Generosity Book Bends the Trends: Helps Church Giving Go Up in a Down Economy

Aug. 22, 2011 - PRLog -- The annual STATE of the PLATE research on church giving shows a lot of churches are experiencing giving declines unprecedented in our lifetime, but an ever expanding number of churches are finding surprising trend bending help from a small generosity devotional booklet written by a pastor in Colorado.

The 40 Day Journey to a More Generous Life was written by Pastor Brian Kluth to help Christians know and understand 400 key Bible verses on finances, generosity, and giving.  When ordered by churches and given out to every family, this small 40 day Bible devotional booklet is bending the downward giving trends upward, with some churches experiencing what seems like miraculous results - - double and even triple digit giving increases in a down economy.  Free ebook copies are available at www.GenerousLife.org.

Over the past few years, over 1600 churches have given out copies to every family in their congregation.  There are now over 450,000 copies in print and translations available in many foreign languages around the world.

In a video testimonial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ufqs9xzbTc), Tom Robertson, a leader at Pine Grove Community Church in Wisconsin said, “Our church hadn’t met budget in 4 years and couldn’t afford to buy the devotionals.  So, my wife and I personally purchased copies for every family in the church.  Since then the giving has gone up 50%!”  Pastor Chris Richards, a pastor of a large church in Texas gave out copies of the devotional to every family.  After the 40 days his church collected a special offering of $200,000 and also saw the church’s general offerings go up 50%.  Pastor Jay Klopfenstein from Grace Church in Indiana said, “Our offerings had been running 20% behind budget for our church and school. We gave out copies of your 40 Day Bible devotional to all our families and used the 40 Day companion materials. Within a short time our offerings increased 50%. And the last 2 weeks our offerings are up 100%!”

The miraculous giving results are even occurring overseas.  A large church in Mongolia gave out the devotional and saw giving increase 60% in the midst of major bank failures.  A church in Beijing, China distributed 8000 copies in the Chinese.  In Australia, the Salvation Army has given the booklet out at churches and they have seen churches experience 50%, 100%, and in one place a 600% increase in giving.  In India, the devotional has been translated into 10 major Indian languages.  Next year, the Spanish version will be released in the United States and countries across Latin America to inspire greater generosity for churches, a growing missionary movement, and outreaches to the needy.

Spurred on by the incredible impact of the 40 Day Generous Life devotional is having in churches everywhere, Kluth has started the www.GenerosityPledge.org movement with a 7-point personal giving pledge and a 30 Day generosity devotional called,   The 7 Keys to Open-Handed Living in a Tight-Fisted World. While Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have started the Giving Pledge movement for billionaires, Kluth believes there is a need for a generosity pledge movement among Christians everywhere that will bend the downward giving trends upward to release billions for God’s work among churches, ministries, missions, and the needy.  Recently, Kluth was even in a CNN TV news interview about tithing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiqaQgMKmxA).  Kluth says, “We need Bible-based materials in churches that help people understand that real joy and lasting contentment doesn’t come from getting everything you want, but by being thankful for everything you have and sharing it.  We need a growing generosity movement that is unprecedented in our lifetime.”  Every morning, he wakes up to put some more sticks of wood on the fires of what he believes is a growing generosity movement that needs to spread across the country and around the world.

•   For free eBook copies of the 40 Day devotional, go to: www.GenerousLife.org
•   For free eBook copies of the new 30 Day devotional and 7 point personal generosity pledge, go to: www.GenerosityPledge.org
•   For media radio, TV, and print interviews, contact: Brian Kluth  30days@kluth.org  Cell: 720.432.2422  Landline: 303.346.5332

# # #

MAXIMUM Generosity was founded by Dr. Brian Kluth to provide resources, speaking, and media interviews that inspire greater generosity and increase giving. Kluth is a pastor, bestselling author, speaker, and a leading media authority on philanthropy.