Giving: The Three Questions

Week 2 | To Whom?

Bruce Miller, author

The Engage God Daily for this series is a reprint of Senior Pastor, Bruce Miller’s book, Giving: The Three Questions.

This week, we are reprinting Chapter 2 of  Giving: Three Questions. Last week we considered why we should give. This week, we’re answering the second question, “To whom should we give?”

Day 1

On Monday, your Facebook feed shows you tragic pictures of a cute 6-year-old girl with bone cancer, and an old friend from high school is asking you to donate.

Your email box has two requests from Christian organizations sharing the latest urgent needs from the famine in Ethiopia, and the plight of young teenage girls being sex trafficked in Thailand.

The same day, two newsletters come by snail mail with an appeal for giving to a scholarship fund for your alma mater, and another to your local food bank.

Meanwhile, your local church receives an offering every Sunday. Your wife’s brother who is a single dad, lost his job, and his severance ran out, so he and his two kids need help with basic needs.

On top of these giving opportunities, one of your college roommates serves as a missionary in India, and you agreed to support him on a monthly basis, but you also want to sponsor a needy child in a third-world country which requires a monthly financial commitment.

Sound familiar? Most of us are inundated with requests from charities and good causes to the point that it can be overwhelming. Requests come from the big organizations, such as the Red Cross, and from good causes, such as curing breast cancer. And often someone you know is involved. My daughter-in-law worked for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Crowd-funded appeals and the latest disaster compete for our charitable giving.

It can be confusing as to where you should give your money. How do you make wise choices for where to invest your giving dollars? My hope is to give you biblical clarity about divine priorities for your giving.

Three criteria apply to all giving opportunities. The first criterion is integrity. You should only give to organizations who have integrity. Sadly, some people use charitable causes to get rich. There are scams out there. Check if the head of the organization has an exorbitant salary, lives in a mansion or is buying private planes. See if there is an external audit or approval from an outside accrediting organization such as the EFCA (the Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability).

Secondly, you should give to organizations that are effective. Check out how a group or organization is using the money. Are they actually doing the good work they claim to do? See if they publish a report that shows their results. If you can do so, visit the organization or the area in which they are serving to see what’s really happening.

Thirdly, look for transparency. At Christ Fellowship, we are committed to the highest integrity and effectiveness. And we are transparent with our finances. You, along with anyone in the world, can go to the Christ Fellowship website, www.cfhome.org. Click on “Giving.” Scan down and you will see the same monthly report that goes to our Elder Board, then you can check out links to our financial policies, procedures and budget. We also post our annual external audit. We are open with our finances.

Good organizations have policies such as ones that guard against conflict of interest, that require double signatures on checks, and that limit who has access to a credit card.

At Christ Fellowship, every dollar is committed to our mission of being people helping people find and follow Christ, and we stretch each dollar. We are frugal. Every year when our auditor meets with the Elders, he compliments the Christ Fellowship finance team for having among the best practices of any church they audit.

Knowing you should give to organizations that have high integrity, effectiveness, and transparency, are there places God would have you prioritize in your giving?

We’ll consider that for the rest of the week.

Reflect

This question regarding to whom we should give surfaces our values and exposes our priorities. If you are married, your giving priorities are likely not the same as your spouse’s. Looking to God’s Word can help you come to unity, at least on the overarching biblical priorities for where you send your giving.

Many people have never thought very hard about what kinds of organizations or needs should have priority in our giving decisions, but it’s an important question to answer.

Take some time to reflect on your current attitude about giving:

• What kinds of requests do you get for financial support? Which ones tend to grab your attention? Why?
• To whom do you regularly give or donate money? How do you currently prioritize your giving?
• What criteria do you use when deciding to whom you will give?