Modern Methods of Church Fundraising
The antichristian influence of some modern methods of raising church funds which have become popular to-day in many churches, is well described in the following words by the Rev. Gerald S. Lee, in an article contributed to The Outlook:— The average man of the world can not help judging a God by the worship of his followers and by the conduct of his church, and when he is so hard pressed in his capacity as a God that he indulges in the face of a whole community in the most palpable tricks for getting money, he judges accordingly. It does not interest him to go to a church whose God is so hard put to it that he conducts his business affairs in such a way that the most average business man in the street can look down on him. Who cares to accept an invitation to come and pray to a God who has just worked out the last week some new way of picking one’s pocket or of cornering people in giving? Such ways of raising money are the methods of those who have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof, and have no warrant in the Word of God. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” “the silver and the gold,” and “the cattle upon a thousand hills.” God’s method of raising money for his cause is by the willing gifts of those on the earth who acknowledge his sovereignty, and who, in making an offering to him, say with David, “All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.”