Most churches (in the US at least) are 501(c)3 organizations. This means that donations made to a church can be tax deductible but only with a receipt. So, a lot of churches track (with the members blessing) giving in order to return a quarterly or annual receipt of donations so that the member can write it off on taxes.

Now, I’m not saying that is a motivation to give or not give. And I’m not saying that churches aren’t using the data to do what you are saying. I think you might be painting the tracking of giving with too broad a brush.

Where it is being used to target or strong-arm people, the people doing the targeting/strong-arming are doing wrong.

Giving is a matter of the heart and is between the giver and God. And who says that I have to give 10% to a particular church. We spread of giving around and do not give to one single organization so it would be hard for anyone to tag us as “not tithing to God.”

Thanks for the thought provoking post today….

My church had a policy that the staff members never knew who was giving. A few folks on our Finance Team would track that info and would never give it to any of the pastors (of which I was one). I was so thankful for that for the very reasons you mention: if I would have known, sinful nature would have taken over very easily.

What gets me the most is when they say “make sure to put it in an envelope so it can be deducted from your taxes.” Just hearing that makes me shiver.
I know what they are trying to say, but man does that sound wrong.

I know of plenty of churches that have elders and prominent church members run the church, mainly because no one wants to confront them because they will lose their money. Seems to be more about making money then Christ.
I’m just saying.

At my church, they track spending for tax and pledge reasons, not to make sure everyone is giving what they are supposed to. At the beginning of each year, members of the congregation make a pledge to donate a certain amount of money, so they can budget for the year and the church can budget. This next year, the church isn’t going to open the pledges. They are going to keep them sealed and mail them back to the members at the end of the year. That way, it is just between you and God about how much you gave. But I don’t think tracking spending is done to give preferential treatment to those that give more. And it certainly shouldn’t be about attention. Both of those are totally anti-Christian values and I know that doesn’t happen at the church I am a member of.

And if a church is coming out ahead each year, then something needs to change at that church, in my opinion. Churches should be outreaching into the community and not saving up a nest egg.

I’m not sure why keeping track of giving for tax purposes is a bad thing. It is an incentive to give more because you can deduct a portion of it from your taxes. It’s not usually a one to one exchange.

Seems like most of you agree tracking isn’t the bad thing because most people want their offering to be tax deductible…and that makes perfect sense.

However, I know for a fact that many churches track giving for more than just tax reasons. This isn’t my church or any other church I’ve been a part of. But I even remember reading a blog that talked about the pastor meeting with the top 10 givers in a church to thank them. Obviously this was based on total amount, not percentage of income given.

I don’t agree with preferential treatment. I don’t agree with a pastor tracking do the average member and saying hey you haven’t given to XYZ church this year. However (comma) I do think that there are times that a pastor should know, like when new elders are being brought in. Does this elder give to the church financially? If not then a discussion needs to happen between the pastor and the possibly elder in regards to why not. Giving is just a biblical and spiritiual as any other spiritual discipline and I would hesitate to elect an elder if there he was not spending time in God’s word.

As a caveat, no church that I have attended or worked at has taken the same stance as me. I don’t know who gives or to what extent anyone gives to the church I serve currently.

I completely agree. A key church leader or elder should be giving to that church and the pastor (s) should know whether they are or not.

Tyler – I’ve heard about a few churches like that. I praise God that our pastor purposefully carves himself out from that whole aspect. As a church elder, I can also say that we carve ourselves out too. We trust God to provide and the people He has blessed us with to bibllicaly respond to His providence.

We rely on a team of gifted servants to track and report to individuals and provide the leadership team with planning info (for spending and goal setting).

I know a few people who attend our church that only started giving/tithing again after being hurt/burned (as they put it) once they saw that we were different. We expect/demand integrity and impartiality in CEOs – how much more should we of pastors and church boards!

We used to place our offering in an envelope for tracking purposes, mostly on our end, not necessarily for tax purposes, but we threw that out a long time ago. I’m a strong believer in giving as a personal act of worship and obedience to God but not every act of worship can or should be an outward expression. Now, when we give, we make sure to take out cash in advance so that no one knows how much we give, when we give it, or where it’s been given to – for this very reason.

Maybe our churches should also go as far as hiring a third party to oversee all giving transactions and tracking information.

Am I wrong that James 2:1-12 makes it abundantly clear that we cannot show favoritism/extra attention/extra thought to wealthier givers?

Totally agree when it comes to elder accountability. It just cannot be used with preferential treatment. In an elder led church, I can see how this works out.

Elders know who gave what.

You don’t need to know about anybody else unless they are nominating themselves for eldership.

Easy?

I think James 2 is just as much or more about how we treat poor people than about how we treat rich people.

I agree that giving is a spiritual practice, and as such, pastors should know who is giving and who isn’t. It is not just elders who should give, but everyone should give. And those who don’t give (or don’t give much) should be challenged to give (or to give more). This is a pastors job as shepherd of a flock. In fact, all christians should probably know how much everyone is giving. I think the idea of “giving is between me and God” sounds like an excuse to avoid living in community and relationship with other believers.

