Why Staff Giving Is Not Optional

There’s an elephant in the room in most churches across America. It has been there a long time. And almost no one is talking about it.

That elephant is staff giving. Whether the staff of the church gives — and gives generously — to the mission they serve every day. It’s an issue that exists in more churches than most senior leaders realize. And it carries far more weight than most of them want to acknowledge.

Most churches don’t address it. Some have tried once, found it uncomfortable, and retreated. Others have simply never raised it at all — not in an onboarding conversation, not in a staff meeting, not in a one-on-one with a direct report. So it just sits there. Unaddressed. Quietly shaping the culture in ways that undermine everything the church is trying to build.

I’m not willing to let it sit. Here’s what I know after decades of working with churches on generosity — and why I believe it’s time for church leaders to finally name the elephant and deal with it.

I’ve spent decades coaching churches of every size across this country, and I’ve seen a pattern so consistent it has become almost predictable: when a church struggles to build a culture of generosity, the problem rarely starts in the pews. It starts on the staff.

That’s not an accusation. It’s a diagnosis. And it points to something the Bible addressed head-on thousands of years ago.

An Ancient Principle We’ve Somehow Forgotten

Numbers 18:25–32 is not a passage most pastors preach from, but it may be the most important text in the entire Bible on staff giving. The setup is simple: God instructs the Levites -- the spiritual leaders of Israel, the ones who were already being supported by the tithes of the people -- that they must present a tithe of the tithe to the Lord.

Read that again. The Levites, who were the church staff in the Old Testament, received the tithe. Then they were required to tithe from what they received.

God never allowed the leaders closest to the mission to become spectators in giving. Not then. And I would argue, not now.

The Argument I Hear Most Often -- and Why It Misses the Point

I have had this conversation more times than I can count. A senior pastor or an executive pastor looks at me and says some version of the following: “We can’t ask our staff to give. Their salary comes from the church. It’s circular. It feels awkward.”

I understand the instinct. It does feel complicated. But Numbers 18 removes all the complexity, because God was dealing with exactly this situation. The Levites lived from the generosity of the people. And God still required them to give. Why? Because God understood something about human nature and organizational culture that we keep having to relearn:

Receiving generosity does not remove the responsibility to practice generosity. In fact, it heightens it.

Your staff’s salary does not exempt them from the spiritual discipline of generosity. If anything, it gives them a front-row seat to see what generosity accomplishes -- which makes their participation even more meaningful.

What’s Really at Stake: Credibility

Here is what I know from working with churches across America: your congregation is watching. They may not say it out loud, but they are asking a quiet, persistent question every time generosity is taught from the stage: Do the leaders actually believe this?

Numbers 18 makes it plain: the Levites could not stand before Israel and call the people to tithe while they themselves quietly opted out. The moment they became administrators of the giving system rather than participants in it, they forfeited their moral authority.

The same is true in your church today. Generosity culture is not primarily built through sermons, campaigns, or pledge cards. It is built through visible participation by leaders. You cannot build what you are not modeling.

Service Is Not a Substitute for Generosity

I want to address one more objection I hear regularly. It sounds like this: “My team already gives so much of themselves. Their time, their energy, their nights and weekends. Isn’t that enough?”

Numbers 18:29 answers this directly. God did not say to the Levites, “Your service to the temple is your offering.” He said, “You must present as the Lord’s portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.”

Service and generosity are not the same thing. They are both important. They are both acts of worship. But God requires both. And He was not willing to let the Levites trade one for the other. Your staff’s dedicated service to the church is a beautiful thing. But it does not replace the spiritual act of giving.

The Ownership Question That Changes Everything

In my coaching work, I’ve found one question that cuts through every rationalization and gets to the heart of the issue. I encourage you to sit your staff team down and ask it:

“If you weren’t on staff here, would you still be financially invested in this church’s mission?”

The answer reveals everything. Because the most generous churches I know have one thing in common: the staff don’t act like employees of the mission. They act like owners of it.

Owners give. Owners invite others to give. Owners celebrate what generosity accomplishes. Employees administer. Employees wonder why the congregation isn’t more generous. That subtle mindset difference changes everything about the culture you’re able to build.

Five Warning Signs Your Staff Culture Is Undermining Generosity

After years of working inside church leadership teams, I’ve learned to recognize the early warning signs that a staff culture is quietly working against generosity. Watch for these:

1. Staff participation in giving is low or unclear. If no one knows whether the staff gives, the answer is probably “not really.” Healthy generosity cultures have high staff participation.

2. Money is only discussed as a budget problem. When giving is framed as closing the gap rather than an act of worship, the spiritual meaning evaporates.

3. Staff avoid sharing their own generosity stories. People learn generosity through testimony, not just teaching. When leaders never share their own journey, generosity stays theoretical.

4. Staff feel disconnected from mission impact. If your team is consumed by operational pressures and rarely sees what God is actually doing through the generosity of the church, enthusiasm for the mission will fade.

5. Leadership avoids the topic of generosity with staff altogether. Silence is not kindness. It leaves your team without theological clarity, shared expectations, or a sense of their own leadership responsibility.

A Practical First Step

If you’re not sure where to start, here is a simple exercise I’ve seen transform staff culture. At your next staff retreat or team meeting, walk your team through Numbers 18:25-32. Explain the context. Then ask three questions and let the room talk:

• What is happening through this church that is worth investing your own resources in?
• Do we see giving as an act of worship? Or primarily as how the church funds its operations?
• If we truly believe this mission is worth our own investment, what kind of example should we set?

Don’t answer the questions for them. Let the staff articulate the conclusions themselves. That’s what creates ownership. And ownership is what creates culture.

The Bottom Line

God established this principle in the wilderness of Sinai, and it has never stopped being true: the generosity culture of God’s people is shaped by the leaders closest to the mission.

Staff giving is not optional. It is not awkward. It is not circular or complicated. It is a spiritual act that signals to the entire congregation that the people who know this mission best believe it is worth their own sacrifice.

Generosity culture spreads from the platform -- but it begins in the staff meeting.

If your church is going to be generous, your staff needs to go first.

About the Author

Jim Sheppard is the Chairman and Principal of Generis, a consulting firm that helps churches, Christian schools, and faith-based organizations accelerate generosity toward their God-inspired vision.

This blog post originally appeared on Church Leader Insider. For more information or to subscribe to Church Leader Insider, click HERE.