How much do you give?

[bicker]

How much money do you give (or are you charged) each year as members of your house of worship?

Anonymous poll coming...

 

[Buckalew11]

we give 10%. my income varies from week to week though.

Oh my! I did not see the "are charged" part! yikes! For me, that would be a red flag and I would not attend a church that required me to tithe. How cheerful of a giver is one who gets charged?! My pastor does not even talk about money and tithing. I also would not do a "building fund pledge" type thing even though I know that is a popular way to do it.

 

[JimmyPicker]

We aren't charged. And we aren't given any instructions on how much to give. But I try to tithe. Some weeks I give a little more, to make up for weeks when I had to give a little less.

 

[Hercules10]

Our "giving" is both monetary and in participation. Teaching Sunday school and giving time to do miscellaneous chores/fix-ups to both the church and some of our members in need. Always amazes me how many folks out there are not physically able to hammer in a nail to hang a family portrait much less repair/paint their homes.

 

[fortheluvofpooh]

we are not charged. We give freely. We try to give 10% of our income. The Lord does understand sometimes though when you need medicine unexpectedly or the car breaks down and with out the car you can't go to work. But I say 46 out of 52 weeks we do 10%.

 

[amyhughes]

Peter's Pence, here. But, most of that is attributed to school tuition.

We also do time and talent and help around both the church and school.

 

[Saphire]

I consider the 10% a good guideline, sometimes it is less, sometimes more. Our church not only doesn't require you to give, but it is completely anonymous, not even our pastor knows what people give. Also, we choose to spread our 10% out to different charities and interests, it does not all go to our church.
If I were charged, I would be out of there.

 

[mom2boys77]

We only give 530 dollars a year. We don't actually attend Mass there but we are registered and give our envelopes to this church because our kids attend school there and we get a discount on our tuition if we are registered parishoners. We attend Mass at the church down the street and give them about 5 dollars a week also.

 

[Nancyg56]

I voted what we contribute in the weekly collection, it is voluntary. As a family we also donate throughout the year to charities our Church supports which I did not include in the poll. Our parish has a community outreach committee which is involved with the other area Churches as well as our town so we have additional collections as well as a monthly drive to support them. In addition we have collections and fund raisers to support several Catholic charities. It seems like a lot but then we look at the alternative and the thought of those people our Parish helping going without food, medicine, fuel and household supplies while we have enough . I have never added it up.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

We give as much as we can each week, it probably works out to about 10% of dh take home pay, we also do alot of stuff at the church when asked and contribute to other things to which are not related to our church.

 

[brerrabbit]

Well we give, but not what I would consider huge amounts until last year at the end of the year when our church sent a letter asking for a little help finishing the year. The letter informed us we were among the top 10% of givers in the church. There must be a really big jump from 10% to 9% based on the amount we give.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

We only give 530 dollars a year. We don't actually attend Mass there but we are registered and give our envelopes to this church because our kids attend school there and we get a discount on our tuition if we are registered parishoners. We attend Mass at the church down the street and give them about 5 dollars a week also.

We are in the same situation as this poster, but we don't (I hate to say) attend church frequently. We have to guarantee a minimum of $500 per year in the church envelopes in order to be considered parishioners. We also just recently received a letter from the Church tell us that they want another $500 toward fixing the roof of the church (hello? who didn't hire a contractor with a warranty when it was fixed a few years back) and they want it by December 1! Sorry, but ask for more, fine. Demand it and give me a deadline?! I don't think so. Things are so bad this year for everyone, and you give people less than two months' notice and you want it before Christmas?! At my daughter's school (in prior years) and at our church, it's all about the money. That's the main concern and it always has been. It's brought up at every meeting, every week in church. The parents used to joke that we were going to throw a dollar each into a pot and guess how long it would take for the Pastor to ask about money. I have a friend who always went to church every week, donated her time... Her two children attended school there from kindergarten. Her one child become extremely ill and the pastor had the nerve to contact the parents and tell them their tuition was late. Never once did he ask how her daugther was. Her husband ripped him a new one big time. This is what turns me away from my church.

 

[KristaTX]

Charged??? Okay, that officially calls for my pet peeve smilie: .

 

[lillygator]

$0

 

[Golf4food]

10% of our gross income, freely and willingly, with extra offerings on top of that as we feel led (special building fund, offering for a special music group or preacher, to help a needy family meet a severe medical cost, etc.).

 

[TheGoofster]

We give a 10% tithe, plus an offering above that in our church, but honestly, living on the Mission Field, we give, well, almost everything we have. I don't even know if it would be possible to say how much we actually give.
We do spend some money on ourselves and our kids of course, but besides that, almost everything else goes right into the ministry. So honestly, I'm really not sure.

 

[rchristiansen]

We aim for 10% of our income (after taxes) in charitable giving, but we don't give all of our charitable contributions to just the church. We give about 1/2 of it to the church and the other 1/2 to other charities, such as the red cross, breast cancer 3 day, MS Walks, make a wish and international ministries.

Our church doesn't "charge" anything...wouldn't that be like dues to a country club or something?

Yes, I agree, I won't ever pledge anything to a building fund either. That reminds me too much of the Tower of Babel.

 

[GeorgeG]

Even though I'm an atheist, I have donated items for the church I worked at for two years and am donating my services for three weeks to help a friend who is starting a new church.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

Our church doesn't "charge" anything...wouldn't that be like dues to a country club or something?

Yes, I agree, I won't ever pledge anything to a building fund either. That reminds me too much of the Tower of Babel.

Apparently my soul is worth $500 a year, plus maintenance costs. Seems like blackmail to me.

 

[bicker]

Two data points, from people I know (not myself)... not reflected in the poll (since I only get to vote once ). Both are Jewish synagogues. Both in the $1000-$2500 range (per family, both are families of four, and both involve some level of religious education included). Both are "charges". Having grown up Jewish, it was a bit of a surprise to me to learn that churches (Christian and non-Christian) don't "charge" for membership, and equally a surprise to me to learn that churches get such large donations (as indicated in this poll) and also that they collect donations during services. Is my Jewish experience typical or atypical?