that was confirmation that I needed to write a book,
but I really didn't know what God wanted me to write a book
on. And I prayed about it and I
prayed and I kept it to myself because it was really scary.
It was scary for me anyway. And then in 2019, I woke up and
I had this word in my head and the word was Unifundshay,
(03:37):
spelled UNIFUNDSHA, which is a fundraiser.
I thought this must be a fund for females going into
university. Completely logical and or it was
to me and this word stayed with me, it just wouldn't go. 2 weeks
later I was in Kenya and we was having the most amazing time in
(03:58):
this church just worshiping and just really giving glory to God.
And before we'd started worshiping, the pastor had stood
at the front and he'd said we'regoing to sing in Swahili.
The words will come up on the screen in Swahili.
Just say it as you see it. And so as I'm worshiping and as
I'm trying to really dance, you know, I, I really don't have any
(04:19):
rhythm. God didn't bless me in that way.
But my feet were moving and my hands were clapping.
This word came on the screen Unifunshe, and it was just like
a lightning bolt. So afterwards, I spoke to our
drivers and said to them, what does this word mean?
And they said it means to teach.I thought, OK, God, that's what
the book is going to be on. It's going to be about teaching.
(04:39):
And I was still praying. Well, what do you want me to
write about? What am I equipped to teach
people about? Still didn't really do anything
about it. And then, gosh, when was it
2021? We was on a farm with really
good friends. The husband really moves in a
prophetic and he said to me, when God's asking me to ask you,
when are you going to write thatbook that's inside you that he
(05:02):
is placed inside you? So that was yet another
incredibly strong nudge. So after I'd prayed about it and
thought, God, what am I equippedto do, it suddenly seems so
obvious. Generosity, the blessing of
generosity, tithing, basically everything that encompasses
Christians being generous. And I sent out a survey, 50
(05:23):
people got back to the survey. And from there it took me about
six or seven months to write thebook.
And I loved every single second of it.
And I really believe that it's aword for Christians today.
What a great story in the wonderful to know the prompting
of the Lord along a journey. It's not just you've written a
book that you've served him on one of his missions, but this
(05:46):
topic generosity and finance. You say in the book that
probably talking about money is one of the most difficult
conversations culturally for us in the world, more difficult
than even talking about some other difficult topics like
death and sex and so on. Why is it so difficult to talk
(06:07):
about money? Do you think in our culture?
I think money is such a personalthing where it's holding
scripture that you can't serve God and Mammon.
And we know that. We know that there's there's an
entity to money that can, you know, it isn't great, it isn't
great. It can take possession.
It can. We can have that ownership over
(06:30):
it. That isn't healthy for us.
We can feel like actually we've earned it.
I've gone out, I've sweated for this money and it's mine.
Well, actually, we know that's never the case.
It's never the case. Everything we have, the roof
over our head, the food in our cupboards, the clothes on our
back, the money in our accounts are basically a gift from God.
(06:51):
But also money is such a personal thing, or we deem it to
be a personal thing because it can determine our worth.
You know, we, if we think about the people that get put into
newspapers, that appear on our TV, the people that have power
and influence, 9 times out of 10they also have wealth, they also
have money. So subconsciously, I think we
(07:14):
tend to connect money and importance together and to share
what we have or don't have can leave us feeling pretty
vulnerable. Yeah, and Jesus wasn't shy of
talking about money at all, was he?
And for him, it was so linked tothe discipleship journey, the
authenticity of following Jesus.Involves lots of conversation.
(07:39):
About finance, some of the most happy people I know are the most
generous people I know. Now we might say is because they
have the most wealth, but actually a lot of the generous
people I know were generous before they had wealth as well.
What do you think the connectionis with happiness and
generosity? There's a a really interesting
bit of research that was done bythe department of Psychology at
(08:01):
the University of Ludwik in Germany and they got 50
volunteers together and they wanted to see how generosity
impacts the human brain. Basically, while they knew that
generosity was a common, a more spontaneous behaviour than
greed, they also discovered thatthose who made the most generous
decisions were, like you said, also the happiest.
(08:23):
And this was, this was despite the personal cost to themselves.
This was despite the the lack ofthings that maybe they could
have because of generosity. Because we know that being
generous, there is a financial cost.
I really believe that actually what we get back through being
generous totally negates that financial cost.
But they found that being generous makes us happy, that it
(08:45):
is part of God's upside down Kingdom that we gain by giving.
And we know from Proverbs 11/24/25 where it tells us that
the world of DeGeneres gets larger and larger and the world
of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed and those who
help others are helped. We know that there are such
(09:06):
amazing things that come out of being generous, and God has made
it so that when we're generous, we are blessed.
And if we look at Scripture, He's not only made it that when
we're generous, we're blessed, but that also He's modelled
generosity for us. It's there in almost every
single page of our Bible, our generous God just giving and
(09:28):
giving and giving again and again and again, over and over.
And He sets that amazing examplefor us.
Love that. I think there's a bit of a
challenge that we have in our life that we often think when
I'm in a different place, I willrespond in a different way.
So I've know people who say whenI have a bigger house, I'm going
(09:48):
to be. Hospitable.
When I have a bigger car, I'll give more lifts when I have.
More income I'll. Be generous.
And yet the people I know that flow in such a beautiful
demonstration of generosity, they were generous with very
little. In fact, I know of a couple who
recently moved into a a beautiful home in the country
(10:11):
and the successful business people.
But I remember them living in a one bedroom flat and they would
have people stay around all the time at our big groups of people
around their pastoral meetings. They were super generous.
And I remember doing a walk withthis guy before he bought the
property and he said, I'm just concerned this might be too big
(10:31):
for us. And I said, finally you're
getting a house that's big enough to keep up with the
generosity of your spirit. Do you see that that there is a
little bit of a one day I'll getthere when my circumstances
change, when I have more resource?
And is that the place to start planning future generosity or
(10:52):
should we start planning generosity with what we have
now? I think both.
So I think regardless of what situation you're in, you can be
generous. So when I sent out the survey, I
got this amazing story back. I loved this story.
And it was sent in by someone who will remain anonymous.
And they shared about when they lived in London, they met this
(11:14):
woman, This woman attended theirchurch.
