Survey: How much do you pay in Fast Offerings?
The Church website says The Church has delivered $906 Million Dollars in Humanitarian Service Since 1985. This is just over $41 million Dollars each Year. It is unclear if this is all-inclusive (Bishops Storehouse,Internal Ward Giving, Etc.) My Guess is that it is not. I am guessing this because this would come to about $10 per active member (assuming a 30% activity rate).
However, I have no idea why the church would not include the Bishops Storehouse or Internal Ward Giving. I was unable to find any data on the above site as to how this number is derived. However, the reason I suspect most Fast Offering expenditures are not included in Humanitarian Aid is that they are not included in the Humanitarian Aid giving in the UK.
Anyway, I freely admit I am much closer to the two meals end of the spectrum, but:
Post Script- I am aware that tithing and fast offerings is a sacred and sometimes contentious topic. Also, I’m not really interested in polemics on whether the church should disclose it’s financial data. I love the idea of fast offerings to give up of ourselves for the benefit of others.
This seems to confuse two different categories. I contribute to fast offerings, which are kept for local use. But the first paragraph above mentions church humanitarian services, which are a different line on the statement, sent directly to headquarters and used (according to the website link) to, “provide relief and development projects for humanitarian purposes in countries all over the world.” We give a different amount for that purpose.
Maybe leftover fast offerings do go to humanitarian services, but it never happens where I live, which happens to be a very needy area.
Comment by Naismith — September 17, 2007 @ 12:46 pm
Not as much as I should. I hope to remedy that as soon as the medical expenses ease a bit. (Sick kids for more than the last year – surgery this Friday for tonsils and adenoids)
Comment by Clark — September 17, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
When considering fast offerings, I always try to consider which two meals; the usual, run-of-the-mill meals or the last trip to the favorite restaurant or steak house.
Comment by mondo cool — September 17, 2007 @ 1:49 pm
Wow. The results show almost a perfect bell curve at this hour. Nice category choices Matt. (Think that distribution will hold up?)
Comment by Geoff J — September 17, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
Clark, I’ll pray the surgery goes well.
Naismith- I see that in the UK financial report as well. Thanks for pointing it out. sadly, $10 a year is probably just about right for me in giving to Humanitarian Aid. My wife probably sneaks more in though…
Mondo- I always do 2 meals for 4 people, and I won’t disclose how cheap I am…
Comment by Matt W. — September 17, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
I like to think that one of the reasons we couple fasting with fast-offering is to help us be more generous. It is as though God asked us how much we wanted to give to feed the hungry and we told him our amount, which of course, was not as generous as it should have been. So, he told us to fast for two meals and when our tummies were rumbling and we were feeling sorry for ourselves he asked again: “How about now?”
Comment by Jacob J — September 17, 2007 @ 5:18 pm
Don’t we need to consider that the Church also has many for-profit business ventures, which at least partial revenue is used to contribute to the humanitarian efforts as well?
Comment by zionssuburb — September 17, 2007 @ 10:51 pm
I wonder what the poll would look like if, instead of raw dollar amounts, salary percentages were used?
Comment by Daylan — September 18, 2007 @ 8:12 pm