At Hillside, we love to hear stories from people about how God is working in their lives. Below are a number of actual testimonies from people within Hillside that have been affected by online giving and their perspectives on how God has used this resource to change the way they think about giving back to Him. If you have wondered about how Online giving could affect your life, spend some time enjoying these testimonials and maybe God can speak to you and your family through these families’ stories.

YOUNG FAMILY

When we switched to scheduled giving online it was a huge stress reliever to us.  We didn’t have to think every Sunday: “Did we bring the checkbook? Do we have money in our account?  Should we wait until next week? How much did we give last time?” And on and on.  With scheduled giving, our general giving goes out every week and our building giving goes out each month.  We don’t even have to think about it; it doesn’t stress us out and we know that our gifts are being used to further God’s Kingdom.  Giving shouldn’t be stressful, but the opposite, it should bring us peace.

FAMILY WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

Four years ago, we started attending Hillside Community Church when Pete’s series was on Personal Finances.  He shared a story of his and Gail’s early marriage when they had a friend helping them with their taxes.  Pete felt like they were doing fine as a family in the area of their giving to the church, but when their friend shared that over the year they had given less than 4% Pete realized how far off he was.  It was tax time for us, and I was sure that we were giving enough…until we took a look.  We were in the same boat, we had given WAY less than what we intended.  It was so convicting that we committed to get our giving up to where we knew God wanted it to be within the next year.

That next year, we purposed to do better.  During the year, we gave what we had committed as a family…WHEN we were in town and remembered…but there were weeks here and there that we forgot or were just out of town.  We didn’t think it had been that often, until again, at tax time, we realized that our giving, a huge improvement, had still been less than our family had intended.  We realized we needed to take advantage of the tools the church offered through the scheduled online giving.  The great thing is that we were able to set up our tithe to be withdrawn directly from our checking account bi-weekly on our pay day.  This enables us to consistently give the “first-fruits” from our income.

It’s tax time again, and as we sat down and looked at our giving for 2010, it was the first time that we had stuck to our giving commitments as a family and felt that we had honored the Lord in this area!  The online giving system is just a tool, a program, but it can be a great way to help you follow-through on living out the biblical principles of giving back to the Lord what He has so graciously given to us!

Mat 6:33  “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

FAMILY WITH YOUTH

Our family loves the option of scheduled giving at Hillside. We decided the amount of our tithe, set it up online and it gets sent directly to Hillside twice a month.  We can give God the ‘first fruits’ He is due, not just whatever we have left over.  Our family travels often and with scheduled giving, we know that the money we give to the Lord is being used for ministries we value. We are able to give to our church home even when we’re away.    We highly recommend it!

FAMILY WITH YOUTH AND GRADE SCHOOL CHILDREN

Remembering to write a check & getting it in the offering each week was challenging us.  We started the scheduled giving with our Believe pledge.  We knew we wanted to be regular in our giving and it seemed the easiest way to do it.  We set up our giving to be deducted from our checking account the Monday after payday. The first fruits of our labor is so much easier to give when it really is given first.  When we heard Pete say how families who give on a regular schedule give more than those who do it sporadically, it hit home.  We were that changed family.  Our giving began sporadically, worrying if we would have enough to meet our pledged amount.  Once we set it all up, there is never any worrying involved.

FAMILY WITH GROWN CHILDREN

But it’s MY money!  That’s what I thought for the longest time.  Then I came to understand that it wasn’t mine, but God’s.  Everything we have is His and He is free to take it whenever and however He wants.  That’s when I decided to make it easy on myself and set up a scheduled giving account on Hillside’s web page.  I know that parting with ‘my’ money is difficult but that it is what is asked of us in a true relationship with God.   Using the regularly scheduled payments takes the punch out of the attack each month when I look at my checkbook and start to rationalize about whether I really have enough to share with God this month.  Now, God comes first.  I still have to budget, and sometimes I have second thoughts about how much I give.  I WANT God to be first in my life and not just a left over.  Maybe that’s the difference……….

FAMILY WITH COLLEGE STUDENT AND OTHER CHILD

When we started attending Hillside, we had no room in our budget for a monthly church tithe.  We however were impressed with the positive effect Hillside had on our family and realized it took money for the church programs to be successful. We also realized that as a member of the church body, we should financially contribute to ensure the success of the ministry.  Initially we were donating our tithe in cash, only when we were actually present at church, and not out of town. We realized there was a substantial drop off in donations during the summer months when families were on vacation.  While the donations dropped, the church expenses continued, causing the church to reach into financial reserves.  To ensure we were giving a consistent gift, we started writing a monthly check at the beginning of the month.  This ensured a consistent gift except when we would forget to bring the checkbook to church.

We approached Dave Bream and Cindy Duff and inquired to the possibility of the church drafting our monthly tithe from our checking account.  Initially, the church was unable to do so but has since adopted the procedure.  We have been using the online method for donations for a couple of years now and have never missed a donation.  This practice ensures the church receives a consistent amount of funds that they can rely on each month and we don’t have to worry about that responsibility.  The online setup was also easy and allowed us to make changes as necessary or to give for special occasions.

