Just read an interesting article. It got me thinking about something.
I want Hub City to be known as a generous church. I most definitely don't want us to end up spending all of the money that people give on ourselves. Currently we give away 10% of whatever comes in to support two church plants and foreign and domestic missionaries. We also invest a huge chunk of funds locally through Movies in the Park and other local missions activities. I would love for us to get to a place one day when we're giving 50% or more of our income away.
So that leads me to this question: If you were in charge of giving 50% of Hub City's income away, where would you give it to? I'd love to hear your suggestions. What organizations should we support? What causes should we give to? Who should we bless? Who knows, sometime in the future something that you mention might be something we support.
4 comments:
People in our general area who do not have food, clothing, shelter...
I don't know anything about the local options already available... I have a passion to feed people, to give them the necessities. Do we have cardboard cities around anywhere where we could go and hand out water and food and blankets?
There was a place in the city where we lived like that... And a lady from one of our churches would get the bread that the grocery would sit out back when it was two days old... and take that and quilts and stuff that they needed to them. I thought that was pretty awesome...
As far as I know they didn't really "preach" or anything... just gave them the necessities and sometimes prayed with them. Alot of them were not very "with it"... had mental problems and stuff... I think they are mostly forgotten.
Plus I think perhaps helping with utilities and such... electric and gas for heat and air in the poor and elderly is a big deal...
I think like you guys did already with fixing up a house... yard work... diapers and such to a crisis pregnancy center...
Of course these are mainly "doing" things... There are probably lots of places to donate... I still don't know much about our area I guess.
Wouldn't it be cool to use the financial resources to "do" some of the stuff you mentioned, so that it is a both/and not either/or. The finances could enable those things.
For lack of a better term, it would almost be a benevolence department. What if Hub City became the primary provider of benevolence in our area... as a way to live our our discipleship. It would be putting hands and feet to our faith. It could be a way to fight against consumerism by being generous.
And what if this benevolence department wasn't and end in itself, but was another way to bring people into our discipleship process so that we can make disciples who make disciples.
Thanks for writing Jaimee.
The March of Dimes is a charity close to our hearts for obvious reasons. I would love to do something directly with a local NICU to try to help people in some way. Having been in a similar situation I know the hurt/confusion/stress and everything else that comes with it. I wouldn't know exactly what to do, I guess just let people know that someone cares about what they're going through.
I think a benevolence department is a really nifty idea... I think it would be awesome if we got to where people knew to call us when they needed something... We could both accept donations from the community and pool our percentage into that and just be available. Plus it would be a great way for us to work together as a church... Lot's of opportunity for everyone to serve and participate and make a difference!
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