A report released last week from the The Lake Institute on Faith and Giving, reveals that smaller church congregations have been hit particularly hard by a downward trend in giving. How has your local church been weathering the financial challenges of this past year?
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Michaelcolmes on November 2, 2009 at 5:27 pm
For the most part our congregation continues to pay tithes and contribute offerings. Knowing that the same God who created us, is the same God who will see us through these tough times. These are the times when our faith is tested and the true “faithers” are the only one who will stand being tested.
One of our ministers, when posed with the question of tithe and offerings being something of the Old Testament, stated that by paying tithes and offerings to God who has no need for money, is simply showing Him that we do not put our faith and trust in money but in Him. Christ said that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church and that He is coming back for His bride one day.
We must believe that God will supply all our needs and continue to pay tithes and offerings in faith.
tom felten on November 3, 2009 at 9:44 am
michael, thanks for your emphasis on faith and giving. God is truly the provider of all we need!
Michaelcolmes on November 3, 2009 at 12:38 pm
They go hand in hand, don’t they?
Yes He is our sole Provider.
msroby on November 5, 2009 at 2:06 pm
How is my church weathering the financial downfall as far as in members giving to the church?
What I see is every decision is made to balance out what there is to the most important areas first and if it can be put aside it, it receives nothing.
The church recieves less as families struggle to keep their jobs, pay their bills, keep a place to live, food on the table and clothing on their backs. If it happens to be a wealthy person, I do not see much of change in most, but for those who are wealthy and have a relationship with God, they are giving a little more and cutting back in other areas of their lives that are just luxury items. For those wealthy and not so close to God, I do not see much of a change.
The way my church spends money saddens me. So little goes to helping others and most of it goes to adding on to the church that does not need to add on. It is becoming more of a Christian center than a Christan church, but you have to pay for all the services you receive, even just talking to the Pastors. I pray for this church to see the errors of their ways, but it is not happening too quickly, so it is an on going prayer. The church says they can not do business of any kind that earns money, but they charge for absolutley everything and to me, they have tons of businesses going on.
Do not get me wrong. I know people need paid to do jobs and pay for supplies, but it is way beyond that.
What this church needs each week to survive is more than I make in a year and there is only less than 2,000 people there.
I want to go to church to be with God and pray, not pay for all the activities there. God gives me plenty of activities to do without charging me a dime.
I don’t know, I just feel like it is wrong for a church to get so much and to disburse so little to helping others, but who am I to judge. I will just keep praying and know that God is taking care of what needs taken care of.