My Plea -- Continue to Financially Support the Church

I recognize that many of us are feeling the need to tighten up our finances right now, that there is tremendous economic suffering and uncertainty, and that some of us are experiencing unemployment or furloughed employment -- or the risk of it in the near future. I am empathetic to all of that and feel that myself, however, those of us who are still working and blessed enough financially, need to continue to financially support the Church.

I live in a more affluent area but I am very disheartened to learn that weekly financial support for churches -- even in these areas -- has drastically declined. Just because we are not attending Church on a weekly basis doesn't mean that the Church doesn't need our ongoing financial support to survive and continue to minister now and in the future. We all have an obligation to keep contributing if we are able to.

I use online giving which makes regular contributions weekly easier and I would encourage you to do the same if available. It takes the weekly decision to contribute out of the equation -- it just happens automatically.

Your financial support helps the ministry of the Church you love continue and thrive. That is so important in these times. When you don't contribute as you would, it creates an added burden on others to sustain the Church and its ministries. We are all in this together -- we ALL need to contribute what we can -- even if it's less than we typically could. Every bit helps. We are a community and we need to act like a community in prayer, worship, and generosity of our finances and resources even now.

In all my time giving, the more generous I was, the more God blessed and provided for me. The same is true here. Certainly, be financally prudent and take care of yourself and your family, but don't let excess fear and prudence get too much in the way of a generous heart.

And remember, the people who minister to us in the Church are paid from those contributions -- their liveihood and that of their family or religious community depends on them. Many of them already mostly iive paycheck to paycheck and often suffer financially because of their ministry choices. To stop contributing means that they may become economically affected --- which could be very devastating for them. They've made sacrifices for the Church and for us, let's honor those and keep supporting them.