First of all, I want to relay a true story to you which is an example of how NOT do things when it comes to benevolent giving. Several years ago, Joan and I were in a young married Sunday school. In many ways, it was an awesome period in our marriage and our walk with the Lord. Our young marrieds group was very close. We had an awesome time worshiping and fellowshipping. We all knew each other and often got together outside of the context of our Sunday school.
Well, at some point some dear friends of ours in that Sunday school encountered a financial hardship. They were a single income family at the time and money was tight. Then their central AC went out. The word from the HVAC man was that it needed to be replaced, and they did not have the money to fix it. On top of that, this happened during a particularly hot and sticky summer.
Our group decided to bless this family, which had been a member of our little fellowship for years. We were all going to contribute to a pot and give them enough money to pay for a significant portion of a new AC unit. Then the "Church" got involved. By church, I mean the corporation, the official 501c3 incorporated church. Someone in church leadership got wind of the situation and insisted that this gift could not come directly from those who gave, but had to come from through the organization which was the church, (not to be confused with what I believe the church is really supposed to be, a fellowship of believers). On top of that, they said we could not just give the money to them, we had to pay it directly to the AC company. What complicated this more was the fact that by the bureaucracy which was the church office got it's act together, this family who had been sweltering in the heat for months now, finally just purchased a new AC unit on credit. In end we were able to convince the powers that be in this church to give the money directly to the family so they could pay off the credit they used to purchase the AC.
The point of all this is that we did not see ourselves so much as duty bound members of this particular church as much as we were just a fellowship of believers who cared for one another and wanted to just spontaneously through the Spirit, to bless this family. The corporate church, (as in corporation) butted into the situation and I feel, stifled the spirit and delayed God's blessing and provision for this family.
My analysis of this behavior in retrospect is that this was about control. It seemed like church leadership was afraid that we might do it wrong and that we did not go through them. We weren't trying to use church funds, or use any resource of the church, but because we were all belonging to this Sunday school, which was in this church, they felt we needed to submit to their authority on this matter. Now we did submit, to honor the Lord, not to honor men, but I feel God was grieved by the way the bureaucracy intruded into this situation.
This all seems to come out of three things, religiosity, (read Pharisees), a spirit of control, and a substantial fear that they laity might do it wrong, and I suppose by extension, that the leadership would some how be held responsible by God or men. Now I totally agree whether it's our personal finances, or a church’s, that we have an obligation and duty to spend our money wisely and not just throw it away. However, I think we can go too far in defining rules and regulations, where we offer the Spirit no room to work. Yes, we don't want to give money to the drug addict we know is going to go use it to by cocaine, that's just common sense. But what about the poor family down the road? Do we not give to them because they might buy a big Mac instead of fruits and veggies at the supermarket?
This leads to my next point. The bible tells us we are to be generous an give hilariously. Now if I give $50 to a beggar, whose money is it, mine, the beggars, or God's? Whose responsibility is it what the beggar does with that money? If God told me to give it to him, it's God's responsibility, meaning that this frees me from the need to control it or force the beggar to purchase only church approved items. At that point, what the beggar does with the money becomes an issue between him and God. Sometimes I think we take on more responsibility than we should on these items, ours is only to obey. So how do we give to others in a responsible way,... through the Spirit! If we are one with Christ, we are also one with the Father and the Spirit, and can know His will. Therefore, if we give according to the Spirit's leading, we can never go wrong.
In conclusion, I would say, yes we need some general guidelines on giving, so people basically know where the boundaries are and what's appropriate. That being said, those guidelines should not be so rigid that the Lord can't use us to do something we think is ridiculous, but in reality is at the bulls eye of what God wants to do.
