regular giving
The Kirk Session has set up a Congregational Giving Group in response to a recommendation resulting from our last Quinquennial Visitation and an instruction from the General Assembly to all congregations to carry out a Stewardship Campaign at least once every three years, with the focus to be on giving – giving time, talents and money.
The Group's recent discussions have centred on regular monetary giving and have come up with surprising figures about the number of regular givers in our congregation and the amounts they contribute.
23 members of Stockbridge contribute through Free Will Offering Envelopes and 25 through Gift Aid Envelopes. In addition there are 26 Standing Orders in force, providing for payments direct to the Church's current account. Some of these regular contributions, by Envelope or by Standing Order, are from individuals, but others are from couples or families who give jointly; that is the case for example where the group contains a tax-payer and the intention is that the Church should benefit from Gift Aid. While we can be sure that the number of members who have committed themselves to give regularly is greater than 74 (23 + 25 + 26), we cannot tell how much greater: information about giving is of course confidential.
The Congregational Roll stands at 215. When we take the number of regular givers and increase that figure by making a generous assumption about the unknown number of joint givers, it is still clear that a good many members have not committed to regular giving to the Church.
The Group has also looked at how much the regular givers contribute to the Church and has been surprised to find that over half of them contribute less than £5.00 per week.