Why Give?

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we accept responsibility for sharing generously with others. Our sharing is in response to the gift of God’s love for every person. We share our witness of Jesus Christ and our resources. Sharing with others acknowledges that all we have and are is a gift from God to us. Sharing our witness tells others what Jesus Christ and the church mean to us.

Part of our witness as disciples is sharing the news of God’s great generosity. God provides “enough and to spare” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:2f). God shares in abundance, “good measure, pressed down…shaken together, and running over.” All that we have and all that we are is a priceless gift to us from God. What then is our response as disciples of Jesus Christ? In simple terms, we respond with thankfulness and share with others as generously as God has shared with us.

Scripture guides us in our discipleship:

“Stewardship is the response of my people to the ministry of my Son and is required alike of all those who seek to build the kingdom” (Doctrine and Covenants 147:5a).

All things were created by God and are to be used for God’s purposes. As disciples of Christ, we explore the scriptures to understand our stewardship of time, giftedness, and financial resources in response to God’s grace and love expressed to us in the life of Jesus Christ.

Our Stewardship Is

• a personal response to God’s grace and love;

• a means to meet the needs of a growing church; and

• a way to provide more fully and joyfully for Christ like service and ministry, locally and globally.

Generosity is one of the ways we can both honor our heritage and our call to live as prophetic people who help shape the future God has envisioned for all creation. A Disciple’s Generous Response is a whole life commitment we choose to make in response to God’s wonderful generosity. We express our gratitude to God with each breath of life we take as we share generously, save wisely, and spend responsibly. Understanding our stewardship at the personal, congregational, and denominational levels will bless us spiritually and grow us as a community, so that we can respond “more fully and joyfully for the great work to which [we] are called” and engaged (Doctrine and Covenants 154:5b).

Agency

Agency is one of the generous gifts God gives to us. Agency is our ability to choose freely how we respond to God’s infinite love and grace. Using our agency wisely allows us to manage our time, giftedness, and resources to benefit our personal, family, congregational, and community life. More specifically, our stewardship of financial resources defines the extent we can generously share, wisely save, and responsibly spend.