And she'd had a terrible historywhere her dad had sold her into
sex slavery to pay off his gambling debts.
She'd somehow managed to escape that.
And she now lived in this tiny little flat in London, pretty
much living hand to mouth. But what she did do is she'd put
some of her change are 5 pences,10 pences, 20 Pences, whatever
(11:34):
it was, into a little jar on herwindow sill.
And then when she knew of someone in the community that
had an aid, she would empty thatjar.
She would bake a cake, she wouldtake it round to them and she
would give it to them, letting them know that they're loved.
And that for me, I think is amazing.
There's also a story that I comeacross recently and it was a
(11:55):
pastor in America. So we know that in America they
don't have the NHS. So quite a lot of people will
have medical debt, medical billsthat they need to pay.
And this reasonably small church, one of the congregation
members went to the pastor and he turned and said between
pastor, I really feel that we should pay the the medical debts
(12:17):
for all the people within our area.
So they investigated what those medical bills come to and it
comes to $8 million, which is a lot of money.
There was no way this church would pay this off, but they
really felt that actually this is what God was calling them to
do. So they paid into it.
They contacted the companies whoheld this medical debt.
(12:39):
They told them what they wanted to do, and they managed to pay
off all of this debt and they sent letters to the people that
they paid the debt off for. Just saying to them, your
medical debt is paid and Jesus loves you.
And that was a miracle. But you know what the real
miracle was? They done it with $50,000.
They was able to do it with 50,000 dollars, £8,000,000 worth
(13:01):
of debt, $50,000 because that ishow our God works.
Our God, He takes what we've got.
We see this with the the loaves and the two fishes.
We see this time and time again throughout the Bible.
He takes what we've got and He multiplies it.
He makes it stretch so much further.
So when it comes to generosity, I believe we start with what
we've got, but we always aim to grow and give more and give
(13:25):
more. We live under New Testament
grace and our God is great. Our God gives continuously.
And I just think sometimes we need to adapt our mindset.
You mentioned about, you know, I'll, I'll give more when I've
got more. I'll, I'll give more lifts when
I've got a bigger, better car. But actually, what is our
mindset? Do we have a watering can
(13:48):
mindset in actually, you know, when there's no more watering,
the watering can, nothing more is going to come out?
Or do we have a hose mindset that actually we are connected
to the resources of God and thathose is going to continue
flowing as long as we keep that tap turned on.
And I really believe that's the mindset we need to have.
We start off with what we've gotwith the the mindset that
(14:10):
actually it's going to increase,it's going to increase and it's
going to increase. So December 23 we had someone in
our church give me a markers 400lbs and say we want you to use
this to give those in the churchthat are really struggling this
Christmas. So we took that 400 lbs and we
blessed, I think it was about 5 people with it and we said to
(14:33):
them this has come from an anonymous donor in the church
and they just want to know Jesusloves you and they just wanted
to bless you. One of those people and we
bought this particular person, those are like little presents
and giving them some money as well from this 400 lbs.
One of those people come up to me this November and says my
situation has changed. I was so blessed by what
(14:54):
happened last year that I want to give you £500 this year to
bless other people within our church.
Sort of fantastic. Then someone else come up to me
and said I heard what happened last year, I want to give you
£250 to bless people in our church.
So we've now got the 500 to 250,so we've got £750 cash that we
(15:18):
can bless people. Then one of our life groups come
to me and then one of their members had been a recipient and
they said as a life group we want to give out big hampers to
people in the church that we want to bless.
Are you OK with that? I was like, yes, I am OK with
that. So something that started at 400
lbs within 12 months as gosh, it's just got so much bigger.
(15:42):
I would from what I know from what I was given out in the
hampers as well, I would guess that roughly about 1200 lbs was
gifted to people within our church community.
Generosity begets generosity, doesn't it creates culture.
And we don't just want to have acts of generosity, we want to
have cultures of generosity. And I'm going to pick this up,
ask some of the questions, why it's difficult to talk about
(16:03):
tithing and why we need to breakthrough that and why we
need to find the joy of bringingthat.
As a positive disableship. Understanding to our
congregations, I guess one of the reasons why we're sometimes
shy about Speaking of these things in church is.
Because I think particularly. In our Pentecostal circles,
we're a little concerned about being tarred with a prosperity
(16:26):
brush. Do you see that as being a
legitimate concern that we should be mindful of and how we
can not let that intimidate us? I, I don't think, oh gosh, OK,
so I, I don't get paid by an Elon church.
I'm right by vocational and my salary comes from outside of
(16:49):
tithing. So I can understand why it's a
sensitive subject for people. I really, really can.
But I don't think our own concerns or the prosperity
teaching fear is actually a legitimate reason to not teach.
I can understand why it's something that would hold us
back, but the blessing that people get from tithing, from
(17:10):
giving back to God is just amazing.
And I really believe that as pastors, as leaders, we, we have
a responsibility to share that we have a responsibility to
share God's teaching on this subject because it is so
important. Money is such a part of our
everyday life, our everyday existence.
(17:32):
And we'll talk about it in othercontexts.
And we need to to talk about it in this context as well, for the
good of our people. Yeah.
And times I've visited churches in Africa and often African
churches in the Western context,that there is a markedly
different approach to taking offerings and dance their way to
(17:54):
an offering. They rejoice at the opportunity
of being able to give up their substance as stewards.
And often in this country, we sort of apologize that we're
about to take an offer and we say, people, hey, if you're new
here, don't worry about giving. And I understand why we do all
of that, but we almost make it feel like it's a tax, like a
(18:16):
duty is absent of that joy we see in our cultures.
Why don't we understand that joyof generosity?
Like other cultures do, I just feel there's a real reserve
within the UK about talking about finance in any way, shape
or form. In one of my previous roles, I
(18:38):
used to go round to lots and lots and lots, so different
denominations and I would preachin their churches and I would
share about whatever God had puton my heart.
So I'd get to say the way that different denominations,
different cultures approach this.
And it was really, really interesting, especially what
you've just mentioned about someof the approaches of the African
churches. And it used to make me really
(18:58):
sad, but also it made me reflectand think actually, how often
have I done this? And I realized probably about
3-4 years ago that although I'vebeen a minister since 2010, I
hadn't actually done a series ontithing.