Jesus taught that the widow gave more, because she gave out of her neediness, giving all that she had. So it is not a matter of rich or poor, it is the degree of sacrifice that counts. And those who sacrifice greatly SHOULD be recognized and lifted up as examples to others, just as Jesus taught about the widow’s giving.

The reason people want their giving to be a secret is usually because they are ashamed of it. Not always, as there is good reason to do your giving in secret, as Jesus teaches, so that we are not tempted to seek our reward from the wrong source. But generally speaking, if you are offended that the church keeps track of how much you give, that is another issue entirely.

But of course I agree that rich people should not be given special treatment just because they are rich. But holding ALL people accountable to sacrificial giving is an important responsibility for ALL of us.

Pastored or pastored in 3 VERY different churches. #1 lots of money. Only the Senior Pastor had any idea of who gave what and that was for the purpose of tapping them for extra giving for capital improvement. #2 a rural church in which I didn’t have an idea of who gave what but I was victimized by a member when they threatened to stop giving if I didn’t do things their way.

Current position #3 in which I can pretty much make a guess at who gives about how much. However God has been phenomenally gracious in giving us people with a spiritual gift of generosity who have NEVER, EVER used their giving as a weapon.

Two stories to brighten your Christmas week.
A church published the list of their givers in the local newspaper. They didn’t put how much they pledged but they did order them by the print size… don’t know if it’s a true story or not but it’s cute.

This is true. An Episcopal Priest in Abilene told a group that one year during pledge time he got a whole bunch of applications for AFDC [Aid for families with dependent children or welfare] and during his sermon told them that he wanted every family to take one and fill them out because… he knew that each family and individual tithed because it was biblical and that based on the number of people and the amount of giving it was obvious each family should qualify for welfare.

Merry Christmas

Alan

Couple of thoughts…

First off, the tax-deduction thing is a good incentive to folks to give more. And, after all, it is the law, they are entitled to it, so why not.

At my church, I am one of the pastors, and have been on the finance committee before that. I never knew how much individuals were giving. As far as I know, that info is kept only by the deacons (who collect the offerings) and the secretary (who types the annual letters.)

That said, I’m not sure I would have a problem with the senior pastor knowing who gives what, especially in a church that preaches the tithe. (as we do) After all, the pastor would (hopefully) know who has an issue with alcohol, or adultery, or any other bondage. Why not this? If tithing is part of the spiritual life of that congregation, shouldn’t the pastor know who is struggling with it?

It goes without saying, or course, that I do NOT support the “top ten givers” thing. No way, no how. Nor giving any preference to those who give more in terms of descision making, ministry positions, etc… In the end, being frail humans, it’s probably best to separate those kind of descisions from the knowledge of who gives what.

i’m of the belief, first of all, that 10% is not the law or even the standard anymore. it was an old testament ideal~ and when jesus showed up on the scene he never spoke a single word about tithes. in fact, he told us to give ALL that we have….among several examples included a poor woman who gave her last two coins. yes, giving is b/t God and the person giving or not giving. 10% is a fine starting point if someone doesn’t know how to give or whatever, but ultimately God doesn’t count, so why should the pastor? certainly pastoral teams should be paid, and the financial decisions of the church are important, but to know how much each person is giving in order to control their giving is wrong. i believe the concept is simple: tracking funds for the church can be essential, but when it gets personal, it becomes a conditional relationship. but i wonder, what would happen if a pastor knew that a family or couple wasn’t giving as much….b/c their finances are struggling. why not offer the excess as church- to help them out…BE the church. BE jesus.

interesting thoughts

Very though provoking post.

Here’s some more thoughts -

How did Jesus know the Widow had given more than anyone else? The Bible says he was watching who put how much into the the temple treasury.

In Acts 5 the apostles allow Ananias to bring money and lay it right at their feet! How’s that for accountability?

There is a Biblical precedent for financial accountability. Simply because some do it wrong doesn’t mean it shouldn’t been done, or couldn’t be done right. It’s good to be accountable in all things, especially how we steward God’s money.

While we’re at it, an old testament Tithe was more that 10%. It was done multiple times a year and ended up being over 20% of total income.

Just some thoughts from another country on the mechanics of tracking…

Giving to churches is not tax-deductible in Australia, so there is far less tracking that goes on. However it does mean lots of churches get very creative in how they set up their social justice work – as donations to that area is tax-deductible when it’s done properly.

I’ve just recently resigned from 5 years on our church finance board (in preparation to emigrate…in 3 months…eek) and when we first started offering on-line giving – the first opportunity we had to really track it, and now making up around 25% of our income – we deliberately decided to do it in a way that tracking would be difficult (the bank blocks who is making the deposit). We didn’t want to know who was giving what amounts, because it just doesn’t matter. What matters is building big-hearted people who desire to see the Kingdom grow. Kingdom growth requires resources, one of which is money. Big-hearted people want to give : some will be able to give more time, some more money, etc

I came from a church where this exact practice is still very much in place. And sadly speaking….the big givers are the ones who eventually got noticed for the leadership positions. It didn’t matter if they were walking right or not. This message needs to be heard and told out aloud. God bless.