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5 Aug 2007

2:02 pm Posted by Bigfish69 Posted in
Posted by Bigfish69 on 2:02 pm | Categories:
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).

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