What if the Church at Large did what the Bible says
Those who attend church and call themselves Christians are asked to tithe or give 10% of their income to the church. Recently I read a statistic that if every regular church attender would give the 10% God requests, the church at large, in the United States, would have an additional $40 billion dollars a year.
But this is a two pronged problem that's developed over several, several years.
First, the church, by and large, I think has been irresponsible with the monies given to it. The church has paid cushion salaries to it's staff, built enormous buildings to house their numbers and so on. So the church through the years has done many things causing people to mistrust it handling money.
Second, the church, it's laity and clergy are both to blame here. The clergy have done a horrible disservice to their laity by not preaching & teaching on the subjects of tithes and offerings. Perhaps out of fear their local congregations will vote them out or in our "PC" world, offend someone. The laity, those attending church, don't give because they don't see a need for it. The excuses abound from it's God's work He'll keep it afloat, what's in it for me, I don't have the money this week, etc.
Either way, if we, those who attend church regularly (laity and clergy), would manage God's money like it was truly God's money then we (the church at large regardless of denomination) could have a serious, $40 billion dollar, impact on the homeless, widows, orphans etc. James 1:27 This would reduce the number of people depending on the Federal Government for food and so on.
Most church people I know want smaller Federal Government but don't want to give to the church. This is quite the dichotomy.
We (the people) have the ability and responsibility to empower our churches to care for the needy and decrease the Federal Government but do little about it.
But this is a two pronged problem that's developed over several, several years.
First, the church, by and large, I think has been irresponsible with the monies given to it. The church has paid cushion salaries to it's staff, built enormous buildings to house their numbers and so on. So the church through the years has done many things causing people to mistrust it handling money.
Second, the church, it's laity and clergy are both to blame here. The clergy have done a horrible disservice to their laity by not preaching & teaching on the subjects of tithes and offerings. Perhaps out of fear their local congregations will vote them out or in our "PC" world, offend someone. The laity, those attending church, don't give because they don't see a need for it. The excuses abound from it's God's work He'll keep it afloat, what's in it for me, I don't have the money this week, etc.
Either way, if we, those who attend church regularly (laity and clergy), would manage God's money like it was truly God's money then we (the church at large regardless of denomination) could have a serious, $40 billion dollar, impact on the homeless, widows, orphans etc. James 1:27 This would reduce the number of people depending on the Federal Government for food and so on.
Most church people I know want smaller Federal Government but don't want to give to the church. This is quite the dichotomy.
We (the people) have the ability and responsibility to empower our churches to care for the needy and decrease the Federal Government but do little about it.
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