Truth Minute: Give and it Shall Be Given (Church Money)
When people who have not been to church before or haven’t been in a see members around them give, a few things may come to mind but I will focus on two. 1. Where is all that money going? 2. It looks like everything is ok so why do they need what I have?. Well, giving is voluntary and most people are not generous by nature. The church (in most cases) is the place where people regardless of their socio-economic status pool… their resources to help others. Over 90% of churches are under 100 people in the U.S. so that money when people give (which is about 20% of congregation) goes to keeping it open…if there is anything over that it goes to benevolence to others, outreach, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting prisons and other projects of economic empowerment (which doesn’t get headlines)…Churches are tax exempt in most cases and therefore gives an advantage economically to the institution to be more beneficial to those around them (after all people “must pay” taxes personally so why tax them twice in regards to donations they give). For the urban community this serves as a great advantage to move forward but sometimes a poverty mindset, envy and mismanagement by leadership derails it or it takes several years to build and no real progress is made.
Lastly some churches teach tithing or giving 10%. And people usually make it controversial over things such as what was the contents (was it grain or was it cattle?), if it predated the law etc…when in reality Old Testament giving is about 23.3% not including arrears (late fees) if you missed or skipped your contribution. But lets for example say that there is no emphasis on that 10% and it is from your heart like the early church. Well at that time people gave much more than they did in the Old Testament. Sometimes it was land, gold, silver and more for the work of the ministry. They had a pure heart towards God and gave cheerfully and saw the benefits of it personally as well as financially…not so much today because selfishness, greed and mismanagement of personal funds is the norm. Sure there is abuse on all sides…and as long as there are humans it will be…but there are still many places that have integrity and its your job to find out who they are and give like you can and should.
Be Blessed!