I've spoken about giving, I've spoken about offerings, but I'd
never done a series on tithing. And when I traced it back, I
(19:20):
think it's because I'd never actually heard anything on
tithing. It wasn't one of those things
that came into my head to speak about.
Because when it comes to speaking about money, I've got
no shame whatsoever because I'vepretty much spoken about money
all my working life. So that was really, really
interesting for me to just do that self reflection.
But then also last June it was stewardship brought out a
(19:44):
report, a generosity report, andit was the first of its kind to
be done within the UK at the, the breadth and the width that
it did. And for me anyway, it was so
interesting because it showed that the average UK Christian
only gives 2.6% of their monthlyincome to their church and other
(20:05):
Christian charities. And 2.6% we know is a lot lower
than the Tide, which is 10%. But they also break it down
stewardship into various different denominations.
And Pentecostals were the denomination that gave the most,
which I think was round about 6.7%.
And they're now looking into actually.
(20:26):
Is that because of the diversity?
Within the Pentecostal denominations, and you know,
maybe it is, maybe it isn't, whoknows?
We don't give to God to get. We give to God because he is
worthy. We give to God because he is
Lord. We give to God as a a sense of
basically just acknowledging whohe is, who he is in our lives,
(20:50):
and just handing everything overto him and just saying to him,
we trust in you. We trust in you to provide.
Our faith in you is so great that we are willing to give this
to you. Because when we look at the
time, giving 10% is a lot. If we was asked to give 2%, we
probably wouldn't even notice. If we was asked to give 5%, it
(21:11):
would have a bit of a bite. But giving 10% of our income is
quite a big ask until we think that actually God has given us
all of it and he's allowed us tokeep 90%.
But when we look at our incomings and our outcomings,
10% does make a big dent. I've seen over the years
numerous people who've said to me Mark, and they framed it in a
(21:33):
similar. Way that you have.
Do you believe in the Old Testament teaching of tithing or
do you believe in the New Testament season of grace?
And, and I said, you do know what the New Testament teaching
is, don't you? You do you do understand what
the New Testament teaching is? You do know God says give to
Caesar, what's Caesar's and giveto God what's God's.
It's all his. So the 10% of the Old Testament
(21:55):
sounds like a real bark in in comparison to the 100%.
Of course it is all his. We're Stewart in it for him.
And I love, I just sat down lastyear and I looked at my giving
over the year and it was a real joy to say I've never given this
much before. And it's a real blessing to do
that. And a part.
Of an ongoing principle in my life and I've got.
Numerous friends. That they have taken approach
(22:16):
that every year they're going totry and increase by 1%.
They're not limited to that 10% of the Old Testament.
They want to continually give and got some friends and their
goal is to reverse tithe to give90% of their giving and they
keep seeing the Lord blessings. I think he trusts that they will
look. After.
What he's given them. But we do have this shyness
(22:36):
about teaching into this, don't we?
What are some of the tips you could?
Give ministers for speaking. Into this.
In the churches, I think you really need to understand, it
sounds so obvious, sorry, but you need to understand what
you're talking about. You need to, I mean, you've just
mentioned Old Testament tithing,New Testament grace.
(22:58):
There is, we, we've said it, there is a lack of teaching out
there. And before we stand up in front
of our people and we teach them this, we need to know what we
believe, what we understand, what we agree with, and what
Scripture says. And what we practice.
Gosh, yes, what we practice, which hopefully will come out of
of what we understand from scripture, But also I have
(23:21):
spoken a lot of different churches on this subject because
ministers are not 100% sure where they stand on it or
they're not 100% confident on speaking about it, or they're
uncomfortable speaking about it when their salary is reliant on
people's tithes. So if it is something that you
feel is not your gift in ask forsomeone else to come in, but
(23:43):
also do that personal discipleship journey of
learning. Actually, what does Jesus say
about this? And when we do go back to
scripture, we know I mean Manachi 3 six such a well known
bit of scripture when it comes to tithing, but it starts with a
declaration. I the Lord do not change.
And if tithing, giving back to God, showing that we consider
(24:06):
him to be worthy of our worship was important to God in the Old
Testament, I want to suggest it is equally as important now as
whilst the practices may change,God's principles on this don't.
And then if we move into the NewTestament, John writes in his
gospels that Jesus is a very word of God made flesh.
We read in Hebrews that Jesus isa very speech of God.
(24:28):
Every thread in the tapestry of the law and the prophets
converge on Jesus and so Incarnate Word, he upholds every
requirement as a of the law. And we read about this in
Matthew 5 when Jesus states do not think that I've come to
abolish the law or the prophets,I haven't come to do that.
And he says, but truly I'll tellyou, until heaven and earth
(24:50):
disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of
a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until
everything is accomplished. It goes on to say that anyone
who sets asides one of the leastof these commands and teaches
others will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be
called great in the Kingdom of heaven Later on.
(25:13):
We've got Matthew 23 and Jesus we read there is basically
telling the Pharisees off for their commitment to one part of
God's law, which is the tithe, while neglecting the more
important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and
faithfulness. And he declares these you ought
to have done without neglecting the others.
And we read at the beginning of Matthew 23 that actually Jesus
(25:33):
is teaching the crowd. He's teaching his disciples.
These words are for Jesus followers, which are US.
They're for his disciples. And he's using this teaching to
basically highlight the importance of tithing to God.
He's not discarding the promises, the expectations and
the hopes of the prophets. He's not dismissing the holiness
(25:53):
of God, expressing the law of Moses, but he is the fulfilment
of all of these things. And because of this, because of
the blessing that tithing brings, because of the goodness
that tithing brings, I really believe this is something that
we need to maybe move up on our level of importance and we need
(26:14):
to ensure that the congregation who we're responsible for
understand the importance of tithing.
I mentioned about the goodness that tithing brings and there's
an organization called the National Churches Trust and they
find that for every £1.00 invested in a church, so for
(26:36):
every £1.00 given in a time, thereturn based on the services
provided is over 16 lbs. Now that's God's economy.
I used to be a financial advisor.
