Glenys Cherry

I believe that God calls us to give to the Church, as well as the poor, those in need etc, therefore we need to be obedient to Him. Churches should be transparent, and we should give prayerfully, but it is our responsibility to give, and God will honour that.

October 25 2014 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jeremiah Kaaya Pastor at Springs of Power Church, Teacher by professional

It is indeed true that each and every Christian ought to support the Church in every way possible that may come across. However though, it is now about finance, the most sensitive issue which is under contention here.

For it is indisputable that we ought to spend our finances in the service of God. For a lot of scripture does elaborate on how we ought to stand with ministry so that the Church can head on both spiritually and literally. The financial support should come from the flock, while the pastors should be left to execute their spiritual duties. For the pastors' main and primary duty is the spiritual shaping of the Church. For the proper order of the Church is that; the pastors will take care of the spiritual well being of the believers, while the believers will take care of the welfare of the pastors and the daily day today management of the Church affairs and maintenance. But currently, this is hardly so. For many factors have come into play most of which involve how the Church finances are managed by the concerned and involved parties 

Scripture does indeed encourage every single believer to stand with the work of God in any way they can afford. All the following scripture is nothing else but to encourage us stand with ministry (Exodus 35:4-29), (Proverbs 3:910), (Haggai 1:4-11), (1Chronicles 29:2-9), (Luke 6:38), (2Cor 9:5-15), (2Corinthians 8:2-21), (1Chronicles 29:11-17), (Proverbs 22:9), (Mark 12:41-44), (1Timothy 6:17-19), (Romans 12:13). But the propping question is; how is this money handled and managed? Is it spent for what it is intended for?

Many Church leaders despite the fact that they are sufficiently taken care of by the Church, they have gone on to reveal the true character of them; that they will always go for whatever is within their reach. Such behavior in many Church leaders has done much to discourage believers to carry on giving for the work of God to continue. Even when many of the believers choose to give, they hardly do it as cheerfully as they used to.

What must be done to help this situation?

Church finances must never be centered on one person, be it the pastor or anybody else. The finance must be a department fully separate from the pastoral team. Pastors must only be paid their dues and that is it. Form a finance committee which is to oversee, manage and decide how money is to be used and ensure that it is well spent. If such an arrangement isn't available in your Church, pray to God to direct you on how to go about it. You could eventually propose it to the concerned and involved parties.

Secondly, if you love to support the work of God and you know the particular item God has told you to spend on, or where you realize there is need, just directly spend the money on that particular item. Only involve the Church leadership on giving directions as to how they love it done, but if it concerns payment, it should be you to effect the payment. Such a way will help to erase any speculations especially by you the giver.

Last but not least, the Church should within their means try to make sure that they meet the pastors' needs and those involved in the administration. If it is affordable to the Church, pay them a salary so as to avoid unnecessary temptations by some of those involved in the running of the Church affairs. But if you critically examined this, you will find that many pastors have not been taken care of as sufficiently as they should due to financial incapacity by many Churches. The resultant fact is that they resort to funds of the Church which are intended for other projects. 

In conclusive terms therefore, it is pretty evident that many believers have coiled on giving because they harbor lots of unanswered questions concerning how their contributions to the Church are finally used on the intended projects. For it is pretty equally true that many givers have been manipulated to give for reasons which never concern ministry. It is simply for personal gains. It shouldn't be.

October 29 2014 • 3 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report