This document provides principles and strategies for engaging children and young people in stewardship. It discusses that young people are often financially dependent but may have increasing independence. It emphasizes that giving should not feel like legalism, and young people need ownership over donated money. Strategies include giving youth groups money to allocate, having families discuss giving together, and setting up envelope donations for individuals. The overall goal is for young people to experience Christian generosity through community involvement and feedback on how donations are used.

1. Encouraging Giving
Ideas for engaging with children and
young people about stewardship
Background
• Family/household Young people are financially dependent, usually
as part of a family/household. They may have increasing financial
independence as they get older.
• Church and group They may have a strong sense of being part
of these – or they may not. They may be experiencing what
Christian generosity is like. Or they may not.
• Consumerism and materialism Marketing is targeted at them.
(And charities may join in this.)
• Student debt
Principles
It’s about sacrificial giving not legalism.
If young people are to give, they need ownership of what is
happening with the money. That should mean: being a full part of the
church community; having a say in how the church uses it’s money;
knowing what the money is used for – things within their experience.
No taxation without representation.
God wants people to give from what they’ve got – not just money.
Children and young people won’t have control of much money. But
they have lots of other things to give as part of their discipleship.
The church needs to recognise what young people are already giving
– not just money but gifts, time, service and the rest. The culture
needs to be affirming not nagging.
They will only really learn about Christian generosity by being on the
receiving end of it. It is not just a matter of teaching sessions but the
nature of the community. Are they learning a Christian counterculture
or just materialism?
Strategies
Church:
The PCC can give each children’s and young people’s group a sum of
money from the church budget for them to decide where it goes – in
the life of the church or giving away (but not for their own benefit). It
should be a significant amount, meaningful to the age group, but not
in proportion to their giving. Make sure they get feedback on what
the money has done.
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2. Make a set of boxes labelled with some major categories of actual
spending in your church – keep it simple enough to make sense for
the age group, e.g. ‘paying the youth worker’, ‘heating the building’,
‘running a holiday club’. Give each child/young person some
monopoly money to share between the boxes as they want. Add up
the totals and discuss them as a group. How did they make their
decisions? Do they want to agree any changes? Give the results to
the PCC or Annual Church Meeting.
Family:
Encourage families to discuss and make decisions together about
where their giving goes, where possible. This may mean discussing
the whole giving ‘budget’ or part of it. One option is for parent(s) to
allocate a sum of money (one-off or regular) and then give their
children a set of options which will be meaningful to them:
o an agency that provides good information for children and
young people (e.g. Toybox)
o people you know (e.g. mission partners) who will write back or
visit
o a particular project in the life of the church.
The family can then talk through the options and come to an agreement.
Older children may be keen to give in response to current disaster areas.
That can be good but help them be aware that there are other needs which
never make the news. There may be other ways that family members can
support this project too – praying, giving practical help, writing letters.
Individual:
• Individual children and young people should have a way to give from
whatever money they do control. For example, if there is an envelope
scheme, any money put in special stamped envelopes could go towards
a particular project or aspect of church life meaningful to children and
young people. Make sure these envelopes are available for any young
people who want them. Give regular feedback on the progress of that
project and what the money is doing.
Church group:
• Children’s and youth groups should think what they can give. What
are their gifts and abilities? What is the group as a whole good at?
What has God given them which they can use for others? If they love
baking, they can make cakes and sell them. If they have stuff which
could be sold – have a trip to a charity shop. If they are motivated to
pray, they could lead prayer activities for the whole congregation.
Notice the difference between their making a genuine contribution –
and creating the illusion for the sake of feeling good about it.
• Affirm children and young people for what they already contribute as
a group to the wider church. The affirmation should come from the
church not just group leaders.
Set up a small group to have a single meeting to decide what to do
with these ideas, or come up with better ones. Include one or two
people from each of the following: young people, parents, group
leaders, PCC, clergy.
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