Presbytery of Greater Atlanta

Best Practices – Stewardship Education

Name / Joy Fisher
Church Being Highlighted / Shallowford Presbyterian Church
Church Contact for Best Practice Idea / (404) 321-1844
Email of Church Contact for Best Practice Idea /
Name of Church Contact for Best Practice Idea / Kelly Weirich and Chris Henry
What category does this best fit (please choose up to 2 only) / Stewardship
Describe the Best Practice You are Submitting / Piggy Bank Missions and Faithful Ones are creative stewardship initiatives that help children participate in giving.
In 10 brief steps or less, please offer tips for how a congregation can implement this best practice in their congregation

“Piggy Bank Missions” and “Faithful Ones”

Shallowford Presbyterian’s “Piggy Bank Missions” was developed in order to:

• Give children a fun way to begin to understand giving as part of their faith

• Provide an opportunity for families to practice giving together

• Teach children about the mission life of the church

• Raise more money for missions

Each child is given a small white ceramic piggy bank that he or she may decorate. They are encouraged to put coins in their banks and to pray for the mission that will be supported by their offerings. Children are encouraged to involve their families in giving together and praying together for missions. Once a quarter the piggy bank offerings are collected, children bringing their piggy banks into church on Sunday, where they can empty the collected money into one common collection pig (a small pink trash receptacle decorated like a pig, with a long chute for children to pour the coins into the pig’s mouth -- see attached pictures).

Some simple steps:

Purchase enough piggy banks for each child (SPC also provides medium size piggy banks for the youth to encourage them to grow in their giving.)

Choose one of your church’s missions to highlight during a certain giving season, ex. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (perhaps even naming a certain recent disaster) an international missionary, a local food pantry or community outreach with the needy.

Plan the promotion and kick-off. Decide when banks will be distributed and collecting will begin. Write promotional announcements for the bulletin and newsletters, as well as an informational flyer for Sunday School parents. Promote during Sunday School, children’s church and Children’s Sermon. Plan how the project will be lifted up throughout the season.

Distribute the banks to the children with information to parents about the project and information about the mission for which they are collecting. Have a piggy bank already decorated to give children ideas of how to have fun customizing their pig.

Plan the collection date. Develop a special collection site in a central area of the church for Sunday morning, where families can contribute the contents of their piggy bank.

Report the collections, in bulletin, newsletter and website, so the whole church family can celebrate the children’s contributions to missions.

Choose a new mission and repeat above steps. Shallowford chooses a different mission recipient for each quarter and runs this program year round. As soon as they collect the offerings for one quarter’s mission, they begin praying and collecting for a new mission.

When new families come into the church be sure to give each child a piggy bank and instructions as part of their welcome.

God loves a cheerful giver and the children at Shallowford Presbyterian Church are learning how fun it is to give to the Lord!

“Faithful Ones” program began as a way to:

  1. Encourage every member to make a physical gesture of offering unto God as part of worship;
  2. Show our children that offering our money is part of our worship and part of our lives;
  3. Make the offering a more joyful part of worship, an outpouring of thanksgiving and abundance;
  4. Raise more money to support the work of the church.

In most families there is one offering check written per month. While this is a practice of faithful giving, it can make the offering time during worship seem sparse. The offering in many churches is a time of passing mostly-empty plates from row to row. Our children, who do not understand checks or monthly budgets, perceive that three out of four weeks their parents give nothing to God. As children pass the nearly empty plates they may believe that most people are not giving anything to God.

Shallowford Presbyterian Church encourages each person in worship to simply place a $1 bill in the offering plate as it passes each Sunday, in addition to their usual tithes and offerings. The offering plates at SPC are full as they are passed from row to row, and each worshiper has the experience of physically giving in thanks to God, every week. There is a greater spirit of joy and participation during the offering at Shallowford than there was before they began “Faithful Ones.”

The monies collected through this effort are reported separately in the Sunday bulletin announcements. A total of “Faithful Ones” giving year-to-date is included each week and this announcement also serves as an invitation to visitors and new-comers to join in participating as well.

Monies collected through “Faithful Ones” goes to Shallowford’s operating budget. In January 2013, they added an extra $2000 to their operating budget just through their worshippers joyfully sharing $1 apiece.

Imagine your congregation’s Average Sunday Attendance, multiplied by 52, and added to your operating budget!

For more information on Piggy Bank Missions or Faithful Ones, contact:

Kelly Weirich,

Chris Henry,