Through the work of Toward Bold Faithfulness, church financial strain was identified as a top challenge that Fellowship congregations face. As a result, CBF and the CBF Foundation are actively addressing this issue through the creation of resources and support directed at all facets of church financial health. Our areas of focus include church budgets, stewardship and generosity, addressing capital needs, legacy giving, endowments, understanding the work of the CBF Foundation and rethinking facilities and church property as assets.
Rickey Letson serves as CBF's Congregational Stewardship Officer and would be happy to talk with you or your church about any of these areas. Below you find downloadable print resources, videos and recent articles from our monthly church finance e-newsletter Generous Fellowship. For more information or if you have questions, please reach out to Rickey directly at rletson@cbf.net or 678-230-8341.
Cultivating Generous Congregations
A Two Month/Four Session Virtual Learning Cohort
Classes Forming Now for Winter & Fall 2023
Cultivating Generous Congregations is offered by CBF in partnership with the Lake Institute. Lake is one of America’s foremost authorities on faith and generosity. Each year, we offer two cohorts – one in the Winter (February/March) and one in the Fall (September/October). Both cohorts are comprised of 12 congregations with each church having space for 3 participants. Over the course of the study, we focus on developing a healthy theology of generosity, understanding the latest statistics and trends related to giving, creating a year-round approach to stewardship education, developing our members as donors and understanding how different generations are motivated to give among other topics. At the end of each Cohort, churches work to form specific stewardship goals based on what they have learned in the class. The cost to participate in $550 per congregation. This includes all materials and access to our online learning archive of articles, videos and charts related to various elements of generosity. If you would like more information or if you would like to enroll your church to participate in one of the two opportunities in 2023, please contact Rickey Letson, CBF Congregational Stewardship Officer at rletson@cbf.net.
Resources
Congregations and Health Insurance
Videos
Generous Fellowship Articles
- The 90 Percent Church: Exemplifying Generosity Through Your Budget & Leadership
By Rickey LetsonCBF Congregational Stewardship Officer When I was pastoring, our church embarked on a significant capital campaign to fund much-needed improvements to our facility. In the process, our leadership felt that we should tithe on gifts to […]
- Endowments ─ Blessing or Curse?
By Shauw Chin CappsCBF Foundation President Endowments ─ Blessing or Curse? The answer is it depends. I have heard a spectrum of answers from pastors and ministers on this topic. I have heard horror stories and hopeful stories. In both cases, […]
- Church Financial Health Starts with Having a Plan
By Rickey Letson A dear friend shared a box of books with me recently. He is at the end of his professional career and had been doing some cleaning and down-sizing. In the process, he had gathered some items from his library that he thought I […]
- CBF Foundation Makes A Major Decision to Further Benefit Churches
By Shauw Chin Capps CBF Foundation began in 1994 with the goals of stewarding funds for CBF Global, CBF state and regional organizations, CBF partner churches and partner organizations. Presently, we are proud to have more than $62 million under […]
- The Importance of Financial Transparency
By James Jordan The Merriam-WebsterDictionary defines transparent as “free from pretense or deceit: frank; easily detected or seen through: obvious; readily understood and characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially […]