The use of church funds

      We all know that religious groups today have used their collections to fund everything from pizza parties, senior trips to building gymnasiums and having day care centers. The question is, are there binding examples that will limit the use of church funds, and help use know what they are to be used for?                                                                                 

Let me just say that if there are no binding examples in scripture, then we must just as well discard the Bible, for the flood-gate would open up. This is no more true than when it comes to the church funds that are collected. And since many do not respect approved examples as a means to establishing authority, you have religious groups doing anything they want with their funds. This is the reason why people make light of this whole discussion.

We can quickly set some boundaries if we have a scripture that will come right out and limit the use of church funds. There is and it is found in I Timothy 5:16. Read this text carefully. You will notice that Christians were given a responsibility to take care of a financial need that the church was not responsible for thus making a distinction between the work of an individual and the work of the church. Failure to see this, we cause one to miss the binding examples surrounding church funds.

Local church take up a collection each Sunday (I Cor. 16:1-2), for the work of the church. What are those works? Evangelism (Eph. 3:10); Edification (Eph. 4:120 and helping needy saints (II Cor. 8:1-4).  Within these three areas we have examples of churches sending to brethren in need. We have examples of preachers being supported directly, to preach (II Cor. 11:8). Notice that we do not have examples of churches sending money to another church to support preachers. Is that significant? Yes. The pattern of sending directly to the one preaching hold the local church accountable to making sure they support faithful men. If church “A” sent funds to church “B”, and the support a false teacher, how does church “A” know it?  We need to see the wisdom of God in providing us with approved examples as a means of establishing Biblical authority.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Chuck