What Does the Church Do With Your Money?

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7

The Bible repeatedly teaches that generous giving is the clearest way to show that money doesn’t control you. Generous giving shows that Jesus, not money, is our greatest treasure. The NT shows that the early church consistently gave to meet both physical and spiritual needs (Acts 2:42-47; Galatians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 8-9; James 1:27).

Since I challenged our church family to be bold in our generosity, I thought it would be helpful to share specifically how those resources are being used at Grace Baptist Church. It’s very important for you to have confidence that your resources are being used wisely and effectively to further God’s kingdom.

Missions

One of our core convictions as a church is that we are a missions-focused church. We are committed to the global advance of the gospel. We pray, we teach, we train, we send, and we give to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

The way we do this specifically at Grace is to give approximately 25% of all our resources to missions. Meaning, when you give to the General Fund at Grace, that money immediately gets set aside to support our 36 missionaries and 8 organizations. When you give to Grace, you automatically give to missions. These missionaries are a mix of local, regional, and global partners. We believe this fits the framework that Jesus gave his disciples: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Act 1:8).

I cannot tell you how thankful I am to be a part of a church that gives so generously to the work of global missions. We hear stories every week from our missionaries about how our financial support enables them to make and train more disciples of Jesus Christ. And, yes, these funds are sometimes used to supply physical needs of our missionaries.

One of our missionaries recently had their van brake down. He sent out a request to his partner churches asking for assistance to get it repaired. Thankfully, our church was able to send a check for a few thousand dollars to help. When this missionary wrote back, he said we were the only church that responded to the financial need. Church, it was your generous giving that was able to make that happen.

Local Church

The rest of the money given to Grace is used to fund ministries that help us grow healthy and mature as a local church. God has called Grace Baptist Church to exist in Bowie, MD for a reason. Our mission is to make fully devoted followers of Christ within the context of our local church. Some resources are used to pay staff members so they can do the work of equipping the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12). Paul gives specific instructions for local churches to financially support the role of elders/pastors (1 Timothy 5:17). Resources are also used to provide meeting space for the church to carry out its mission. We praise God for providing us with the GBC main campus and Jireh Place, both of which are used to proclaim the gospel and make disciples.

Finally, resources are used to support the many ministries of Grace. Things like children’s ministry, student ministry, support and recovery groups, music and media ministry, special needs ministry, helps ministry, etc. The list is quite long!

Again, the goal is to meet physical and spiritual needs in this community. Because of your generous giving, we are able to give Giant food cards to the needy in our community when they come in for help. We are able to help church members who are struggling to meet their daily needs. We are following the example of the early church: “And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:45)  

But, we are also able to meet spiritual needs as well. Your generous giving allows us to gather together weekly for corporate worship. But, it also allows us to reach this community through outreach events like the Easter Eggstravaganza, Community Christmas Celebration, and Grace Gives.

So, thank you church. Thank you for boldly giving to show that Jesus, not money, is your greatest treasure. Thank you for helping our church make a global impact for the gospel. Thank you for helping us become an attractive witness for this community.

I say with Paul, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)