Agreed. As Christians, we are under a Biblical mandate to give offerings to the church, the first fruits of our labors. Sure it pays the pastors and keeps the lights on, but the money is used for missions and outreach to those not saved and for benevolence. Saying not to give to your church is ridiculous and selfish and to deny all God has given us.
Um, the church isn't God. Handing out money to a pastor is not a guarantee it's being used properly. If my church shut down without a peep during the plandemic, and their priorities are building a new facility or sending money out of the country (as far as we can tell), when we've got members losing their homes because of medical bills or businesses closing, or vets who need help, recovering addicts, pregnant girls who need to get to a safe situation to raise their kids or put them up for adoption, etc, then I'm putting my money to stabilize our community first. If the church isn't listening then I have a hard time believing it's doing God's work.
Handing over money blindly doesn't absolve any of us of our responsibility of stewardship. Just like handing it over to the government, who replaced charitable works of churches, absolves is of anything.
I remember the movie Stigmata, where the guy in there says "the kingdom of God is inside you, and not contained within walls of stone" or something to that effect.
Agreed. As Christians, we are under a Biblical mandate to give offerings to the church, the first fruits of our labors. Sure it pays the pastors and keeps the lights on, but the money is used for missions and outreach to those not saved and for benevolence. Saying not to give to your church is ridiculous and selfish and to deny all God has given us.
Um, the church isn't God. Handing out money to a pastor is not a guarantee it's being used properly. If my church shut down without a peep during the plandemic, and their priorities are building a new facility or sending money out of the country (as far as we can tell), when we've got members losing their homes because of medical bills or businesses closing, or vets who need help, recovering addicts, pregnant girls who need to get to a safe situation to raise their kids or put them up for adoption, etc, then I'm putting my money to stabilize our community first. If the church isn't listening then I have a hard time believing it's doing God's work.
Handing over money blindly doesn't absolve any of us of our responsibility of stewardship. Just like handing it over to the government, who replaced charitable works of churches, absolves is of anything.
I remember the movie Stigmata, where the guy in there says "the kingdom of God is inside you, and not contained within walls of stone" or something to that effect.