You don't get that return very often.
Every £1 results in over 16 lbs worth of services provided.
Churches are doing amazing things in this country because
(26:58):
of individuals tithes and at themoment we're only average
Christian is only tithing 2.6%. Imagine if everyone was able
tithed 10% the lives that would be changed, it would be massive.
We would claim this country backto Jesus.
It would be huge. Yeah, it is Wendy.
I wish we had more time, but it's been really helpful and
(27:21):
packing this topic and want to thank you.
I think there is an instinct in some of us have more of a
poverty type of thinking where we think small and the problem
is that that then redacts the God that we're serving down to
the smallest of our thinking andgenerosity aligns our thinking
(27:41):
with his. He's a God who is abundant in
generosity. When you begin to flow in that
and see that it's a real joy. It's a real blessing to be a
part of that. And there are many people
watching this have been counted that for themselves and have
their own stories. But thank you for prompting
this, provoking the church. And if we can just finish with
this, there are people in our churches that as well as the
(28:02):
stewardship of tithing, they also have a ministry of giving
on their lives. You work in this forum, you work
in fundraising now, and you regularly will see people that
orientate their lives to be generous.
And if we don't enable them to be generous to the Kingdom, it's
(28:26):
a bit like having gifted worshipleaders in our churches that we
don't give them an opportunity to ever lead worship, or gifted
preachers that we never give a chance to preach.
It's. The ministry on their life and
we have to get over our reservations in having the
conversations about how we can help facilitate them applying
(28:46):
their ministries into the context of the church.
How would you best start that conversation with someone that
has got a ministry of giving on their life?
So a really interesting survey came out, 2018 I think it was,
and 80% of those that partook inthe survey said that they gave
because they was asked. People need to be asked.
(29:09):
I never, ever ask anyone unless I've got an actual connection or
relationship with them, which comes from talking.
It comes from listening. It comes from asking questions
and understanding actually, whathas God placed on that person's
eye? It comes from walking along side
them. Now, sometimes that can happen
for weeks, sometimes that can happen for months.
(29:30):
Sometimes that can happen within1/2 an hour conversation, but
that conversation needs to happen first.
You need to understand actually,what does this person feel
called to? Because you may have an amazing
church, but actually they've gotno interest in investing in your
worship. They've got no interest in
investing in the building, but actually they would love to put
(29:51):
their money into your youth workbecause their passion is for the
next generation. Now until you understand what
their passion is, you are never going to be able to unlock their
generosity to its full extent because you need to understand
that and it comes. Sometimes people are really
hesitant about having this conversation, but actually this
(30:12):
is the unity of the body of Christ and one part, one part is
able to give, one part is able to do that person that make
believe person I just spoke about would give to your youth
department. They might be able to give to
that, but they'd never be able to go in and teach.
You put them in front of a groupof teenagers and they become
tongue tied. They just can't connect with
them, but their passion is for them and through their giving,
(30:34):
they're part of that ministry. And I think it's getting our
head around that, that actually,when someone gives, they gain as
well. They get to be part of what's
happening. They get to be part of what's
going on. But I do understand it's
sometimes really, really hard toadd those conversations.
So when I wrote the book, I'd done it with my congregation in
mind. At the end of every chapter,
(30:55):
there's five questions. It's also part of the big church
raid. So there's six videos of
actually going through the different elements of the book
just so that it can be done in small groups.
It can be done as part of a church series because I know
that sometimes it can be really hard, especially for that
initial step, for everything to come from you.
(31:18):
Well, thank you. Your courage in addressing this
fills us with courage. It stirs us where we have
reservations and it empowers us.Through the teaching.
After your excellent videos as well that go along with this.
So I encourage you, all our leaders to get a hold of this
book Generous with a Capital G and let's as part of an
(31:39):
Apostolic greenhouse, cross the movement.
Let's decide together that we are going to be a generous
people and we are going to be a generous movement and we are
going to emulate the heart of a generous God.
This book Generous with a Capital G by Wendy Palsy,
creating a mindset of financial generosity.
It's a great book published by Instant Apostle.
(32:02):
You can get it online, you can get it from all sorts.
Of places. And this is a great blessing,
but thank you, Wendy, for your time.
We really appreciate it. God bless you as you continue to
take this message out to churches around the country and
beyond. And we pray God's blessing upon
you. Well, you made it right to the
very end of this podcast on thisvery tricky subject of finance,
(32:24):
money, generosity. I hope you found that both
helpful and stimulating. And I'm sure it's stirred.
You and given you some consideration for your
leadership. So I pray that you know the
wisdom of the Lord as you process and as you work through
this. Well, thank you once again for
being with us. We've very enjoyed having you
with us today and we look forward to the next time.
(32:44):
God bless you. Don't forget, hit that subscribe
button and we'll catch up with you soon.
God bless.
Hi and welcome. To the Elim Leaders Podcast,
great to have you with us today.We've got a great show lined up
and I hope you're going to find this really informative because
we're going to talk about one ofthe most difficult topics to
talk about. I wonder if you can imagine what
that is. Will it be death?
Will it be sex? No, the answer is money.
(00:22):
Apparently, we don't like to talk about money, but that's
exactly what we're going to do today.
And we're going to do so with aninterview with one of our
ministers, Wendy Palsy, who has written a great book on
generosity. But before we get to that, if
you've not yet subscribed to these podcasts, whatever
platform you get your podcast from, if you click on the
subscription link, you will be one of the first to get these
(00:44):
when they come out. We're also looking for your
help. We would like to encourage all
of the members of our Elim churches right across the
country and beyond the other nations with regular updates of
the exciting things that God is doing through our churches and
ministries. And so we would like to produce
a monthly newsletter. In fact, we wouldn't like to.
We are producing a monthly newsletter and that we would
(01:07):
love you to encourage your members and those attending your
church and your leaders to subscribe and to make sure that
they get this to their inbox. So can I encourage you to go to
elim.org.uk/your Elim? That's YOURELIM, and you look
forward to giving regularly encouraging stories of all gods
(01:29):
doing around the country. But for now, let's get straight
into our podcast today with Wendy Palsy.
