Posted by Bigfish69 on 2:02 pm | Categories: church
adapted from Churchianity Today by Chip Brogden
Financial
support ... establishes the right to expect members to make donations
in the form of tithes, offerings, love gifts, fundraisers, pledges,
building funds, etc
The
motivation for all financial support should be “as the Spirit leads”,
not as the rules of membership dictate. That sort of giving cannot be
legislated, no matter how hard you try, through teachings on tithing,
“sowing and reaping”, “love” offerings, “faith promises”, etc. Yet this
is precisely what organised religion attempts to do.
Ours
attitude should not be “I don’t owe you anything”. But once our
freewill support is legislated or expected as a condition of membership
it ceases to be spiritual and philanthropic. Instead, we are giving in
order to receive or maintain the privilege of membership.
In
addition, anonymous giving should be encouraged, for if not someone in
authority will have access to the information may use it against you if
necessary. For instance, when you’re being considered for a leadership
position, or when the church board wants to determine the active voting
membership. Of course, if you aren’t a member, none of that will matter.
But it again demonstrates that your value as a church member is being
measured in dollars and cents.
Jesus
did not advocate anonymous charity in order to make us paranoid or
fearful of being caught doing a good deed. He did it to liberate us, to
enlarge us, to help us experience the pure joy of a no-strings-attached
gift, to ensure we would not become proud, and very importantly, to
prevent others from rewarding, manipulating, regulating, or expecting us
to give to them on a continual basis apart from His direction (see
James).
