Who knows who gives

A. Personal preference
B. Tradition

 

I think it's a matter of A and B. I never wanted to know what the members gave because I never wanted the temptation to treat them differently according to their giving.

 

Scripture.

Matthew 6:3-4 (ESV)
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, [4] so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

 

That's the way it is for me. The only exception is when we pick someone to lead a building program. Then I want to know that they are giving regularly, not necessarily how much they are giving.

But this is just a preference.

 

Between them and God.

 

Personal preference

Our pastor does not want to know.

 

I absolutely DON'T want to know, and I DON'T check the records. But after being here for 5 years now, although I don't know the amounts, I can pretty much tell who gives regularly.

 

Personal preference- I don't think pastors should know who gives or how much. Pastors are as human as anyone else, and the temptation will always be there to cater to those who are providing more for the church financially...and those are often the people who are trying to buy their way into Heaven.

 

I'm not certain that making your assumptions is not worse than knowing for sure.

Regardless, I am very untrusting of a pastor (or any minister, or anyone who holds any 'position') who makes a point of not knowing such a thing. The reason is that a person can demonstrate what he does know by simply stating it-- but if a person boastfully claims to not know something, there is no way to demonstrate that he is lying, unless he lets something 'slip' showing otherwise. If a pastor continually makes such a point that he does not know, that ups the probability he is lying, for there is no other reason for repeatedly making a point that he cannot prove, and cannot be proven a falsehood, other than brainwashing by rote.

 

What I am saying is that there are those who are very faithful to the Lord's work at our church. They provide time and talents freely to the Lord's work. By looking at these externals, I am assuming that they are also giving $ to the Lord's work. Now, they only way i can know for sure is to check the giving records, which I will not do.

By the rest of your post, it sounds like you don't trust your pastor or any other for that matter. That must make it even more difficult for you to trust Him to be telling you the truth about God's Word too.

 

Yeah, so? The Word is easily accessible.

 

If you don't trust your pastor, that is between you and him. Since I'm not your pastor, it's not my issue.

 

Ain't I glad I finally know that!

 

I'm glad that's settled. Now I can sleep at night again. :thumbs:

 

You mean you stayed up the WHOLE NIGHT last night worrying about this?

 

This is pure bunk.

 

I do not want to know for many of the same reasons already listed. And I agree that if they are serving faithfully in so many other areas it is a good bet they are giving faithfully. ( I am not a tithe guy but it is certainly a good place to begin)

 

Well, that makes 2 of you.

 

Not hardly. Not even. You might want to work on your sarcasm recognition skills.