I’ll never forget the story my dad told about the time our church was contacted by a man who was in need of some money for food, so the pastor took my dad to meet this guy at a cafe to talk about what was going on in his life, and some specific ways they could help, both materially and spiritually. The guy rebuffed every attempt to establish any kind of relationship or to hear the gospel, and made it very clear that he just wanted the money. When the pastor eventually gave him a gift card for a grocery store, he got upset that it wasn’t cash.
Another story is of my former pastor who had a man walk into church after the service and ask for money for food. The pastor said he’d take him to lunch at the MacDonalds down the block, and they could talk about what was going on in this guy’s life, and how the pastor and church could help. The pastor got a phone call at the door, so he handed the guy a twenty dollar bill and told him he could go order. After his phone call, he went into the restaurant and the man was nowhere to be seen. He’s taken his whole $20 and skedaddled.
Another story of a pastor who invited a man who had come to the church asking for money for food to his house for dinner. Later that night, the man broke into the pastor’s house, stole a bunch of stuff, and stole his car.
Rest assured pastors are used to people dealing with them in bad faith. These men remain some of the most generous people I know. They give to all who ask them. But a pastor’s willingness or unwillingness to give his church’s money and resources to someone he doesn’t know, who will not even attempt to engage in the community that is a church, especially someone who won’t even show up in person, is not an accurate barometer to gauge the generosity of a church or individual or Christians in general. The pastor’s job is also to protect his flock from wolves, like scammers who prey on the generosity of kindhearted people.
My pastor (we do not have a secretary) gets calls begging for money on a regular basis. Meanwhile, my church, as well as individual members, gave generously to friends of mine who were regular attenders, but not members, when they had an emergency.
We both give to and volunteer at the local food bank. We both give to and volunteer at the local pregnancy center.
Yes, the church is ready and willing to do for the community, but the reality is that much of the community is desperate to scam the church.
Ex Church Secretary here! Can confirm what has been said above and add more stories.
I was told first day of the job that I was NEVER to give cash to anyone who asked for help. Multiple secretaries in churches around the area had begun being harassed and even stalked by individuals who had identified the church and these women as likely to give free handouts. In addition, multiple churches had suffered break ins shortly after and it was believed people were asking for cash in order to confirm that money was being kept on sight for them to break in and steal later. I had a panic button that had been installed directly because of incidents like this where previous secretaries had been threatened and needed the pastors to come and help.
Our local churches were not wealthy, and thus decided to pool resources into a singular organization of local churches. Through this organization we paid rent, covered car repairs, handled groceries, babysitting, etc. It allowed churches to cover more ground together than we could apart. We were regularly accused of refusing to help people in need because the aid did not come through our doors, but through the organization's doors. Many churches cannot provide enough resources on their own, but by giving what they have to a specialized organization they can more effectively give to the community. Them telling people to go to ____ organization is not washing their hands of the issue, its helping someone get to the resources the church is helping to make available.
3. This multi-church organization we have was open to anyone in need, and the only barrier to entry was that we would pay directly to whoever needed to be paid and did not directly hand out cash. This quickly weeded out those who genuinely had something they needed help with, and those who just wanted cash. We also used second hand donations when we could to help stretch things. I frequently heard heartbreaking stories about how children would starve and anything would help, only to be cussed out and hung up on when I said we could pay their grocery bill through or organization or I could give them a grocery card, but I didn't have any cash. I had one woman bring her son in without any shoes asking for help, only to get angry and leave when I showed her our second hand shoes that she could grab any of that she needed. The amount of people angry because they didn't get cash was over twice the amount of people who actually took the aid we could offer. In fact, it was so rare for someone to actually accept help, that I remember them distinctly compared to the flood of angry, violent people who just wanted a quick buck.
The unfortunate reality is that it is dangerous and stupid for churches to hand out cash without any boundaries or discretion. It's a disservice to the people donating resources, and it's a cruel injustice to people who genuinely need these things, because they are inevitably outrun and cut off by opportunists who get there first and taken everything they can get. Every other charity operates with this kind of discretion or should be, and there is little to no criticism of them for doing so.
The reality is that people don't have a problem with how churches run charity, they have a problem with churches.