One of our Elim ministers also works for the Evangelical
Alliance and has written a fantastic book that you'll be
hearing more about in a moment all around the difficult topic
of money and generosity. So let's go straight in.
(01:50):
So. Wendy, one of our ministers in
Elim. Has written a brilliant new book
called Generous with a Capital GGood morning Wendy, tell us, why
have you written a book around generosity?
Morning Mark. Gosh, it is a really long story
which I will condense and make incredibly short.
But pretty much for the last 30 years I've been involved in
(02:12):
financing one way or another as a financial advisor, then as a
minister and now as a minister and a fundraiser.
And I've, I've seen the amazing stuff that generosity can do,
the way that it can impact life,change lives, and also the
impact it has on the giver, which tends to be absolutely
immense. I've seen that and I've shared
(02:34):
it with people verbally, but I haven't really known what to do
with it. And then many, many years ago,
we was at a conference and I wassitting in the caravan with
Freya, who's our little girl. She was 5 at the time, She's now
14. So we're going through the joys
of the teenagers, and the speaker said that there's
(02:55):
someone who's listening, and Godwants them to move creatively by
doing duh, duh, duh, duh. And he mentioned writing a book.
And I was sitting and I thought,oh, no, that's me.
And Marcus, my husband, when he came back to the caravan, he'd
been in the meeting, The first thing he said when he walked
into the caravan was there was aword for you.
And this is what it was. And he repeated what I'd heard.
(03:15):
So I knew that was confirmation that I needed to write a book,
but I really didn't know what God wanted me to write a book
on. And I prayed about it and I
prayed and I kept it to myself because it was really scary.
It was scary for me anyway. And then in 2019, I woke up and
I had this word in my head and the word was Unifundshay,
(03:37):
spelled UNIFUNDSHA, which is a fundraiser.
I thought this must be a fund for females going into
university. Completely logical and or it was
to me and this word stayed with me, it just wouldn't go. 2 weeks
later I was in Kenya and we was having the most amazing time in
(03:58):
this church just worshiping and just really giving glory to God.
And before we'd started worshiping, the pastor had stood
at the front and he'd said we'regoing to sing in Swahili.
The words will come up on the screen in Swahili.
Just say it as you see it. And so as I'm worshiping and as
I'm trying to really dance, you know, I, I really don't have any
(04:19):
rhythm. God didn't bless me in that way.
But my feet were moving and my hands were clapping.
This word came on the screen Unifunshe, and it was just like
a lightning bolt. So afterwards, I spoke to our
drivers and said to them, what does this word mean?
And they said it means to teach.I thought, OK, God, that's what
the book is going to be on. It's going to be about teaching.
(04:39):
And I was still praying. Well, what do you want me to
write about? What am I equipped to teach
people about? Still didn't really do anything
about it. And then, gosh, when was it
2021? We was on a farm with really
good friends. The husband really moves in a
prophetic and he said to me, when God's asking me to ask you,
when are you going to write thatbook that's inside you that he
(05:02):
is placed inside you? So that was yet another
incredibly strong nudge. So after I'd prayed about it and
thought, God, what am I equippedto do, it suddenly seems so
obvious. Generosity, the blessing of
generosity, tithing, basically everything that encompasses
Christians being generous. And I sent out a survey, 50
(05:23):
people got back to the survey. And from there it took me about
six or seven months to write thebook.
And I loved every single second of it.
And I really believe that it's aword for Christians today.
What a great story in the wonderful to know the prompting
of the Lord along a journey. It's not just you've written a
book that you've served him on one of his missions, but this
(05:46):
topic generosity and finance. You say in the book that
probably talking about money is one of the most difficult
conversations culturally for us in the world, more difficult
than even talking about some other difficult topics like
death and sex and so on. Why is it so difficult to talk
(06:07):
about money? Do you think in our culture?
I think money is such a personalthing where it's holding
scripture that you can't serve God and Mammon.
And we know that. We know that there's there's an
entity to money that can, you know, it isn't great, it isn't
great. It can take possession.
It can. We can have that ownership over
(06:30):
it. That isn't healthy for us.
We can feel like actually we've earned it.
I've gone out, I've sweated for this money and it's mine.
Well, actually, we know that's never the case.
It's never the case. Everything we have, the roof
over our head, the food in our cupboards, the clothes on our
back, the money in our accounts are basically a gift from God.
(06:51):
But also money is such a personal thing, or we deem it to
be a personal thing because it can determine our worth.
You know, we, if we think about the people that get put into
newspapers, that appear on our TV, the people that have power
and influence, 9 times out of 10they also have wealth, they also
have money. So subconsciously, I think we
(07:14):
tend to connect money and importance together and to share
what we have or don't have can leave us feeling pretty
vulnerable. Yeah, and Jesus wasn't shy of
talking about money at all, was he?
And for him, it was so linked tothe discipleship journey, the
authenticity of following Jesus.Involves lots of conversation.
(07:39):
About finance, some of the most happy people I know are the most
generous people I know. Now we might say is because they
have the most wealth, but actually a lot of the generous
people I know were generous before they had wealth as well.
What do you think the connectionis with happiness and
generosity? There's a a really interesting
bit of research that was done bythe department of Psychology at
(08:01):
the University of Ludwik in Germany and they got 50
volunteers together and they wanted to see how generosity
impacts the human brain. Basically, while they knew that
generosity was a common, a more spontaneous behaviour than
greed, they also discovered thatthose who made the most generous
decisions were, like you said, also the happiest.
(08:23):
And this was, this was despite the personal cost to themselves.
This was despite the the lack ofthings that maybe they could
have because of generosity. Because we know that being
generous, there is a financial cost.
I really believe that actually what we get back through being
generous totally negates that financial cost.
But they found that being generous makes us happy, that it
(08:45):
is part of God's upside down Kingdom that we gain by giving.
And we know from Proverbs 11/24/25 where it tells us that
the world of DeGeneres gets larger and larger and the world
of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed and those who
help others are helped. We know that there are such
(09:06):
amazing things that come out of being generous, and God has made
it so that when we're generous, we are blessed.
And if we look at Scripture, He's not only made it that when
we're generous, we're blessed, but that also He's modelled
generosity for us. It's there in almost every
single page of our Bible, our generous God just giving and
(09:28):
giving and giving again and again and again, over and over.
