My senior year of college I went to the Dominican Republic to visit a friend for a few weeks. He was working as a teacher and volunteering in a poor part of Santo Domingo.
I remember going to church with him and during the offering everyone placed their offering in an envelop with their name on it and then into the basket being passed around. Essentially the pastor was tracking how much each person and family was giving to the church. He would use this knowledge to hold them accountable to giving 10% and to track how much of their income they were giving each week.
I was dumbfounded when I learned about this. But then I realized that most churches do the same thing.
Often a church will track giving in order to know who the biggest givers are. Because obviously these people deserve a little more attention…and then those people become the key people the pastor will focus on for volunteer leadership roles and such.
I have one thing to say about this practice: it’s wrong.
It introduces a political aspect to church that is wrong. The idea that the church is an organization more than an organism grows with this type of practice. And it tells the Christian that giving isn’t just between them and God…it is the church’s problem too.
What do you think about a church tracking the giving of its members?
