Church tithe and ethics

Our church recently decided to give 10% of our income to outreach. Well, now we are looking at a serious budget shortfall, and some people want to value in kind gifts made by individuals who belong to the church and count this towards the 10% outreach budget. Is this ethical? The congregation is under the impression that the church is spending its own money on outreach, not accounting for their personal donations in the outreach budget.

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Dec 20, 2014
 Tithes and Ethics
by: MarcusNTexas

Just like "you cannot spend the same money twice" you cannot count the same gifts twice, which is what this sounds like would be happening. Nevertheless, whatever the plan, it would seem that it should be totally transparent and could be justification for a special "called" church business meeting so that the entire thing can be presented and discussed openly and then whatever is decided should be "memorialized" in writing and shared with the entire congregation. If the church's financial situation is shaky, then it would seem that reducing the 10% support for outreach could be reconsidered, too.
Dec 20, 2014
 Great Comment
by: Vickey

I completely agree with Marcus. Thank you very much, Marcus, for your insightful contributions to this site and its readers!
Dec 20, 2014
 Thanks for your responses
by: Anonymous

I agree Marcus. That's why I posed this question. I seem to be the only person on our finance committee that thinks this needs to be spoken about with the congregation. Thank you for both for your response. It will help me the next time we meet to discuss this matter.

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