We’re already seeing an abundant response to this year’s Season of Generosity launch, and we’ve only just begun!

You’ve probably heard about the two main ways to get involved:

1. Giving of your time and energy by participating in one of our local service opportunities

2. Giving of your financial resources to bless one of our local or global ministry partners

We encourage you, first and foremost, to spend some time asking God to lay some of these opportunities on your heart. As you are drawn to certain serving initiatives or financial needs, you can jump in by signing up to serve, or by giving to our “Season of Generosity” fund.

Maybe you’ve already chosen some serving opportunities to jump into. Maybe you’ve thought about what it could look like to give extravagantly. That’s amazing!

If you’re looking for ways to go one step further…or to lean in a little more intentionally with your kids about what generosity looks like…or to carry Season of Generosity into your home and your routines…we’ve got some ideas.

Below, you’ll find a list of 10 ULTRA-PRACTICAL (and creative) ways to infuse your everyday life with generosity in this season.  

START HERE…

• Grab a mason jar and a handful of popsicle sticks and write down the names of our FBC Missionaries and Season of Generosity Partners on the popsicle sticks. Before each meal, have someone pick out a stick at random, and then pray for that missionary or organization.
  

• At the beginning of the week, write the name of an FBC missionary or Season of Generosity partner on the bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker and pray as often as you see it.
  

• Take a “prayer walk” around your neighborhood (solo, with a friend, spouse, or your family) to pray over our local and global ministry partners.
  

• Pick out one of this year’s 3 global partners and make a recipe from the region where they serve. (Think Middle Eastern, Indian, or Chilean Food!) Pinterest is brimming with international recipes you can make with common ingredients! Before you dig in, pray for the corresponding missionary.

  • Bassam Banoura - Middle East

  • Abraham Thomas - India

  • Alejandro Armijo - Chile
    

• Invite a new friend or a neighbor to serve with you. Serving together is a great way to build connection and bless our community at the same time!
  

• Check out products that support this year’s ministry partners. Most are made locally!

  • Church Community Services | Soup of Success Products

  • The Crossing | Micro-businesses: Spark Candles & X-Treme Tree Services

  • Trail Life USA | Featured Products
    

• Follow the social media platforms of the organizations we partner with to stay connected and informed.

  • Cultivate Culinary | Facebook | Instagram

  • Church Community Services | Facebook | Instagram

  • Faith Mission | Facebook

  • RETA | Facebook | Instagram

  • Ribbon of Hope | Facebook

  • Michiana Biblical Counseling Center | Facebook

  • The Crossing School of Business & Entrepreneurship | Facebook | Instagram

  • SPA Women’s Ministry Homes | Facebook | Instagram

  • Trail Life USA | Facebook | Instagram

  • Fresh Paint on the Road | Facebook

  • Time to Revive | Facebook | Instagram
    

• Treat our service opportunities as springboards. Ask ministry leaders if there are ways to continue volunteering in the future. Keep “spreading the cheer” by delivering boxes of donuts or Christmas cookies in your own neighborhood.

• Next time you’re at the store, allow one of your kiddos to pick out a toy to donate to RETA’s November Toy Drive, or take advantage of a sale at the grocery store to pick up something extra for Bristol Food Pantry’s November Food Drive. (For the full experience, allow your kids to personally drop off the donation in the big boxes in the Commons on Sunday morning!)

  • Check out RETA’s Toy Drive List here.

  • Check out Bristol Food Pantry’s List here.
    

• On your way to serve, leverage the car ride to talk to your kids about the “why” behind the “what” that they’re about to do. How will it bless the recipients?  

Have some additional creative ideas? Share them below!

“Looking back now, it’s easy to dissect what happened. We were naive. We weren’t sitting up at night thinking ‘something’s wrong here.’ It was just normal - you use a credit card; you go out to eat. It wasn’t even a second thought.” - Patrick and Kellie Fox 

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We’re really grateful to bring you a conversation we shared with Patrick and Kellie Fox focused on the “how” of giving. Around the family table in their home, we listened as they shared their personal journey with finances and generosity. Our prayer is that this post invites you into the room to catch a glimpse of how intention serves generosity in a real-life context. 

STARTING OUT 

Patrick and Kellie candidly described the first several years of their lives as newlyweds, fresh out of college: “If you look back at that time in our life, we had money, but if you would have known what was going on behind the scenes, you would be saying, ‘Where’d all your money go?’” They recounted the metaphorical burden that they carried during that season - a building sense of financial stress that grew bigger with time. “It’s unnerving to live like that,” they reflected. 

