I saw this being discussed elsewhere today and thought it was an interesting question. I’m sure it is one being faced by many Christians given the current economic climate.
At what point would you decrease and/or stop giving to your church if you were in financial difficulty? (For the sake of argument, let’s not go down the rabbit trail of Christians not being required/required to give 10% based on the Old Covenant versus the New Covenant. Let’s just focus on people deciding what they give based on personal convictions, regardless of the exact mathematics of it.) Someone in the discussion also brought up whether they would cut their support to their church or missionaries they personally supported first.
Would you continue to give your predetermined amount each month, even if your income dropped drastically? What if you were living on your savings? Do you tithe/give a percentage of whatever you make and would you continue to do that even if in dire financial circumstances? Would you keep your cable tv and cut your giving at church? Would you still eat out and cut your giving to missionaries? Would you keep giving your full amount to God’s work even if you couldn’t pay other bills and expect God to intervene miraculously because you were being faithful? Would you stop giving and focus on making ends meet? At what point would you speak with someone at your church about your cutting back on giving and the financial troubles of your family?
In short, how would you biblically counsel someone in this kind of a situation?
I would mention what I would do. I have faced this a few times in my life.
I would take care of my household first because not to do so is living like an unbeliever.
This does not mean we will still have all things nor does it mean we would give up everything.
This is from scripture.
I would give up other things first, but if I was living off savings, I would stop giving for a while. Or decrease it significantly.
And then when things looked up, I would hopefully be able to give more and make up for it.
Since my husband and I are dealing with this right now, I would tell someone to take care of their family first, because that is what’s important. God gave them their family, so it’s their priority to do what they can to survive, even if it’s having to stop financially contributing to their church. I would suggest giving of time however, for a temporary substitute for money. Sometimes time is just as much sacrifice as money.
As a personal testimony, my husband and I had to stop giving all together because unemployment is not enough to cover everything. When our hours first got cut a year ago, we dropped our giving down to 5% and once we both got laid off, we just couldn’t give anything. We have to dip into our savings every month, on top of the unemployment, just to pay our bills, get gas for the car and buy groceries. There is no eating out (unless my parents take us out) and the most extravagant thing I have bought lately is a small flat of strawberries because I was so desperate for something other than rice and beans.
Becky, your post makes me want to take you to Costco.
But I’m like that. My love language is dinner delivered to your door.
Sallie, I would say, honor your commitments to others like the missionaries. We tithe on what we bring in, so if it isn’t coming in, we don’t tithe on it. I agree that your time can be an excellent tithe to the church. Whether a family has the cash to give or not.
Take it one month at a time, but take care of your family with wisdom. Cable is not more important then the missionary giving commitment. Nor are lattes, but frankly they FEEL more important in my heart (sadly).
I’m in process people.
It is interesting to hear how others think about these kinds of situations. We’ve gone through this a few times ourselves during some difficult stretches. And we’ve always struggled with this a bit being self-employed because income is so erratic from month to month and year to year. We’ve never come up with a silver bullet answer other than to pray and trust. Sometimes we haven’t cut back our giving and other times we have.
I thought the point about continuing to support missionaries even over your own church was an interesting one as well. Having done ministry that required raising support, I don’t remember this ever being discussed. In fact, I’m sure we told people to support their own church first if they couldn’t keep up with their monthly support to both. However, thinking about it now… I’m not so sure. I guess it would depend on a lot of different factors such as the financial health of their church. But if a missionary is an extension of the church, then is giving to the missionary any “less” giving to God than giving to a general church fund for operating expenses?
Here’s another related thought/question… If you knew someone who was in a legitimate tight spot and the church wasn’t helping them (for whatever reason), would you help them directly rather than give to the church? Is helping out a brother or sister in Christ in need just as much giving to God’s work as putting the money in the offering plate/box?
I’m just raising some questions that I think people may face in the days ahead. If the economy doesn’t improve (green shoots – ha!), how will people prioritize their giving and helping of others?
Just food for thought and discussion. I like to do that here.
I am a missionary kid, and I saw firsthand how much my parents struggled when the economy tightened and supporters dropped them. It’s especially difficult if you’re overseas, because it’s harder to raise more support and getting a second job isn’t usually an option. This being said, I tend to regard our missionary commitments very high. We try to cut back in other areas before we’d cut out giving/tithe. (To be honest, though we’ve never had to, we probably would cut church giving first, but I’m not arguing that’s the right thing to do.) I think taking care of your family DOES come first, but if there’s a way I can continue with my giving and still have all our family needs met then I would strive for that.
My husband is out of work, but I am still working; however, it cut our income in half. At the time of his departure from work, we discussed our spending priorities and decided giving at our current levels was more important than going out to eat. So that’s what we do. We also agreed that depending how long this went on, we would have to re-evaluate. (it’s been 6 months so far)
We haven’t taken on any new giving commitments (like supporting the many, many people doing short term missions work this summer) but we are keeping up with church and the missionaries/orgs we already supported. Any non-church related philanthropy is on hold indefinitely.
During times like this I try to do other creative giving things cause I know there are people out there worse off than us — there’s a family with 8 kids at home and no steady job for the dad – occasionally I take them some meals since I can and I know that’s an important ministry. I also get as much “free” stuff as possible from CVS/Walgreens (toothpaste, shampoo, razors) and donate it to the homeless shelter/city mission for those who are in transition.
I do agree that you have to take care of your family first, and that living in debt is not glorifying to God. I give Him the glory that we are still able to give, as He has blessed us so much.
I believe (and teach) that giving is between you and God as only He knows the true motives of your heart. If you are giving so that you can check a box off of your “I’m a good Christian” checklist than you may as well stop. If your family will go without and you feel God leading you to decrease your giving than do so.
We have been in difficult financial times and we did what another commenter mentioned, we reduced our financial giving and increased our volunteering. To me we are called to be good stewards of our resources, only one of which is money.
I also think an important thing to remember is that right now we are being watched by unbelievers to see how we are handling difficult economic times. Being grateful and having faith, no matter our circumstance, should be our priority versus worrying about how much we are giving to our church. That is between you and God.
Just my humble opinion