Writing a check must draw us deeper into our relationship with Haitians and with the God who permits their suffering and commands our response. Our response to that God and these Haitians must always be more than writing a check.

Giving is first a spiritual issue, not a financial one.

Blessings, Ben.

I simply want to bring to light that there is always room to increase giving. Most people are not currently giving at their full capacity. That being the case, how can we as church leaders challenge them to practice reckless generosity?

Keep reading. Blessings!

A few comments about the Haiti situation especially as it relates to churches:

Churches tend to see two possible categories of response when it comes to Haiti. On the one hand, respond directly by creating a program (e.g., gather relief supplies or plan a mission trip through a church contact). On the other hand, take an offering to give to an organization that is responding directly.

Either hand presents challenges.

As Baptist churches in Idaho will tell you, intervening directly is fraught with difficulties. We can mean well and yet still end up with trauma (or at least lots of leftover toothpaste when it turns out no one wants what we collected).

But taking offerings for other people to do ministry loses its appeal after special offering #10 or 11 in a given year. Congregants grant that each cause is worthy, but they resent the seemingly never-ending flood of requests from the never-ending flood of worthy causes.

Truth is, these two choices hardly exhaust the church’s possible repertoire. They represent a diminished creativity of response.

As you note in your book and your blog, Ben, churches hold a distinct advantage over nonprofits because of their frequency of gathering. And a key element of this advantage goes well beyond churches’ ability to ask congregants’ more frequently for money. (That can actually be a disadvantage–a kind of compassion fatigue.)

Instead, the frequency of gathering can correlate to a comprehensiveness of response. We can–and should–do more than write a check. If writing a check provides an exit from consideration of the disaster (which, unfortunately, is exactly what it has done and always does for so many folks), then writing a check is exactly the wrong response.

Writing a check must draw us deeper into our relationship with Haitians and with the God who permits their suffering and commands our response. Our response to that God and these Haitians must always be more than writing a check.

In this vein, Jon Hirst of .W, author of the Generous Minds blog, wrote a Haiti Family Action Plan, the prayer portion of which I cited on my blog at http://ericfoley.com/2010/01/22/a-transformational-response-to-tragedy-and-crisis-part-iv-a-gift-to-remember-not-forget/ .

Jon wrote the plan for his family’s own comprehensive response to the disaster, but I think it works equally well for a church. He’s happy to share the whole plan for free, of course–just email him at jhirst@dotheword.org.

Keep up the good work, Ben!