And He sets that amazing examplefor us.
Love that. I think there's a bit of a
challenge that we have in our life that we often think when
I'm in a different place, I willrespond in a different way.
So I've know people who say whenI have a bigger house, I'm going
(09:48):
to be. Hospitable.
When I have a bigger car, I'll give more lifts when I have.
More income I'll. Be generous.
And yet the people I know that flow in such a beautiful
demonstration of generosity, they were generous with very
little. In fact, I know of a couple who
recently moved into a a beautiful home in the country
(10:11):
and the successful business people.
But I remember them living in a one bedroom flat and they would
have people stay around all the time at our big groups of people
around their pastoral meetings. They were super generous.
And I remember doing a walk withthis guy before he bought the
property and he said, I'm just concerned this might be too big
(10:31):
for us. And I said, finally you're
getting a house that's big enough to keep up with the
generosity of your spirit. Do you see that that there is a
little bit of a one day I'll getthere when my circumstances
change, when I have more resource?
And is that the place to start planning future generosity or
(10:52):
should we start planning generosity with what we have
now? I think both.
So I think regardless of what situation you're in, you can be
generous. So when I sent out the survey, I
got this amazing story back. I loved this story.
And it was sent in by someone who will remain anonymous.
And they shared about when they lived in London, they met this
(11:14):
woman, This woman attended theirchurch.
And she'd had a terrible historywhere her dad had sold her into
sex slavery to pay off his gambling debts.
She'd somehow managed to escape that.
And she now lived in this tiny little flat in London, pretty
much living hand to mouth. But what she did do is she'd put
some of her change are 5 pences,10 pences, 20 Pences, whatever
(11:34):
it was, into a little jar on herwindow sill.
And then when she knew of someone in the community that
had an aid, she would empty thatjar.
She would bake a cake, she wouldtake it round to them and she
would give it to them, letting them know that they're loved.
And that for me, I think is amazing.
There's also a story that I comeacross recently and it was a
(11:55):
pastor in America. So we know that in America they
don't have the NHS. So quite a lot of people will
have medical debt, medical billsthat they need to pay.
And this reasonably small church, one of the congregation
members went to the pastor and he turned and said between
pastor, I really feel that we should pay the the medical debts
(12:17):
for all the people within our area.
So they investigated what those medical bills come to and it
comes to $8 million, which is a lot of money.
There was no way this church would pay this off, but they
really felt that actually this is what God was calling them to
do. So they paid into it.
They contacted the companies whoheld this medical debt.
(12:39):
They told them what they wanted to do, and they managed to pay
off all of this debt and they sent letters to the people that
they paid the debt off for. Just saying to them, your
medical debt is paid and Jesus loves you.
And that was a miracle. But you know what the real
miracle was? They done it with $50,000.
They was able to do it with 50,000 dollars, £8,000,000 worth
(13:01):
of debt, $50,000 because that ishow our God works.
Our God, He takes what we've got.
We see this with the the loaves and the two fishes.
We see this time and time again throughout the Bible.
He takes what we've got and He multiplies it.
He makes it stretch so much further.
So when it comes to generosity, I believe we start with what
we've got, but we always aim to grow and give more and give
(13:25):
more. We live under New Testament
grace and our God is great. Our God gives continuously.
And I just think sometimes we need to adapt our mindset.
You mentioned about, you know, I'll, I'll give more when I've
got more. I'll, I'll give more lifts when
I've got a bigger, better car. But actually, what is our
mindset? Do we have a watering can
(13:48):
mindset in actually, you know, when there's no more watering,
the watering can, nothing more is going to come out?
Or do we have a hose mindset that actually we are connected
to the resources of God and thathose is going to continue
flowing as long as we keep that tap turned on.
And I really believe that's the mindset we need to have.
We start off with what we've gotwith the the mindset that
(14:10):
actually it's going to increase,it's going to increase and it's
going to increase. So December 23 we had someone in
our church give me a markers 400lbs and say we want you to use
this to give those in the churchthat are really struggling this
Christmas. So we took that 400 lbs and we
blessed, I think it was about 5 people with it and we said to
(14:33):
them this has come from an anonymous donor in the church
and they just want to know Jesusloves you and they just wanted
to bless you. One of those people and we
bought this particular person, those are like little presents
and giving them some money as well from this 400 lbs.
One of those people come up to me this November and says my
situation has changed. I was so blessed by what
(14:54):
happened last year that I want to give you £500 this year to
bless other people within our church.
Sort of fantastic. Then someone else come up to me
and said I heard what happened last year, I want to give you
£250 to bless people in our church.
So we've now got the 500 to 250,so we've got £750 cash that we
(15:18):
can bless people. Then one of our life groups come
to me and then one of their members had been a recipient and
they said as a life group we want to give out big hampers to
people in the church that we want to bless.
Are you OK with that? I was like, yes, I am OK with
that. So something that started at 400
lbs within 12 months as gosh, it's just got so much bigger.
(15:42):
I would from what I know from what I was given out in the
hampers as well, I would guess that roughly about 1200 lbs was
gifted to people within our church community.
Generosity begets generosity, doesn't it creates culture.
And we don't just want to have acts of generosity, we want to
have cultures of generosity. And I'm going to pick this up,
ask some of the questions, why it's difficult to talk about
(16:03):
tithing and why we need to breakthrough that and why we
need to find the joy of bringingthat.
As a positive disableship. Understanding to our
congregations, I guess one of the reasons why we're sometimes
shy about Speaking of these things in church is.
Because I think particularly. In our Pentecostal circles,
we're a little concerned about being tarred with a prosperity
(16:26):
brush. Do you see that as being a
legitimate concern that we should be mindful of and how we
can not let that intimidate us? I, I don't think, oh gosh, OK,
so I, I don't get paid by an Elon church.
I'm right by vocational and my salary comes from outside of
(16:49):
tithing. So I can understand why it's a
sensitive subject for people. I really, really can.
But I don't think our own concerns or the prosperity
teaching fear is actually a legitimate reason to not teach.
I can understand why it's something that would hold us
back, but the blessing that people get from tithing, from
(17:10):
giving back to God is just amazing.
