It is often said if you want to learn the true nature of a person, watch how that person spends money. Perhaps more clearly than anything else, spending habits reveal one’s interests, attitudes and values. They show what a person is really like.
Scripture teaches this truth. In Luke 12:34, Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Jesus is not saying one’s heart follows one’s money. Rather, He is teaching that a person places his money where his heart has already gone.
Nowhere is that principle more clearly illustrated than in the church. One who loves the Lord, one who values the work of the church, one who is interested in seeing others come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will support the church with tithes and offerings.
One reason for such giving is found in the nature of money. Money is an extension of one’s self. It reflects one’s time, talents and effort. Money is part of what one exchanges for investing one’s self in a job. In this light, giving money is a way of giving self.
But one can never give God money instead of giving one’s self to God. The heart always comes first. The treasures follow.
Another reason one who loves God will support the work of the church through tithes and offerings is to be obedient to God’s commands. The Old Testament sets tithing as a minimum for giving. The New Testament commends tithing and adds to it that giving must be regular, generous, worshipful and growing. The image of a steward is used for illustration.
A steward was a “house manager.” The steward was responsible for using all available resources in a way that benefited the owner. As stewards for God, individuals are responsible for using all they have for God. This is far more than money, to be sure, but it does include one’s treasures.
It also is important to remember tithing does not eliminate the responsibility of using the remaining nine-tenths of one’s treasure in a God-pleasing manner.
Tithing is the starting point. Using everything to honor God is the goal.
What is true of an individual is also true for a church. Look how a church spends its money, and one will see what the congregation values and where its interests lie.
Does the budget indicate a church that is concerned primarily with one age group within the congregation or one ministry? Does the budget evidence a concern primarily for church members or with the church as an institution? Does the budget show ministry and missions to the local community? Does the budget support concerns for lost people across Alabama, the nation and the world?
What does your church budget say about your church’s interests, attitudes and values?
Among Alabama Baptists, cooperative giving is one way concern for missions and ministry beyond the local church continues to be expressed. Cooperative giving allows churches to join with sister churches to support work in the local association, the state convention, the nation and the world.
Together, churches accomplish more than any single church could do alone. In Alabama, ministries range from helping with salaries for mission pastors to supporting colleges and universities. Ministries in our nation and the world are just as varied and just as vital.
Cooperative giving allows Alabama Baptists to be in more places doing more things in the name of the Lord Jesus than any other method of giving available today.
Giving starts with the individual. It continues with the church. The individual evidences his interests, attitudes and values through regular, generous, worshipful, growing giving to the Lord’s work. The church does the same thing. Its budget supports its interests and values in caring for its members, ministering to its community and reaching the world for Jesus Christ.
That means cooperative giving for causes beyond the church’s borders is an important part of a church’s budget. A church, like individuals, can claim many things, but how the money is spent shows where the heart really is.
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