“We don’t have the big givers we used to have.”

Lately, in conversations with church leaders and members, I’ve been hearing a version of the same concern over and over again. Sometimes it’s a lament over those ancestors who have passed on. Or it’s:

“The younger generation just isn’t as generous.”

Sometimes it’s said with frustration. Sometimes with sadness. Sometimes just as a quiet observation of reality. And to be fair, there’s something real underneath those statements.

We have lost a generation of deeply committed, incredibly generous people. Many of them gave faithfully for decades. They supported their churches in ways that shaped what those congregations are today. And, of course, giving patterns do look different for different generations.

But I don’t think those statements tell the whole story. Because from where I sit, working with churches across a wide range of settings, I don’t see a lack of generosity. In fact, in many churches, I’m seeing the opposite.

Fewer people, yes. But those who remain are often stepping up and giving more to support the ministry they care about.

I’ve seen congregations where membership has declined, but giving has held steady or even grown, all because people are deeply committed to the future of their church.

In one church, attendance had clearly dropped over the past decade. But when it came time to take on a new project, the giving didn’t shrink. It increased. Not because there were more people, but because the people who remained cared deeply and stepped forward.

That’s real generosity.

So maybe the issue isn’t that people are less generous. Maybe something else has changed.

For a long time, churches could count on a certain kind of giving. Not always enthusiastic. Not always inspired. But steady. People gave because it was part of their faith, because they believed in the church, because they had always given, because that’s what you did.

There was a kind of shared understanding—sometimes spoken, often unspoken—that the church mattered, and that it deserved support. You didn’t always have to explain it.

That world is changing. And for many churches, that change feels unsettling. It can feel like something dependable has slipped away, like the ground has shifted underneath what used to be a fairly predictable pattern of support.

But here’s what I’m coming to believe: I don’t think the church has a generosity problem. I think we have a hard time showing people what their giving actually does.

“People want to see their money at work.” The more I sit with that line, the more I think it explains a lot of what we’re experiencing.

I’ve seen the difference this makes. When a church talks about “supporting the ministry,” people nod politely. But when they hear about a specific family that found support in a hard season, or a program that is actually reaching people in the community, something shifts.

That shift from general language to something concrete and real is hard to miss. It becomes real.

I see this especially when people talk about younger generations. In many ways, they are deeply generous people.

But if I’m honest, I don’t think this shift started with them. The Boomers started asking some of these questions. Gen X pushed it further. And those who have come along more recently have taken it even further. This isn’t just a younger generation thing. It’s something that’s been building for a long time.

Across the board, people are paying closer attention. They’re thinking more carefully about where their money goes.

They’re more likely to ask:

• What difference does this make?
• Who is actually being helped?
• Why does this matter right now?

And not in a skeptical way, but in an honest way.

I’ve seen this play out in simple ways. People are more likely to respond when they can connect their giving to something specific, and they see where it goes and what it does. It’s not about slick presentations. It’s about clarity.

One of the things I hear in donor interviews again and again is that people care deeply about their church, but they struggle to describe the impact they’re having in the community.

That gap matters more than we think.

Because when people can’t describe the impact, it becomes harder to connect their giving to something real.

That shift from assumed giving to intentional giving is one of the most important changes happening in church life right now. And it changes the way we need to think about generosity.

Because the question has changed.

It’s no longer “Should I give?”

It’s “Why should I give here?”

That’s not a bad question. It’s an honest one. And it invites something important from us.

For a long time, churches have been able to talk about needs in fairly general ways. We talk about keeping the doors open, supporting the ministry, continuing the work. And those things are all true.

But for someone who isn’t already deeply connected, they can feel distant, abstract, and hard to hold onto.

I’ve sat in rooms where leaders describe their needs in ways that make perfect sense to them. But they don’t really land with anyone else. Not because the work isn’t important. But because it’s hard to picture.

What people are looking for now is something more concrete. They want to understand what we’re actually doing, who is being served, and what difference is being made—right now. They want to be able to picture it, to see it, to feel some connection to it.

In other words, they’re looking for a story. Not a polished one, but a real one. Something they can follow, something they can step into, something that helps them see what’s actually happening.

That doesn’t mean we need to become something we’re not. The church’s work is often quiet, relational, and long-term. It doesn’t always fit neatly into a quick story or a simple outcome.

But it does mean we have to do a better job helping people see it.

Because when people can see their generosity at work, when they can understand the difference it makes, when they can connect what they give to something real and meaningful, generosity has a way of following.

So maybe the issue isn’t generosity.

Maybe it’s visibility.

Maybe it’s clarity.

Maybe it’s the way we help people understand the work they’re already supporting.

Because people are still generous. In many cases, they’re giving more than ever. But they are asking more of us. They want to understand what their giving actually does. And that means we have to do a better job showing it.

In the next article, I want to explore why the way we often describe our work doesn’t always connect, and how we can change that.

P.S. – I’ll be leading a workshop on this topic at Stewardship Kaleidoscope this fall. If you’re planning to attend, I’d love to connect.