Leland's Seven Stewardship Principles — Church Stewardship Program

A partnership with Leland Rubin, creator of the Seven Stewardship Principles, and Allan Bell - CPA, CMA, MBA, Nsites founder and creator

Generosity · Principle 4 of 7

S4 — Cultivate Generosity Through Giving

Teach generosity as discipleship rather than fundraising, read aggregate giving health without exposing individual households, build a twelve-month calendar that balances teaching, inviting and thanking, and report back to givers with transparency and dignity.

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Seven Principles curriculum version 1.0 — author-review draft pending Leland Rubin's approval prior to publication. · Leland's Seven Stewardship Principles methodology, content, exercises and deliverables are created by Leland Rubin and remain in author-review draft pending his approval.

Official outcome

Generosity Formation and Giving Health Plan

  • Discipleship-first generosity philosophy statement naming what the church will and will not do to encourage giving
  • Aggregate giving health reading covering participation rate, average gift, recurring share, digital versus cash mix, lapsed-giver trend and household concentration, reported only in aggregate
  • Household-privacy protocol stating who may see individual giving records and under what limited circumstances
  • Twelve-month generosity calendar balancing teaching moments, invitation moments and gratitude moments across the year
  • Thank-you and acknowledgment practice describing how every gift, large or small, receives a timely, warm response
  • Transparency and reporting-back plan describing what the congregation is told about how gifts were used, on what schedule, without disclosing individual household data
  • Referral guardrail statement directing households with complex charitable planning, tax or estate questions to qualified independent professionals
  • Gaps register listing every open teaching, privacy, calendar or transparency gap discovered during the module
  • 90-day action plan assigning each recommended action an owner, due date, resources required, success measure, status and review date

Suggested duration: 4 weeks · about 7 hours of leadership time · Owner: Stewardship Pastor · Coach: Leland Rubin · Approval: Coach review

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Principle health

At risk

Baseline 55 → follow-up 60

Principle purpose

Suggested leadership time: About 7 hours of leadership time

S4 Cultivate Generosity Through Giving exists to form a congregation that gives out of transformed conviction rather than periodic appeal. Too many churches treat generosity as a fundraising function that gets activated when a budget shortfall appears, which teaches households that giving is a rescue mechanism rather than a spiritual discipline. Leland's Seven Stewardship Principles frame giving as one expression of a whole-life stewardship posture, so this module builds the teaching rhythm, the aggregate-only giving analysis, the calendar of invitation and gratitude, and the transparency practices that let a congregation trust its leaders with its resources over the long run.

By the end of this module, leadership will have produced a Generosity Formation and Giving Health Plan that ties these threads into one working document: a discipleship-first teaching philosophy that names what the church will and will not do to raise money, an aggregate giving health reading that protects every household's privacy while surfacing real trends, a twelve-month generosity calendar that balances teaching, inviting and thanking, and a transparency and reporting-back practice that closes the loop with every giver. This is formation work measured in years, not a single campaign.

Official outcome — Generosity Formation and Giving Health Plan

Leadership will have reviewed current generosity teaching, aggregate giving health, the calendar of invitation and gratitude, and current transparency practices; approved a discipleship-first giving philosophy and a transparency and reporting-back commitment; and adopted a Generosity Formation and Giving Health Plan with a 90-day action plan assigning named owners and dates.

Deliverable component checklist

  1. 1. Discipleship-first generosity philosophy statement naming what the church will and will not do to encourage giving
  2. 2. Aggregate giving health reading covering participation rate, average gift, recurring share, digital versus cash mix, lapsed-giver trend and household concentration, reported only in aggregate
  3. 3. Household-privacy protocol stating who may see individual giving records and under what limited circumstances
  4. 4. Twelve-month generosity calendar balancing teaching moments, invitation moments and gratitude moments across the year
  5. 5. Thank-you and acknowledgment practice describing how every gift, large or small, receives a timely, warm response
  6. 6. Transparency and reporting-back plan describing what the congregation is told about how gifts were used, on what schedule, without disclosing individual household data
  7. 7. Referral guardrail statement directing households with complex charitable planning, tax or estate questions to qualified independent professionals
  8. 8. Gaps register listing every open teaching, privacy, calendar or transparency gap discovered during the module
  9. 9. 90-day action plan assigning each recommended action an owner, due date, resources required, success measure, status and review date

Learning objectives and completion requirements

Learning objectives

  • • Draft a discipleship-first generosity philosophy
  • • Read aggregate giving health while protecting household privacy
  • • Build a twelve-month calendar balancing teaching, inviting and thanking
  • • Report giving outcomes back to givers with transparency

Completion requirements

  • • All four lessons marked complete
  • • All four exercises submitted
  • • Required evidence uploaded
  • • Named principal deliverable generated and approved
  • • 90-day action plan created with owners and dates
  • • Coach review recorded

Lessons

Four complete lessons. Each produces one named artifact for the official outcome.

  1. Lesson 1 — Generosity as Discipleship, Not Fundraising

    Draft a discipleship-first generosity philosophy that distinguishes formation teaching from fundraising appeals. · 75 minutes · produces Discipleship-First Generosity Philosophy Statement

    CompleteOpen full lesson

  2. Lesson 2 — Reading Giving Health Without Exposing Households

    Calculate and interpret aggregate giving health metrics while adopting a written protocol that protects individual household privacy. · 75 minutes · produces Aggregate Giving Health Reading and Household-Privacy Protocol

    CompleteOpen full lesson

  3. Lesson 3 — Teaching, Inviting and Thanking: The Generosity Calendar

    Build a twelve-month generosity calendar that deliberately balances teaching, inviting and thanking across the year. · 75 minutes · produces Twelve-Month Generosity Calendar

    Not completeOpen full lesson

  4. Lesson 4 — Transparency, Trust and Reporting Back to Givers

    Build a recurring transparency and reporting-back practice that connects aggregate giving to specific ministry outcomes without disclosing household data. · 75 minutes · produces Transparency and Reporting-Back Plan with a draft congregational report

    Not completeOpen full lesson
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