“Giving is not like it was back in the day when your grandmother spent all her time at church and did what the pastor told her.”

Back in the day, I use to hear a lot of men complain to their wives about giving the pastor all of their hard earned money. Men went to church, but they were not going to give like the women. Now I hear men and women stating the same phrase about giving to the church.  Many people have stopped going to church because it is more convenient to watch online or watch a few sermons on You Tube every now and then to get filled with the word when needed. Many people feel like church is not what it used to be because of all the negative media that has been presented about several pastors. I am not here to give my opinion about church, but I wanted to share what other people think based on my own statistic project. I asked 4 women and 2 men about their opinion on church and I made my own statistics, so take it for what it is. I barely passed statistics in college, so here goes:

Each one of the women are working mothers, two are wives and the other two are single. The men that I talked with were educated and intelligent men who were both husbands and fathers. The women and men do not know one another and they kept everything respectful and honest. I quickly found out in talking to the women that church was not a perfect place. One woman explained how she had an affair with a well know pastor, but she refused to expose his name. This woman explained how the meetings of affairs and visitations to the church actually worked (that’s a whole other blog folks!). She explained how the right hand man of the pastor knows everything, and every pastor has a right hand man beside him all the time. So, this woman had no respect for church because of her experiences and she indicated most Pastors take money from their congregation to splurge on their mistresses.

“When the pastor asks for everyone to at least give $500 for a financial break through, those faithful members did it.”

The other three women enjoyed going to church. They all believed their pastors knew the word, but they all are men. Meaning, they would not be surprised if their own pastor was doing unchristian like things. One out of the three men explained to me that, “Giving is not like it was back in the day when your grandmother spent all her time at church and did what the pastor told her.” “When the pastor asks for everyone to at least give $500 for a financial break through, those faithful members did it.” These women stated that they did not agree in the old sanctuary actions. Too many churches have been exposed, which has caused members to stray and straddle on their faith. On the other hand, I have witnessed many members of the church eager to give any amount the pastor asks, so I know people still have faith about their tithes. In conclusion, at least half of the church members have reconsidered their beliefs about tithing.

The men that I interviewed believed that every pastor is human and they all make mistakes. (All men can relate to effing up right?!) However, they focused more on the Bible and the word instead of the money transactions within the church. They held their belief and faith with God and not the pastor. They both were very simple in their explanation and did not focus on the negative drama within the church. One of the men stated that, “God is the main focus, you cannot let the Devil stray you away from church by distractions.” “At the end of the day, you want to do what God wants you to do.”

One question came up in our conversation and one of the ladies asked me, “If the pastor asks for you to give $1000 and your mortgage is due, which one would you pay?” Of course, my answer was my mortgage. I also indicated that I don’t think tithes and offerings should be a burden, but it should be something that comes from the heart and you should want to give. My mother always told me that tithes and offerings are meant to help out the community. People that are homeless, hungry, and have fallen on hard times should be able to receive help from the churches in our communities based on our tithes and offerings. Tithes should not be used to sponsor the pastor’s mistress, buying planes (no shade Pastor Dollar), and funding lavishing vacations. At the end of the day when I go to heaven, I just want God to look at me and say, “Well done!”

~Lisa

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