Temple Beth I'm not saying the real name, just sent us another bill. Why is it that temple memberships and many church memberships for that matter, are so expensive!? Yes, I know that they need money to maintain the building and for programing and to pay employees....come on though. Anyway, we pay for classes at our temple and any dinners we attend there. So what's with the gagillion other dollars we have paid? Well, at least they have free onegs. That's my most favorite part of going to temple, maybe the only part I really like. Well, I like chatting and the library smells good.
6 comments:
Hey Judy and Kendra, maybe you know a little more about this! Any insider info?
Usually Christian churches depend more on tithes and offerings to help them stay afloat. The tithes help support the pastor...and let me tell you that sometimes the tithes are NOT enough! But God always provides.
The offerings generally go into different funds to help different departments in the church.
Personally, the idea of paying for membership to a church is crazy to me. I think that if you are really involved in a church, and if you are really trying to live for God, you will give your tithes and offerings and you will love your church.
I'm not sure how paying for membership really helps a person feel like they belong in that place of worship. I would be afraid that if I missed a payment I might be kicked out.
(just my humble opinion, since you asked.)
I am so happy in my place of worship that I don't mind paying my tithes and I love to give my offerings when I can. I think that is how living for God and belonging to a temple or church should work.
Also, just an interesting note, Abraham was the first account we have in the Scriptures of tithing.
Also, Jacob made a covenant with the Lord that he would give a tenth of all his earnings to God.
Tithing has a VERY early start in the Torah and in the Bible.
Hope my input wasn't too strong.
Love you.
I'm kind of in line with Kendra...I haven't heard of membership fees for a church. We work solely off of tithes and offerings as well.
I guess if my church were to open some sort of community center that they wanted to charge to use (kind of like a health club or something), then I could see paying to use that facility, but not to just do the "churchy" stuff. Not that my church would do anything like that - when we joined 2 years ago, we lowered the average age! Travis is the youngest in our church service, and Scott and I are second youngest! Now, there are two other services with kids in them, but at the one we go to, we're IT!
Oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh! Thanks girls, I see.... Yes, I am with you on the tithes and offering and voulenteering thing! A place of worship should be more like a family helping each other rather than a fitness club. At my temple many people give their time and voulenteer and they also donate money to different funds in addition to dues. I talked with a friend yesterday and she says they give 10% of their income to her church and Jon and I don't have to pay that much so maybe I shouldn't complain, huh? I do have to say that if you can't afford the dues, our temple will ask for just a donation that you can afford, so that's good. Do you guys have free Sunday school at your churches? At temple, I will have to pay. They don't have daycare but they do have preschool. Thank you again for your insight, this is really interesting stuff!!!
On Sunday, we have an early service (the one we go to) at 8:30, a contemporary service at 9:45 and another service at 11. We have Sunday School at 9:45 and 11 - we don't pay for any of this - you just go...you can put your tithes and offerings in the offering plate or in your Sunday School room, but other than that, there aren't fees or dues. Nursery is provided for everything - church, sunday school, meetings, programs, MOPS, etc - and it is free as well. The only thing we ever pay is offering and tithes - and it is completely up to the individual family on how much that will be. I do know that when we have different Bible studies (like Disciple and such) that you have to pay for your materials and books, but there isn't a class fee. We have lots of lunches and stuff (our church is currently serving breakfast on Sundays in between services) and it is given strictly as a love offering...you just put what you can into the basket. If you are hungry but don't have a dime to your name, that's okay, too. You can have a zillion pancakes just like the next person who puts in $10.
Our church has a private preschool/kindergarten as well during the week for the school year. THAT is NOT free - it was $175 a month to send Travis there for pre-k last year. We are moving to another private school this fall that is at a Presbyterian church - a little cheaper, both boys will go (Tyler will go 2 mornings a week), and we have Fridays off.
Our church is pretty much the same as Judy's....the only fees you pay are for materials if you are taking a class. Sunday school on Sundays is free...we are too small to have a preschool, but I'm sending my girls to a private Baptist school, which is also quite expensive..unfortunately.
Sometimes the pastor does ask for love offerings or what have you for certain things, but really tithes and offerings make up the majority of the church's money.
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