And I really believe that as pastors, as leaders, we, we have
a responsibility to share that we have a responsibility to
share God's teaching on this subject because it is so
important. Money is such a part of our
everyday life, our everyday existence.
(17:32):
And we'll talk about it in othercontexts.
And we need to to talk about it in this context as well, for the
good of our people. Yeah.
And times I've visited churches in Africa and often African
churches in the Western context,that there is a markedly
different approach to taking offerings and dance their way to
(17:54):
an offering. They rejoice at the opportunity
of being able to give up their substance as stewards.
And often in this country, we sort of apologize that we're
about to take an offer and we say, people, hey, if you're new
here, don't worry about giving. And I understand why we do all
of that, but we almost make it feel like it's a tax, like a
(18:16):
duty is absent of that joy we see in our cultures.
Why don't we understand that joyof generosity?
Like other cultures do, I just feel there's a real reserve
within the UK about talking about finance in any way, shape
or form. In one of my previous roles, I
(18:38):
used to go round to lots and lots and lots, so different
denominations and I would preachin their churches and I would
share about whatever God had puton my heart.
So I'd get to say the way that different denominations,
different cultures approach this.
And it was really, really interesting, especially what
you've just mentioned about someof the approaches of the African
churches. And it used to make me really
(18:58):
sad, but also it made me reflectand think actually, how often
have I done this? And I realized probably about
3-4 years ago that although I'vebeen a minister since 2010, I
hadn't actually done a series ontithing.
I've spoken about giving, I've spoken about offerings, but I'd
never done a series on tithing. And when I traced it back, I
(19:20):
think it's because I'd never actually heard anything on
tithing. It wasn't one of those things
that came into my head to speak about.
Because when it comes to speaking about money, I've got
no shame whatsoever because I'vepretty much spoken about money
all my working life. So that was really, really
interesting for me to just do that self reflection.
But then also last June it was stewardship brought out a
(19:44):
report, a generosity report, andit was the first of its kind to
be done within the UK at the, the breadth and the width that
it did. And for me anyway, it was so
interesting because it showed that the average UK Christian
only gives 2.6% of their monthlyincome to their church and other
(20:05):
Christian charities. And 2.6% we know is a lot lower
than the Tide, which is 10%. But they also break it down
stewardship into various different denominations.
And Pentecostals were the denomination that gave the most,
which I think was round about 6.7%.
And they're now looking into actually.
(20:26):
Is that because of the diversity?
Within the Pentecostal denominations, and you know,
maybe it is, maybe it isn't, whoknows?
We don't give to God to get. We give to God because he is
worthy. We give to God because he is
Lord. We give to God as a a sense of
basically just acknowledging whohe is, who he is in our lives,
(20:50):
and just handing everything overto him and just saying to him,
we trust in you. We trust in you to provide.
Our faith in you is so great that we are willing to give this
to you. Because when we look at the
time, giving 10% is a lot. If we was asked to give 2%, we
probably wouldn't even notice. If we was asked to give 5%, it
(21:11):
would have a bit of a bite. But giving 10% of our income is
quite a big ask until we think that actually God has given us
all of it and he's allowed us tokeep 90%.
But when we look at our incomings and our outcomings,
10% does make a big dent. I've seen over the years
numerous people who've said to me Mark, and they framed it in a
(21:33):
similar. Way that you have.
Do you believe in the Old Testament teaching of tithing or
do you believe in the New Testament season of grace?
And, and I said, you do know what the New Testament teaching
is, don't you? You do you do understand what
the New Testament teaching is? You do know God says give to
Caesar, what's Caesar's and giveto God what's God's.
It's all his. So the 10% of the Old Testament
(21:55):
sounds like a real bark in in comparison to the 100%.
Of course it is all his. We're Stewart in it for him.
And I love, I just sat down lastyear and I looked at my giving
over the year and it was a real joy to say I've never given this
much before. And it's a real blessing to do
that. And a part.
Of an ongoing principle in my life and I've got.
Numerous friends. That they have taken approach
(22:16):
that every year they're going totry and increase by 1%.
They're not limited to that 10% of the Old Testament.
They want to continually give and got some friends and their
goal is to reverse tithe to give90% of their giving and they
keep seeing the Lord blessings. I think he trusts that they will
look. After.
What he's given them. But we do have this shyness
(22:36):
about teaching into this, don't we?
What are some of the tips you could?
Give ministers for speaking. Into this.
In the churches, I think you really need to understand, it
sounds so obvious, sorry, but you need to understand what
you're talking about. You need to, I mean, you've just
mentioned Old Testament tithing,New Testament grace.
(22:58):
There is, we, we've said it, there is a lack of teaching out
there. And before we stand up in front
of our people and we teach them this, we need to know what we
believe, what we understand, what we agree with, and what
Scripture says. And what we practice.
Gosh, yes, what we practice, which hopefully will come out of
of what we understand from scripture, But also I have
(23:21):
spoken a lot of different churches on this subject because
ministers are not 100% sure where they stand on it or
they're not 100% confident on speaking about it, or they're
uncomfortable speaking about it when their salary is reliant on
people's tithes. So if it is something that you
feel is not your gift in ask forsomeone else to come in, but
(23:43):
also do that personal discipleship journey of
learning. Actually, what does Jesus say
about this? And when we do go back to
scripture, we know I mean Manachi 3 six such a well known
bit of scripture when it comes to tithing, but it starts with a
declaration. I the Lord do not change.
And if tithing, giving back to God, showing that we consider
(24:06):
him to be worthy of our worship was important to God in the Old
Testament, I want to suggest it is equally as important now as
whilst the practices may change,God's principles on this don't.
And then if we move into the NewTestament, John writes in his
gospels that Jesus is a very word of God made flesh.
We read in Hebrews that Jesus isa very speech of God.
(24:28):
Every thread in the tapestry of the law and the prophets
converge on Jesus and so Incarnate Word, he upholds every
requirement as a of the law. And we read about this in
Matthew 5 when Jesus states do not think that I've come to
abolish the law or the prophets,I haven't come to do that.
