WHY DO WE WANT PEOPLE TO GIVE

Every weekend in churches all over the world Pastor's take offerings where people give of their livelihood. As a part of my regular accountability diet I check in with scripture and my associates to make certain my motives are pure, healthy and focused. I have seen too many ministers fall by touching the finances, so I want to run far from error in this important area. With that in mind, I ask myself regularly, "Why do we want people to give to TRC?"

Here are some strategic, prayerful and important thoughts surrounding giving and "why we want people to give."

a) GOD! If God has something great for His church to do (I believe He does) then He will provide the resources through His people to complete that great work.

b) God uses people to meet needs! For example, in the OT the money did not come from a surrounding nation to build the temple, it came from the Israelites. In the NT when there was a specific need people were asked to give. Why give? Because it is the right thing to do as a Christian.

c) People need opportunities to give. The church uses the money of givers in order to serve. Even if the church did not need a nickle we would still give because spiritual growth comes through charity and giving matures the believer. Our hearts and minds become tender through giving and we avoid stinginess. Giving is a stimulant to faith and makes God's providence much more real in our lives.

d) Because the church should have enough resources to focus on evangelism, missions and ministry instead of buildings and budgets. For instance, giving towards a specific building project or ministry opportunity enables a church to reduce monthly expenses in order to free up more resources for ministry.

Obviously there are an additional 100 or so reasons to be a giver, but this is just a few to chew on this week.

Somebody explained the inverse tithing principle regarding giving like this, "Suppose the Lord took your giving to the church and then multiplied it by ten and made it your weekly income. Could you live on that amount?"

Then consider this, if we give, at minimum, the tithe, then our answer to this question is equal to our current income.

Food for thought for all those givers out there...

I have heard some spectacular testimonies in my time about those who set there tithing according to their vision instead of according to their income. When we let vision determine our destiny instead of income we turn the potential of income over to God's increase instead of our employer's, but that's another post.