As a church leader, how does one balance the tension of church giving and growth?

Church leaders are watching the weekly offering, thinking and budgeting every cent to go to the next hire, the next building project or campus plant. As churches grow, so too do the needs of the people within. The Bible tells us to take care of the poor and needy, but to also go and make disciples. This is the never ending tension of the modern day church. This is the never ending tension of church giving and growth.

Recently, through round up dollars, a local church has been able to gain some ground on this issue. Just a few short weeks ago a small group found out about a family in the community who was days away from losing their eight year old daughter to a very rare form of brain cancer. The small group did what small groups do, and provided prayer, meals, house cleaning etc. As they became closer with the family, they learned that the couple was struggling financially, to the point where they were unable to put gas in their cars. As anyone would imagine, the cost of having a child with incurable brain cancer had ravaged their finances.

It was an easy yes from the church leadership to help ease the financial burden for this family because of the GYVE platform and the round-up dollars. This church decided to save round up funds just for local benevolence, therefore being able to provide an entire month’s worth of gas, groceries and bills. It doesn’t solve things completely, but talk about the church showing up to take care of one another.

Here’s what is interesting about the round-up dollars: they keep coming, it’s not a line item in a budget. It’s a steady flow of resources. It’s diminishing the tension for churches across North America.

The stories in the book of Acts show us how the people of the church take care of one another. What’s different today? We still have a body of Christ following believers, but the way we gather resources looks much different. Round up giving can be one way to care for the needy in our communities. If everyone gives a little we can make a big difference.

Help us be the solution.