Do you actually attend a church where they don't have a mission/program that helps the poor?
So, in the month of January or Feb. or March, let’s say that a mega church pulls in $2 million in tithes, with the pastor getting a portion of that.
Is that church going to give, say, 2 or 3 thousnad dollars to every widow in that church - cash - like they give to the pastor of that church?
Hmmm?
At my old church they had 10% of spending to outside ministries for the missions, poor, etc. (So even the church tithed).
At my current church it is 15%. The year-end request for folks to send in any pledged amounts and to bring the end-of-year budget shortfall up-to-date brought in MUCH more than had been pledged for the year. Half of that excess went into savings for a “long term” future Capital Projects campaign, and the other half went to outside groups in the local area serving the poor, etc.