FREEWILL OFFERING VS FORCEWILL OFFERING

About 10 years ago at a Deeper Life Bible Church, the district pastor announced the names of some prominent leaders, workers and members for a meeting in his office, and I was one of them; the pastor discussed the matter of settling long time electricity bill of the church and some other needs in the church. Thereafter the total amount needed was calculated, and the pastor decided to share the amount needed equally for every one of us to contribute. I observed that there were people who could not afford to pay up to the amount equally shared, and there were people who could afford to pay more, so in the presence of all I suggested to the pastor that instead of forcing a certain amount on every one, he should distribute a sheet of paper for everyone to write the amount they would freely give. The pastor accepted my suggestion and we all freely wrote what we could afford to give. After collecting the papers, we calculated and we realized much more than we needed.

Different churches today are using different means to raise fund for the need in the church or ministry, but unfortunate most are using ungodly and unbiblical means to raise fund. From the beginning of the Bible to the end, there is only one single method of raising money for God’s work and that is by freewill. Freewill means the ability to act at one's own discretion; it’s synonymous to freedom of choice, liberty, independence.

God’s way of raising fund from His children for His work is only by freewill, for the people to freely and willingly determine if they wish to give, what they want to give and when they want to give. Every other means is ungodly and non-biblical.

The first fund raising for God’s work in Exodus 35:5 “Take from among you an offering to the LORD. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the LORD: gold, silver, and bronze”. Also in verse 29, “The children of Israel brought a freewill offering to the LORD, all the men and women whose hearts were willing to bring material for all kinds of work which the LORD, by the hand of Moses, had commanded to be done.”

In the New Testament, here is the standard the church followed: So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7

Because of the love of money in the church today, different ungodly methods are being used to raise money. One of them is what I shared earlier where a specific amount is forced on every one to distribute, they don’t care about their freewill, they don’t care about how they purpose, and they make them feel it is a matter of necessity. All these churches claim to be Bible churches but raising fund in unbiblical manners.

Other ungodly methods of fund raising in the church include prophetic force will, psychological force will, point force will, etc.

These pastors and ministers who indirectly or directly force their members to give God certain amount do claim that it is because they love the people and want them to be blessed by God. But how can your love for people make you go against God’s standard? Moses and Paul so loved children of Israel that they wished they could be cast out of Book of Life just to get children of Israel saved instead, but with all their sincere love and passion for Israelites, they allowed them to freely give to God has they purposed. If your love for God makes you break God’s standard, then something is wrong.

Any giving to God’s work that is not freely given with cheerfulness is not acceptable to God. Forcing people to give to God makes them forfeit the blessing of giving.

Some ministers today say people should give by faith, to give all they have by faith, to change their mind and give more than they willingly purposed. Such is fake, it is manipulated against their freewill through a preaching before offering; such motive is like faith for money doubler. The Bible standard of giving offering to God is not faith but freewill.

God is interested in our tithes and offering, but His standard of freewill has not changed. As children of God, we must give to God’s work and give offering cheerfully, freely and willingly but do not be manipulated to give against your freewill. As ministers of God, do not allow the needs in God’s work push you to compromise the Bible standard of collecting offering, do not follow the popular ungodly method of force will, remember that God will always provide for Himself when it comes to His work. We don’t need to forcefully do God’s work, we just need to faithfully do it and leave the rest to Him.

2 Corinthians 9:7, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”

God bless you

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nice write up but you need to understand that christians of nowadays hardly give freely to the church....am sure all the leaders,members,workers called for that meeting knew the church had bills and was running on fuel but most of you didnt realise its Good to sometimes give for the growth of the ministry....before ur pastor decide to do that am sure hes running outta options....when last did you give to the church...not offering or tithe but money to assist the ministry

What about asking when last did the church build an affordable facility or resource to assist the indigent in the society?

kallmemrB:
nice write up but you need to understand that christians of nowadays hardly give freely to the church....am sure all the leaders,members,workers called for that meeting knew the church had bills and was running on fuel but most of you didnt realise its Good to sometimes give for the growth of the ministry....before ur pastor decide to do that am sure hes running outta options....when last did you give to the church...not offering or tithe but money to assist the ministry

bigtt76:
What about asking when last did the church build an affordable facility or resource to assist the indigent in the society?

his church aint rich enough

As much as I agree with you that offerings should be freewill. Every giving is not offerings . There were also fixed flat levies in the bible days . For example . The redemption money is five shekels flat as a levy .

Numbers 18:16
16 And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

Secondly before we Label a minister as false or criticize a minister for a particular thing we must try and understand the principle behind the action. I'm not saying that certain principles cannot be abused. But we should give a general condemnation to a deed.

When Jesus told the young rich ruler to go and sell all his belonging and give them out . I don't think it was a cheerful thing to the guy . In fact he ran away . Sometimes a minister helps brethren in coming out of their greed and inability to give . And if such is a Puerto action of faith it will always produce result .

The Corinthian church made pledges but didn't fulfil them Paul had to rebuke them many times for their holding back and carnality. Not because they don't have but they were not giving at their level of ability. And if you don't give at the level of your ability. You can't receive at the level of your grace of capacity. So such people can be exhorted or encouraged to do . The widow Elijah met was at first unwilling to give him her last meal but he exorted her and she gave him first and both of them were blessed.