One of the interesting facts about giving is that it is not necessarily the wealthiest people who are the most generous; it is not necessarily the most tender-hearted or the most outspoken. The most generous people tend to be those who have made a commitment in advance and then organised their affairs so that they can maximise their giving. As Paul indicates in chapter 16 of his first letter to the Corinthians, effective generosity is as much about being organised as it is about caring.
Paul’s advice is: “On the first day of the week, each of you should put aside some money according to what you have earned, so that there are no collections when I come.” People normally trim their budgets to suit the amount of money they have available, so if giving is left until the last minute the amount available to give will be small, no matter how strongly people feel about the purpose for which the money is given.
An obvious but often overlooked corollary is that churches that want to have sufficient money to be effective in ministry have to train their members to be organised with their finances. People are understandably scared away when a church is continually harassing them to give money. Instead of repeatedly asking for money, churches need to help people cultivate surplus in their finances so that they have the funds necessary for effective generosity.