Making a faith pledge is an act of faith. Faith pledge costs us. When God told King David to build an altar on Araunah’s threshing floor, Araunch offered to give to King David all that he needs to sacrifice to the LORD. But David said, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." (2 Samuel 24:24). As Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21), a faithful person has a heart that focuses on things above. It means trusting in God’s promise that ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35). It costs our Father in Heaven dearly when His only Son was sacrificed on the cross for us.
Making a faith pledge involves our whole self, making a commitment under our prayerful planning, neither impulsively, nor under compulsion. On the other hand, faith pledge will cost us. It means making sacrifice. It may mean cutting our expenses on other things. It may mean less eating out, shopping for things we need rather than want, asking God to stretch our faith beyond our comfort zone. Pray for God’s direction and ask Him to stretch your faith and the faith of your family.
Based on the first question, how should I manage my?donation?
How then do we manage our donation budget? First, we must realize that there may not a dichotomy between gifts for building and gifts for mission. Both ministries are important in the Kingdom of God and are deserving of our support. Both ministries may even come together in some in some “Church Building Missions” projects, where Christians may go to a small town or village to help build churches. Recently, some churches sent their members with construction skills to help rebuild homes that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
For those of us who are married, when we plan, we need to pray, and for married people, we pray with our spouse; and together decide how much to give as our annual donation (at least 10% as our guide). Personally, my wife and I use the clock as our measure. We divide our donation budget into twelve parts. The major portion of that donation budget would go into our church regular offering, with the rest divided the rest divided amongst “Building”, “Mission”, “Compassion” (e.g. disaster relief) and “Others” offerings. As well, I make another budget item called faith offering. This amount is on top of what we have decided for our annual donation, and is a special pledge to God. It reminds us to look to God and lean on Him for provision, and this is good training for building up our faith. This amount may go towards any area that God has laid upon our heart.
(Rev. Vincent Lee is English Pastor of Milliken CCC)
