Preaching about money is hard. It is hard because it often feels inauthentic, wrapping the need for institutional self-preservation up in high-sounding calls for stewardship of one's resources. It is hard because parishioners, and the world at large, are bombarded with images of charlatans on the television promising divine blessing as a direct result of cash contributions. It is hard because church members resist it, finding it uncomfortable and implicitly distasteful.

Yet to be a Christian disciple is to recognize that all one is and has--including one's financial resources--belong to God. Preachers can no more neglect to preach about giving than they can forget to preach about redemption, justice, or discipleship. Recognizing both the difficulty of preaching about giving and its necessity, the contributors to this volume have provided preachers with models of sermons about giving, demonstrating creative and faithful ways to address this thorny subject from the pulpit. Accompanying each sermon is an analysis of exactly why it works, and suggestions for how the reader might learn from it and apply those lessons to her or his own preaching.