Do you switch off when your church pastor talks about giving? Perhaps you feel guilty, thinking you aren’t giving enough, or even resentful because, after all, isn’t church about the gospel and growing in Jesus? Should such things even be discussed?

The Rev Des Smith is so sure we should talk about the issues of Christian generosity and giving that, when he was senior pastor of Trinity Church Adelaide, he decided to do a sermon series on the topic. When that was well received, he thought it might work well as a book, and the result is The Cheerful Giver.

“I wanted to make clear to people from the outset that this wasn’t just about giving to church – this wasn’t a fundraising drive disguised as a sermon series!” he says. “It was actually to help people think about giving to all sorts of things, which obviously includes giving to church but isn’t limited to that.

“Jesus talks a lot about money in the Bible, and yet at the same time people can be nervous talking about it. Maybe they’ve had bad experiences but, even if they haven’t, I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding about what the Bible does and doesn’t say about giving and generosity, so it’s an important topic for Christians to get their heads around.”

The book, which can be read in about an hour, essentially covers three areas in relation to giving: the why, the who and the how much. For the “why”, it explains that we should not give out of guilt, or with a prosperity-gospel expectation of receiving something in return. Rather, any kind of giving is meant to be very much a response to God giving to us, and his generosity in all things. As we are gradually transformed more into Jesus’ likeness, we will naturally be givers, because we are becoming more like our heavenly Father.

“The second chapter is about how much we should give, which is often a bit of a hot topic for Christians!” Smith says. “I go away from the tithes or a set percentage that people should somehow feel tied to, and talk about giving whatever your heart’s desire is, but be willing to expand your heart.” The “who” from the Bible includes giving to family, to church, to gospel work outside the church, to needy Christians and the poor generally, as well as considering how to prioritise our giving.

Smith was keen to keep the book short so it could be inexpensive for churches to purchase and use as a resource they could give away. That being the case, while The Cheerful Giver does touch on the ways its three principles might be used for generosity with time, it does focus essentially on financial giving. 

“On one hand it is a how-to – it’s there to answer questions – but it goes deeper than that,” he says. “If I had an aim for the book, it’s not necessarily for people to give away more of their money to good causes, although that would be great. There are always those who aren’t able to give away more money. They’re stretched. But if they come away with a deeper appreciation of God’s generosity to them and a desire to be more generous to others, that’s a win. 

“I think about the widow with the two copper coins; did she make any difference to Israel’s bank account? No, but Jesus is much more interested in what God has been doing in her heart than the actual money. The primary aim of a book like this is not to increase giving but to produce more generous-hearted people.”

The Rev Des Smith is senior pastor of Trinity Church Lockleys in the Trinity Network of churches in Adelaide. The Cheerful Giver is available through Matthias Media.