church envelopes ????
- Thread starter Iammoney
- Start date
Soooo....
discobiscuits
New Member
most churches have envelopes like that so that the giver can designate where they want the offering to go. generally speaking, no designation it will be considered with the tithes. this also helps the church to keep their books straight particularly if they are churches who voluntarily have themselves audited.
tmichelle
New Member
Just so you don't feel alone, I also was like "what?" when I went to a church and they had this. What put me off about this congregation was they had catagories like "tip for the preacher" and some other catagories that I questioned highly. That church quickly proved to me that it had a lot of other things misaligned as well.
Well if it was called "tip for the preacher" well then yeah, that's a problem. There's nothing wrong with giving a monetary gift to a pastor who has served well and one wants to show their appreciation in that way...giving freely, cheerfully, as the Word says.
firecracker
Well-Known Member
Me either but if he provided good service why not!i've never heard of "tip for the preacher" but we give love offerings
I like love offering better. We don't have that on our envelopes either.
tmichelle
New Member
It wasn't actually called "tip for the preacher". I cannot for the life of me remember the title exactly but that is what the catagory indicated and when I asked my grandmother, that is what she said it meant. It had the word "happy" in it somewhere.All of that is very suspect to me. I have never been a part of a church that asks for $ like this. Everybody knows they can give $ to whoever in the church (preacher included) they want to. Our preachers do have a salary and if there is a special project like a building then we can give to that too but we kind of do it where our left hand doesn't know what our right hand is doing.
All of that is very suspect to me. I have never been a part of a church that asks for $ like this. Everybody knows they can give $ to whoever in the church (preacher included) they want to. Our preachers do have a salary and if there is a special project like a building then we can give to that too but we kind of do it where our left hand doesn't know what our right hand is doing.
So based on the latter part of your second paragraph, it seems that the underlying issue of your suspicion has to do with TRUST, not (necessarily) the matter of giving a love offering to the pastor in appreciation of his/her service. And I've said this before and I'll say it again: if there are trust issues, then it may be time to find another church.
The love offering for the pastor is for the pastor, for him/her to do whatever he/she wants to do with it, as it is his/her money...above and beyond the salary, or other church dealings. I kind of don't understand how this can be so confusing. Maybe it's because, thank the Lord Jesus Christ, my pastors are people of integrity and they are the BIGGEST TITHERS in the church....
tmichelle
New Member
So based on the latter part of your second paragraph, it seems that the underlying issue of your suspicion has to do with TRUST, not (necessarily) the matter of giving a love offering to the pastor in appreciation of his/her service. And I've said this before and I'll say it again: if there are trust issues, then it may be time to find another church.
The love offering for the pastor is for the pastor, for him/her to do whatever he/she wants to do with it, as it is his/her money...above and beyond the salary, or other church dealings. I kind of don't understand how this can be so confusing. Maybe it's because, thank the Lord Jesus Christ, my pastors are people of integrity and they are the BIGGEST TITHERS in the church....
^^^Hmmm... I'm not sure I know what you mean about trust issues so much. In my church or in my grandmother's church? Our congregation is particularly close and we truly feel like a family (it's not a large congregation either so we all know each other very well). I love and trust them very much. I don't have a problem with giving the preacher any money. I suppose I am not used to making a distinction between our preacher and our other church members. We have a wonderful, godly man as a preacher but we also have wonderful, godly church members who are striving to do whatever God set out for them to do individually as well. We do believe that we should share our good gifts with our preacher but I suppose if we did the envelope thing (over and beyond) we'd have to list everybody's name in the whole congregation on it too, not to mention our Christ-like elders.
The love offering for the pastor is for the pastor, for him/her to do whatever he/she wants to do with it, as it is his/her money...above and beyond the salary, or other church dealings. I kind of don't understand how this can be so confusing. Maybe it's because, thank the Lord Jesus Christ, my pastors are people of integrity and they are the BIGGEST TITHERS in the church....
^^^Hmmm... I'm not sure I know what you mean about trust issues so much. In my church or in my grandmother's church? Our congregation is particularly close and we truly feel like a family (it's not a large congregation either so we all know each other very well). I love and trust them very much. I don't have a problem with giving the preacher any money. I suppose I am not used to making a distinction between our preacher and our other church members. We have a wonderful, godly man as a preacher but we also have wonderful, godly church members who are striving to do whatever God set out for them to do individually as well. We do believe that we should share our good gifts with our preacher but I suppose if we did the envelope thing (over and beyond) we'd have to list everybody's name in the whole congregation on it too, not to mention our Christ-like elders.
tmichelle
New Member
I'm laughing at the word, 'tip'.
I thought it meant 'advice'. :blush3:
That would be too funny if I did put a piece of advice in the envelope.
I think some people have... Knowing me, it would have been one of my Lonnnnnnnnnnng prayers.
