As followers of Jesus, financial giving is a response to God’s amazing grace and the indescribable gift of his son to us. Generous giving is an act of worship, it blesses others and supplies the needs of God’s people, it is also an act of obedience and trust – in doing it we are saying that it is God, not ourselves or anyone else, who ultimately provides for our needs. Your giving should never be forced or grudging, but rather voluntary and cheerful. ‘Let each one give as he has made up his own mind and purposed in his heart, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion, for God loves a giver whose heart is in his giving.’ (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Our core practice is a monthly tithe (10%). Whether you start at 10% or work towards that, the best way is to pray about it and decide. This year we are hoping for 10 new monthly standing orders of £200 a month to enable us to do all that we feel God is calling us to do in 2024. If you are struggling financially or in debt we want to encourage you to talk to someone about your finances.

At B&A over 85% of our income comes directly from the giving of our members. Your giving is used in many ways. It supports the mission and ministry of our church, from our Little Churches to our work with kids, youth and others. It pays for our amazing staff team. It pays for all the upkeep on our buildings. In addition we give generously to to our Mission Partners, supporting their work here and overseas. Parish Share is given to the Diocese of Bristol each year, this not only pays for our clergy but also supports the work of the Diocese in other parishes across the city of Bristol.

The big change for 2023 is a substantial increase in Parish Share to the Diocese of Bristol. When the pandemic hit we were allowed to reduce our share commitment as our revenue dropped. We are now hoping to increase share, our aim is to cover the costs of our clergy, the work of the Diocese and give generously to other parishes that are less fortunate than us. Our initial aim is to grow share from £120,000 (2022) to £150,000. That’s a big jump so we are planning on getting there carefully. But we’d like to get there as soon as we can!

Please contact Lindsay in the church office lindsay@babristol.org 0117 329 1525. She will be happy to help you set up a regular gift.

Our advice to anyone giving is to commit your giving to your church for a calendar year. That helps the finance team plan for the full year with confidence. If you join B&A during the year we ask you to keep giving to your old church until the new year and if you move away this year we’d ask the same. Please keep your giving with us until the new year and then move it to your new church.

Yes. Legacy giving is a wonderful thing to consider, it enables churches to develop and grow and is a wonderful source of blessing to a church family. Please contact Lindsay lindsay@babristol.org 0117 329 1525 and she will be able to give you all the information you need to include us in your will.