by linda » Mon May 11, 2015 4:50 pm
Thanks for replying--I appreciate it.
Bear in mind I live in a very high poverty, high unemployment area. And bear in mind we just had another industry layoff, where maybe 20% ?? of our workers lost their jobs last week. What we are seeing from the young adults is not giving for projects over infrastructure. What we are seeing and hearing is them using more than 10% of their income "for Christ" but rather than tithing to the local church, they are buying groceries if they still have a job for those that don't still have one. Or paying the rent. Or paying a car payment or dr bill, etc. I suspect come next school year they will be buying school clothes and supplies for the laid off worker's kids. They also do this for friends and relatives caught up in our liberal drug culture. They also take very good care of the senior citizens they know. In fact, staying in this area for the sake of the old folks might be part of their economic woes.
I'm totally on board that not tithing in order to save money for a short term mission trip/vacation next year could be defined as greedy. No question.
But I'm wondering if our local young adults are really guilty of that, considering many are holding down two jobs, or couples holding down four, in order to survive and pay the student loans back, raise the kids, etc when they make the hard decision that "overhead" such as our aging beautiful Victorian era huge old buildings, full time staff for tiny churches, upgraded sound systems/copyright fees for new music, etc aren't how the money should be spent right now in this place?
And wondering if those of us who have been blessed to have lived at least part of our lives in middle class comfort, with middle class jobs/education/resources/churches/towns may have to rethink some ways of "getting the job done?"
Linda