Sensitive Question - How much to donate at church?

[lovemygoofy]

We have been to several parishes over the years and seen tithing done it all kinds of ways. Our last parish was on a military post and we were nickel and dimed to death so it felt but that parish gave ALOT to several charities.

Another parish we were memebers gave us monthly updates about how much it costs to run the parish. The update included mortgage, utilities, salaries, donations to charities, and anything else you can imagine. It was quite the eye opener about where the money was going.

As for tithing, we have always tried to do the 10% giving even when that meant giving $5 a week.

However, now we write a monthly check and is considered a "bill" in our house. It is wrote into our budget and then doubled for Easter and Christmas. I will say that in addition to 10% of money giving, it is stressed that 10% of time is needed as well. It is very important in our household that we give at least 10% of our time and when we couldn't give much money, we knew we could give of ourselves and time.

In our house we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are blessed. It has nothing to do with our tithings but through our tithings we hope to pass the blessings onto others.

 

[kidshop]

Is that registered family or member? Our church could do some amazing charity with that much money.
Donna

Per family. Sorry that wasn't clear. They still fall short some weeks. They post the amounts collected every week with the amount needed.

 

[Donnainnj]

Per family. Sorry that wasn't clear. They still fall short some weeks. They post the amounts collected every week with the amount needed.

Ok that sounds much better.
Donna

 

[daughtersrus]

Our church (LCMS) also has a school. A lot of corporations in the area (Tellabs, NICOR...) that match donations to schools.The church and school have a unified budget so they ask if you work for a company that will match, to make your checks out to the school. That way, the amount that you give is doubled when the employer matches.

This helped them pay off over $2M in debt rather quickly.