The introduction of Financial Peace University (FPU) came as part of a bigger move of God’s hand in Patrick and Kellies’ journey. Our God doesn’t touch only isolated “compartments” of our lives. Instead, He transforms us by the renewal of our minds. In a holistic, sweeping act of grace, He changes us at a heart-level, affecting the way we interpret every area of life. Romans 12:2 implies that this kind of renewal is the very agent that allows us to resist conforming to the world and its norms - including the financial ones.

Romans 12:2 (NLT)
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

“Certain people came into our lives,” Patrick and Kellie recalled, “and God worked on our hearts in MANY areas, not just finances. Whatever you do with your finances is just a reflection of what’s going on in your heart.” Together, they read one of Dave Ramsey’s books and started grappling with hard questions like, “Whose money is it?” and, “What are we really entitled to?” God was at work.

ENTER: FPU

A short time later, Financial Peace University was offered as a class at FBC. Patrick and Kellie dove in fully and described their experience as if the blinders came off. The practice of building monthly budgets and telling money where to go, rather than allowing impulse purchases to dictate, was the factor that unlocked the financial transformation they experienced. But far from merely changing their habits, they aligned their priorities with God’s Word until their budget reflected it. Looking back, their monthly budgets became a visual reflection of their changing spiritual priorities. They started seeing heart change on a spreadsheet.

Working through the Financial Peace University process wasn’t a quick fix. It took time and gritty effort. Kellie remembers making rice and beans for dinner - a lot. But as they kept at it, they started to see the return. As they paid off debt, God gave them timely opportunities to take on new callings made possible because of the financial freedom they had gained.

SINCE THEN

Ever since the class, Patrick and Kellie have been budgeting each month and carrying principles from FPU into the rhythms of their family’s life. Their kids know words like “budget”, “savings”, and “interest”. They each have personal savings accounts with Dad as the banker. (He’s offering a pretty great interest rate on their savings accounts!) They’re growing up seeing Mom and Dad sit down and plan a budget on the first Saturday of the month. And they’re being actively challenged and encouraged to be generous in their own contexts with the resources of time and energy that they’ve been given.

Patrick and Kellie have seen the transformation in their lives that started with a shifting of priorities in their hearts and worked itself out practically in zero-dollar based budgeting, among other habits. They’ve had the pleasure of teaching several FPU classes and are passionate about sharing what they’ve learned with others. And they’ve observed that intentionality paves the way for generosity. “Giving, for us, is one of the keys,” they reflected. “If you were to look at our life from when we first got married to now, you would see an almost parallel trend of increased giving to increased serving to increased blessing. It’s a privilege to be able to take the time and talents and treasures that God’s given us and to release those and to share that grace. That’s humbling, as it should be. I don’t think you’ll ever have more fun than giving money away.”

FREEDOM IS BIGGER THAN WE THINK

“The goal of the “American Dream” is SELF, but the end goal of God’s idea of financial peace is that we would be all about God and His kingdom. When you’re financially free, you can do so much more than write a check,” they explained.

There is a kind of freedom God wants to give His children that is far deeper than freedom from debt. 

“You can afford to either send somebody to Africa, or go yourself,” Patrick continued. “And maybe, you can retire a little bit early and invest in Kingdom things that you weren’t able to do when you worked full time.” 

Financial freedom maximizes our ability to further the Kingdom. That kind of reasoning as a catalyst for financial change is sturdy enough to withstand the growing pains of adapting to new budgeting habits. That kind of reasoning is backed by Romans 12:2. When we see finances with a Biblical lens, the way we manage our resources becomes yet one more way that we can make much of Jesus Christ and share His hope and love with our world. Kellie described it so well: “You can set yourself up through FPU so that you can have peace about giving and have the ability to do it. Your hands aren’t tied by other things.”

FPU THIS FALL

We’re thrilled to routinely offer Financial Peace University at FBC, but we don’t offer it so that more families at our church can become glittering examples of achieving financial stability. We offer it as another means to equip families to love God, love people, and influence our world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, with greater freedom. Like Patrick and Kellie experienced, we believe God is orchestrating some kingdom opportunities in the lives of FBC families that will be unlocked by financial peace. 

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To be one of the first to know when we will offer the next FPU class, and to learn about other opportunities at FBC, keep an eye on the MY FBC page of our website, and connect with us on social media!

Patrick and Kellie Fox have a deep love for Christ’s church and have invested their hearts in the weekly rhythms at First Baptist. Along with their 3 boys, they’re building an active and vibrant life, full of family time, adventures with close friends, playing sports, and enjoying northern Indiana.