Tip: Don't give Shimmie Church envelopes without her reading glasses.
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tmichelle
New Member
Knowing me, it would have been one of my Lonnnnnnnnnnng prayers.
Tip: Don't give Shimmie Church envelopes without her reading glasses.
See now, you're giving me ideas.
Next time I go to a place like this I'm going to have to stick in a Bible verse instead of $$$, and it will all be your fault!
See now, you're giving me ideas.
I'll Pay-Pal you....................................... some verses. You know I'm loaded with them.
Nawwww, we'll do as the Lord leads us and bless them with our $$$ blessings.
Angel 'T' (my name for you
), I've been there. I remember seeing one of these envelopes for the first time and it had an option for a 'love offering' for the Pastor. At first I was taken 'aback', I really was, because I thought it was really bold to put it 'out there' like that. To me, it was just too presumptious to ask that of anyone. But then I just let it go. As God leads, I follow, and move on with a clear spirit. My current Pastors, I love giving to them. They are the most 'giving' persons in ministry that I know. I've watched them pull out their 'last' just to be a blessing to help someone else who was going on a trip; needed food, or clothing; or to get gas. People like this, you don't mind giving a love gift too. Foxy Scholar and I are both in a good ministry where we KNOW our Pastors and we have a love and trust for them that overrides suspicion.
However I DO understand how you felt and I agree with your feelings.
I'll be honest 'Angel 'T', I DO have a problem giving to those who live extravagantly, or anyone else who has more than they need be they in or out of ministry.
I prefer to give to those who 'need' it or those who are unselfish and think more of others than they do themselves. It's not so much about trust as it is about 'wisdom'. I've seen too much and there's both the good and the not so good. I'm not feeding into the 'not so good.'
My Tip: If you need this, it's yours, if not. please give it to someone who does.
HeChangedMyName
Well-Known Member
tithing---your ten percent that you give in honor of God's law
offering---any extra you give--like a seed offering when you are trusting God to move some things in your favor
building fund--to keep the church bills paid and make sure the building is fit for worship services
benevolence---usually for ministries that "give" to the community and they need supplies and such
other
love offering---for the pastor, some pastors work full time jobs and the love offering is just a little something extra, some pastors literally work for the church and are salaleried and get paid off the tithes(I think)
You don't have to give to all of them, it just makes it easy to sort out which accounts to put things in when the money gets counted.
offering---any extra you give--like a seed offering when you are trusting God to move some things in your favor
building fund--to keep the church bills paid and make sure the building is fit for worship services
benevolence---usually for ministries that "give" to the community and they need supplies and such
other
love offering---for the pastor, some pastors work full time jobs and the love offering is just a little something extra, some pastors literally work for the church and are salaleried and get paid off the tithes(I think)
You don't have to give to all of them, it just makes it easy to sort out which accounts to put things in when the money gets counted.
Going by your (unedited) words in your post #9:
All of that is very suspect to me. I have never been a part of a church that asks for $ like this. Everybody knows they can give $ to whoever in the church (preacher included) they want to. Our preachers do have a salary and if there is a special project like a building then we can give to that too but we kind of do it where our left hand doesn't know what our right hand is doing.
Is it that there is lack of communication between the pastor and the congregation or is the church of such a size that everyone knows everyone and everything pertaining to the financial maintenance of the church....
tmichelle
New Member
I think I know what you are asking. We try to give in a way that our left hand doesn't know what our right hand is doing, kind of in the spirit of Matt: 6:3 "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." So whenever we give it is all very understated. It is expected and accepted that you will give what you have to give. The only prompting for giving that we recognize is if the Spirit prompts you, as opposed to a friendly reminder from the church. Once a year our elders (we don't have a "pastor", our elders lead our congregation and as I'm sure you know, the word/title elder is interchangeable with 'bishop' and 'pastor' depending on the translation but we typically call them elders and sometimes pastors). We also have a preacher/evangelist. Sorry, I digress, once a year our elders do give an accounting for how much the offerings were and where they were spent. It is usually done on a Sunday night with very low attendance b/c nobody really wants to sit through it and our elders are all very trustworthy, so they started putting it on paper to pick up if you wanted to look at it in addition to the Sunday evening presentation.
My church does it this no matter where I have moved and it seems to work well. We always have plenty of money when needed and all the members of the congregation are financially taken care of too. Currently we are adding on to our facility and it was mentioned briefly to the congregation before we started and by the time we went to get the loan for the addition we got extremely good interest rates b/c the congregation had given so much already. Apparently while we don't label ourselves anything other than "Christian" the banks do. We were told that we fell under their "fundamental Christian" catagory and that they usually end up giving really good interest rates to the churches in this catagory because they tend to give more money and more quickly than most denominations. Go figure.
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