And he says, but truly I'll tellyou, until heaven and earth
(24:50):
disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of
a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until
everything is accomplished. It goes on to say that anyone
who sets asides one of the leastof these commands and teaches
others will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be
called great in the Kingdom of heaven Later on.
(25:13):
We've got Matthew 23 and Jesus we read there is basically
telling the Pharisees off for their commitment to one part of
God's law, which is the tithe, while neglecting the more
important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and
faithfulness. And he declares these you ought
to have done without neglecting the others.
And we read at the beginning of Matthew 23 that actually Jesus
(25:33):
is teaching the crowd. He's teaching his disciples.
These words are for Jesus followers, which are US.
They're for his disciples. And he's using this teaching to
basically highlight the importance of tithing to God.
He's not discarding the promises, the expectations and
the hopes of the prophets. He's not dismissing the holiness
(25:53):
of God, expressing the law of Moses, but he is the fulfilment
of all of these things. And because of this, because of
the blessing that tithing brings, because of the goodness
that tithing brings, I really believe this is something that
we need to maybe move up on our level of importance and we need
(26:14):
to ensure that the congregation who we're responsible for
understand the importance of tithing.
I mentioned about the goodness that tithing brings and there's
an organization called the National Churches Trust and they
find that for every £1.00 invested in a church, so for
(26:36):
every £1.00 given in a time, thereturn based on the services
provided is over 16 lbs. Now that's God's economy.
I used to be a financial advisor.
You don't get that return very often.
Every £1 results in over 16 lbs worth of services provided.
Churches are doing amazing things in this country because
(26:58):
of individuals tithes and at themoment we're only average
Christian is only tithing 2.6%. Imagine if everyone was able
tithed 10% the lives that would be changed, it would be massive.
We would claim this country backto Jesus.
It would be huge. Yeah, it is Wendy.
I wish we had more time, but it's been really helpful and
(27:21):
packing this topic and want to thank you.
I think there is an instinct in some of us have more of a
poverty type of thinking where we think small and the problem
is that that then redacts the God that we're serving down to
the smallest of our thinking andgenerosity aligns our thinking
(27:41):
with his. He's a God who is abundant in
generosity. When you begin to flow in that
and see that it's a real joy. It's a real blessing to be a
part of that. And there are many people
watching this have been counted that for themselves and have
their own stories. But thank you for prompting
this, provoking the church. And if we can just finish with
this, there are people in our churches that as well as the
(28:02):
stewardship of tithing, they also have a ministry of giving
on their lives. You work in this forum, you work
in fundraising now, and you regularly will see people that
orientate their lives to be generous.
And if we don't enable them to be generous to the Kingdom, it's
(28:26):
a bit like having gifted worshipleaders in our churches that we
don't give them an opportunity to ever lead worship, or gifted
preachers that we never give a chance to preach.
It's. The ministry on their life and
we have to get over our reservations in having the
conversations about how we can help facilitate them applying
(28:46):
their ministries into the context of the church.
How would you best start that conversation with someone that
has got a ministry of giving on their life?
So a really interesting survey came out, 2018 I think it was,
and 80% of those that partook inthe survey said that they gave
because they was asked. People need to be asked.
(29:09):
I never, ever ask anyone unless I've got an actual connection or
relationship with them, which comes from talking.
It comes from listening. It comes from asking questions
and understanding actually, whathas God placed on that person's
eye? It comes from walking along side
them. Now, sometimes that can happen
for weeks, sometimes that can happen for months.
(29:30):
Sometimes that can happen within1/2 an hour conversation, but
that conversation needs to happen first.
You need to understand actually,what does this person feel
called to? Because you may have an amazing
church, but actually they've gotno interest in investing in your
worship. They've got no interest in
investing in the building, but actually they would love to put
(29:51):
their money into your youth workbecause their passion is for the
next generation. Now until you understand what
their passion is, you are never going to be able to unlock their
generosity to its full extent because you need to understand
that and it comes. Sometimes people are really
hesitant about having this conversation, but actually this
(30:12):
is the unity of the body of Christ and one part, one part is
able to give, one part is able to do that person that make
believe person I just spoke about would give to your youth
department. They might be able to give to
that, but they'd never be able to go in and teach.
You put them in front of a groupof teenagers and they become
tongue tied. They just can't connect with
them, but their passion is for them and through their giving,
(30:34):
they're part of that ministry. And I think it's getting our
head around that, that actually,when someone gives, they gain as
well. They get to be part of what's
happening. They get to be part of what's
going on. But I do understand it's
sometimes really, really hard toadd those conversations.
So when I wrote the book, I'd done it with my congregation in
mind. At the end of every chapter,
(30:55):
there's five questions. It's also part of the big church
raid. So there's six videos of
actually going through the different elements of the book
just so that it can be done in small groups.
It can be done as part of a church series because I know
that sometimes it can be really hard, especially for that
initial step, for everything to come from you.
(31:18):
Well, thank you. Your courage in addressing this
fills us with courage. It stirs us where we have
reservations and it empowers us.Through the teaching.
After your excellent videos as well that go along with this.
So I encourage you, all our leaders to get a hold of this
book Generous with a Capital G and let's as part of an
(31:39):
Apostolic greenhouse, cross the movement.
Let's decide together that we are going to be a generous
people and we are going to be a generous movement and we are
going to emulate the heart of a generous God.
This book Generous with a Capital G by Wendy Palsy,
creating a mindset of financial generosity.
It's a great book published by Instant Apostle.
(32:02):
You can get it online, you can get it from all sorts.
Of places. And this is a great blessing,
but thank you, Wendy, for your time.
We really appreciate it. God bless you as you continue to
take this message out to churches around the country and
beyond. And we pray God's blessing upon
you. Well, you made it right to the
very end of this podcast on thisvery tricky subject of finance,
(32:24):
money, generosity. I hope you found that both
helpful and stimulating. And I'm sure it's stirred.
You and given you some consideration for your
leadership. So I pray that you know the
wisdom of the Lord as you process and as you work through
this. Well, thank you once again for
being with us. We've very enjoyed having you
with us today and we look forward to the next time.
(32:44):
God bless you. Don't forget, hit that subscribe
button and we'll catch up with you soon.
God bless.
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