Church fundraising? Yay or Nay?

[Lamb]

What are your thoughts on churches doing fundraising (having people outside the church give money for services or goods) to help get money for things needed?

 

[Frankj]

I think that's fine as long it remains a religiously flavored event and doesn't bow to secularism in the name of money.

Organizing community activities open to all based on the Church conducting them could be a way to carry the gospel to some who would never know about or understand it.

 

[Lamb]

I think that's fine as long it remains a religiously flavored event and doesn't bow to secularism in the name of money.

Organizing community activities open to all based on the Church conducting them could be a way to carry the gospel to some who would never know about or understand it.

I totally agree. I was looking up church fundraisers and came across an article written by a pastor who thought that it was not good to ask the unchurched to pay for the congregation's needs, that the members should cover those. He said stuff such as instead of having a bake sale, give to those who are hungry. I kind of get where he's going with it, but you touched upon something that is a good impact in that we have an opportunity to carry the Gospel to those who need it when we do fundraisers.

 

[tango]

I think that's fine as long it remains a religiously flavored event and doesn't bow to secularism in the name of money.

Are you saying that a church shouldn't do something like a car wash to raise money? If people within the church are offering a specific product or service I don't see why it shouldn't be used as a fundraiser.

If people are coming to the church to let the teenagers wash their car to raise money for a mission trip or similar, is it a problem that the product being offered is secular in nature?

If anything I'd have a problem with charging for a "product" that was religious in nature.

Organizing community activities open to all based on the Church conducting them could be a way to carry the gospel to some who would never know about or understand it.

I'd agree with this, albeit with a couple of caveats. A church I attended some years ago would sometimes host events where a high(ish) profile person would give a talk - the person in question would be a Christian public figure (usually associated with a sport) who would talk about their career and share a testimony. Sometimes they were interesting events but other times it felt like a bait-and-switch, where people would be drawn in expecting to hear about sporting life and got a sermon instead (and I say that as one who wanted to hear their testimony rather than having any real interest in their sporting career).

I don't believe we should be pulling any form of trickery to get people to come to church. You can't pull bait-and-switch tricks on people very many times before they become resistant to anything.If we aren't loving people when they aren't in church we can hardly be surprised that they don't expect us to love them if they do darken our door.

 

[Frankj]

Are you saying that a church shouldn't do something like a car wash to raise money? If people within the church are offering a specific product or service I don't see why it shouldn't be used as a fundraiser.

Consider the Salvation Army, not only today but in the days of its founders William and Catherine Booth.

I don't believe we should be pulling any form of trickery to get people to come to church.

I'm not suggesting trickery, but an organized neighborhood event that has attraction for everyone but still maintains a religiously oriented theme is not trickery.

 

[tango]

Consider the Salvation Army, not only today but in the days of its founders William and Catherine Booth.

I'm not sure what point you're wanting to make here?

I'm not suggesting trickery, but an organized neighborhood event that has attraction for everyone but still maintains a religiously oriented theme is not trickery.

If people know what they are going to get then no, it's not trickery. My point was that sometimes churches seem to feel the need to do whatever it takes to get people through the doors, and that isn't likely to lead to a good result. In the example I used the church was presenting something that looked like a talk about someone's sporting career but was actually more of a sermon.