Generous Church

Lately I have been flooded with calls about generosity. I must confess to all of you that nothing makes me happier than to hear that God’s children are modeling Him in their lives by richly pouring out from their wealth in order to bless others, especially during tough economic times like we have today. Someday soon, I will devote a chunk of time toward developing material on Generosity and Stewardship and how those concepts are intrinsically linked to the Christian faith. Suffice it to say here that God is generous in many ways and we are to be His ambassadors, His image bearers in this world.

So, back to the calls. Most of them boil down to questions like these:

• If a group wants to bless someone financially, does the church get involved in that?


• Can the church set up a fund for our group where we would designate monies to go until they are needed?


• Can we get a giving receipt from the church for our cash donations to hurting people?


• Is it OK to give part of our tithe to someone outside the church?


• Does the church have a list of people to whom we can give assistance?


• Can we advertise our fundraiser at the church?

Rather than hit each of these questions here, let me just tell you how I’ve been instructing groups for years concerning Benevolent Outreach. You can direct specific questions that remain unanswered to me by email. First, anything that your group decides to do is up to you. I would certainly like to know what you’re doing, not to control it, but to counsel you and to capture your story in order to encourage others. However, Malachi 3:10 says that you are to bring your “whole tithe” into God’s house (meaning the Temple, with the church being our contemporary equivalent). Therefore, anything that your group does would be considered an offering, the amount over and above your tithe which you bring to church. (Note: Have you tried online giving? It is very easy and quick.)

Next, you don’t need to run your donations through the church to get a tax write-off. Please check with your tax preparer, but you should be able to document your un-receipted cash donations and all your “ministry miles” for tax purposes.

Finally, here is what I suggest groups do. Assign two trustworthy members of your group, ones from different households is best, as treasurers. Get a big plastic storage jug with a flip-top lid and designate it “Our Group Giving Jar.” Each week, the Giving Jar should be available for group members to toss in money according to their personal conviction. At the end of each group session, the treasurers should record the value of the Jar in a ledger. Monthly, they should give a Finance Report to the group. The advantage of the Giving Jar is that, when needs arise, your group already has funds set aside for outreach.

I will post next week (I hope) about ideas we have for outreach. For now, you are welcome to ask if we know anyone who needs assistance, but you should be looking first and foremost to your own spheres of interaction, namely neighbors, co-workers, family, anyone your life routinely touches. If you say that you don’t know anyone in need, I might be tempted to suggest that you don’t really “know” anyone because there is need and brokenness and lostness all around us.