Reason #2

No, I did not do a post on Reason #1 that you missed. It's really Reason #2 that I want to address. It explains why our November giving at Five Oaks was very low. Dangerously low, since we were tracking on the low-but-doing-okay side of things coming into November. In terms of the percentage of giving over against the budget, we went from third worse to worse in one month! And Reason #2 explains it best.

Reason #1 is was the ice storm weekend (and you can add the Hudson bandshell baptism service where we took no offering and the Feed Event weekend to this one). But if not for Reason #2, none of those events would hurt us. To put it bluntly, Reason #2 is simply a certain lack of discipline in giving, otherwise a missed weekend would be covered later or online. But it's those two weekends that are killing us right now.

Most of our funds come from people who give regularly. But if many of our regular givers don't have a set discipline to give regularly (e.g., using a personal reminder system or automatic online giving), it's entirely possible they'll give less than they thought they gave. In fact, researchers tell us that most people greatly underestimate how much they actually give for this very reason (tax time corrects our notions, though).

So if you missed an offering or two (or five) because of Reason #2, would you please take that into consideration over the month of December. Or you can go online right now and give by clicking here. You can make a one-time contribution or you can set up automatic giving once you're there. Don't let Reason #2 keep you from giving what God has laid on your heart to give.