Author, The 40 Day Spiritual Journey to a More Generous Life (self-published)
Senior Pastor of First Evangelical Free Church of Colorado Springs, CO
Conducted "MAXIMUM Generosity Seminars" for thousands of pastors and church leaders across America and overseas
Radio commentator on the 1000-station Crown Financial Ministries "Money Matters" radio program that was started by Larry Burkett
Past national president of the Christian Stewardship Association
Featured on NBC's Dateline and in the following publications: Christianity Today, Kiplinger Magazine, etc.
B.S. in Communications, Trinity International University
Currently in post-graduate studies at Trinity Theological Seminary
Married to Sandi has three children
GUEST
Pastor Brian Kluth: Become a Cheerful Giver
The 700 Club
CBN.com
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A GENEROUS LIFE
As a teenager and college student, Brian recalls being very materialistic.
”I would steal to get the things I wanted from family members, shops, and employers,” says Brian.
He experienced a transformation in his life when he came to know the Lord in college and began to live and give generously based on the truth of God’s Word.
"Through the years God has led me to growing levels of generosity in my life, from the first $20 bill I placed in the offering plate as a new Christian to gifts my wife and I have given that were equivalent to 50 percent and 100 percent of our annual income. My wife and I have found ourselves on a God led and grace-filled journey to living a generous life,” says Brian.
“Every Christian believer is called and encouraged by God to faithfully and generously give to the Lord from whatever God has entrusted to them. I do not believe any church has a “money problem”, only a faithfulness problem,” he says.
THE GREAT OMISSION
Today, about 20 - 50 percent of congregations give nothing to the Lord’s work. The reasons for their lack of giving are usually because “they haven’t been taught or because they feel they can’t afford to give,” notes Brian.
He says “teaching God’s Word on finances and generosity is a vital area of spiritual transformation and Christian discipleship this is being avoided by most pastors and churches today. This has been the “silent subject” and the “Great Omission” in the church for over 50 years.”
Realizing the need of churches to inspire greater levels of generosity among their congregation, Brian produced a book that every person or family in a church could easily go through and allow the Word of God to touch and transform their attitudes and actions on giving financially to the Lord’s work. His generosity materials have been distributed in over 100 countries among pastors, leaders, and people in thousands of churches.His preaching and leadership training on generosity has taken him around the world.
After receiving rejections from seven Christian publishers (they simply felt no one would buy the book because there is no market for books on generosity), Brian and his wife prayed about it and took some inheritance money from his mother’s home going and printed 15,000 copies of his booklet. Today, over 200,000 copies have been printed. More than 100,000 of those copies were printed in the first 9 months.
BECOMING A GREAT GIVER
Brian identifies five ways you will benefit if you give 10 percent or more of your income to God's work:
(1) It will help strengthen your trust in God and your spiritual growth;
(2) It will help you begin to experience God's creative care in meeting your needs;
(3) It will help begin to break any shackles of debt, "desires for more", or a feeling of poverty that you may be experiencing;
(4) It will help you store up treasure in heaven; and
(5) It will help your church to better serve you and others (by properly caring for your pastor, mission, ministry, and facility needs).
Brian shares how “the surest long-term path to get out of debt and financial troubles is to make a decision to “give 10 percent of your income to God first” from right “off the top” of whatever He gives you.
1. Give to God First - When we give to God first, regardless of our needs, we see how big God can be in our lives. If we withhold from the Lord, we miss the many blessings and provisions the Lord is longing to shower on us.
2. Give to God Systematically - Christians who don’t have a regular way of laying aside the first of what they receive for the Lord often feel pressed and confused when it comes to giving. Many people making comfortable incomes experience no joy in giving because they haven’t determined how they will give.
3. Give to God Cheerfully - We should never "give to get," but we can trust that as we give, our God will meet our needs, sometimes in very special ways. Instances arise when it makes no financial sense to give to the Lord. Yet, God wants us to give at times with the realization that we are totally dependent on Him to meet our basic needs and desires.
4. Give to God Eternally - "For God is not unfair. He will not forget the love you showed for Him by the help you gave and are still giving your fellow Christians" (Hebrews 6:10).
In addition to learning about giving, Brian recommends every church offer a financial class/course/study that people can go through to get their finances in order.
Some other Web sites he recommends include:
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