YOUNG FAMILY WITH BABIES

We have been using scheduled giving online for about two years now.  It works great for our family because it is a consistent way to give and we can budget on a monthly basis.  Even if we miss a Sunday we know that our commitment does not change.  It is very easy to manage online for giving campaigns or special events in addition to our monthly giving when the circumstance is necessary.  We love to see how the Lord is working within Hillside and we are so excited to be a part of the Hillside family.

FAMILY WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS

My wife and I started giving online when it was first offered to the church on the website about two years ago.  We have found it to be both a convenient and simple process that we have used to give to the “Believe On” and “Moving the Chains” building campaigns at Hillside.  It is very easy to start the online giving process and you no longer have to worry about which spouse brought the checkbook or whether the offering was forgotten altogether.  It is also easy to change the amount given for your tithe each week or month depending on how often you give it.  Online giving has allowed our family to be faithful to the biblical giving principle talked about in Proverbs 3:9 of allowing God to receive the “first fruits” of our labors instead of our leftovers.

FAMILY WITH YOUTH AND SCHOOL CHILDREN

We have been giving online for over two years.  It is much easier than having to remember to write a check and trying to get it in the offering each week.  We started the scheduled giving with our Believe pledge first.  Again, to keep us from forgetting.  We knew we wanted our tithe to be regular and it just seemed like the easiest way to do it.  We set up our giving to be deducted from our checking account the Monday after payday. The first fruits of our labor is so much easier to give when it really is given first.  When we heard Pete say how families who give on a regular schedule give more than those who do it sporadically, it hit home.  We were that changed family.  Our giving began sporadically, worrying if we would have enough to meet our pledged amount.  Once we set it all up, there is never any worrying involved.  It is so easy to use the online giving feature on the website.  We can go in at any time and change the date or amount.  We can even give extra whenever we feel led to.

FAMILY WITH SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN

My husband and I have been using the on-line giving for our tithing for quite a while and have really enjoyed the ease and convenience of not having to worry if I left the checkbook in the car as well as being able to look on-line at any time and keep track of our yearly giving. We have just recently begun using the “scheduled” aspect of the on-line giving to donate to the mission’s fund. I had found that it was often easy to overlook giving regularly to missions because it is not mentioned often during the service. It was simple and took less than five minutes to set up the monthly scheduled donations. We are so glad that Hillside has made following this “G” so easy and convenient.

YOUNG FAMILY WITH 2 CHILDREN

We have mixed feelings with giving online.  First, we love it as it’s so easy to use and keeps us consistent; but we don’t like passing an empty basket on Sunday mornings.  It looks like we’re not giving and others can think, “Well they’re not giving… so why should I?”  My wife and I have been using online giving for more than 3 years now.   However, we’re not constrained by it.  If we’re lead to give beyond our scheduled giving, we typically use the checkbook for those over and above gifts.  We think giving our regular offering consistently, through online giving, really helps the church leadership plan and budget accordingly.  We also think the online giving is simpler for the church to process with the bank.  In addition, it provides the highest degree of financial integrity – there is no doubt your money is going into the church’s account – as opposed to cash.

Online giving has many personal practical benefits too:

-        You don’t have to remember to bring cash or your checkbook Sunday morning
-        You don’t have to scramble to write your check at the last minute as the basket it being passed
-        It takes any emotion out of giving (you don’t always feel like giving)
-        You don’t have to worry about catch up giving when you’re on vacation or sick
-        You always know what you’re going to give and when, so you can plan around it

MARRIED COUPLE

My wife and I learned long ago that giving doesn’t earn us any special favors with God.  Our God is a God of relationship and it is our heart that He is after, not our money.  He doesn’t need us or our money to accomplish His will, yet He has been gracious enough to allow us to join Him and become active participants in His larger story and in accomplishing His will.  We are, in effect, privileged to be His junior partners in the “family business” as well as His children.

We also learned long ago that we don’t own anything.  It all comes from God and it all belongs to God, so any giving we do is simply in response to God saying “I want you to trust Me and take a portion of what I give you and invest it in what I Am accomplishing.  The rest I trust you to use responsibly, as you see fit.”

We made a willful decision (prompted by Scripture and the Holy Spirit) many years ago that the “portion” that He request was to be from the  “first fruits” of what He has given our family each month.  Thus, we decided to always make our giving to be the first item or transaction out of our paychecks, not what was left over at the end of the month.

We have utilized online giving for the last three years now and it has been a great implementation tool of this principle, especially since we rarely use checks anymore and rely more and more on online banking for all our financial transactions.  It has also been helpful, because with online giving we can easily set up multiple online accounts with Hillside to be directed to specific areas we designate.  We can set up one draw for general giving, one draw for the building campaign and yet another for specific missions, if we so desire.

Each and every month our first financial transactions are automatically the ones we set up in our Hillside Online Giving Accounts to invest the “portions” that God has directed our family to give in accomplishing His will in advancing His Kingdom and in serving other people.  It is a simple, effective way for us to automatically give our “first fruits” to Him who supplies all our needs according to His glorious riches in Jesus, the Christ.

We would certainly never advise someone on what to give as that is a matter between them and God, but we can recommend to anyone to consider using online giving as a simple tool to follow through on whatever God has directed them to give.