Giving

Let’s be honest: Giving doesn’t make any sense. It’s completely unnatural to give away that which promises to bring joy to your life. Our own sinful hearts join in with the wider culture in telling us that money makes us comfortable and secure and ultimately happy. Generosity will never make sense until we realize that money and the things it buys will never satisfy us and that the only source of true and lasting happiness are the promises of the gospel.

The more people believe the gospel—that in Jesus they have been rescued from sin and judgment, completely forgiven, and brought into a relationship with their heavenly Father—the more they experience true joy and satisfaction. One inevitable consequence is that their attitude about their possessions changes. Accumulating more and more for ourselves is less satisfying and we begin to find that Jesus was right when he said that it is more blessed to give than receive. The true and lasting joy that people seek in money actually comes from holding tightly to the promises of the gospel and loosely to our own possessions. So let’s be honest: To the Christian, giving makes complete sense.

Now of course there are many practical questions to consider when you give money to The Crossing or any group. With that in mind we invite you to read the FAQs below to explore this topic more with us as you seek to respond to the promises of the gospel in the area of your finances.

Why should I give?

Any answer to this question is incomplete if we don’t first understand that we are only giving back to God (1 Chron 29:11-16; Psalm 50:10-12; 1 Cor 4:7). And not just that we give back, but that we should give our best, our “first fruits” (Genesis 4:3-7; Deuteronomy 26:10). Because we are giving our first fruits, it’s always a sacrifice. By first, it means we’re giving exactly when the future is most uncertain. We’re giving out of faith, not sight. We’re saying, “Money is not ultimately my security. Christ is.”

And when we give sacrificially, our money increasingly becomes something God honors and uses for his glory. When we give sacrificially, Jesus says we become “rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21). So our act of sacrificial giving does two things: (1) it actually teaches our hearts to treasure Jesus above all things, and (2) Christ uses our giving toward the building of his kingdom.

How much should I give?

Because we are commanded to give our first fruits—our best first—what we give will always be a sacrifice. The Bible provides a firstfruits guideline of 10% of our income (Deut 14:22; Mal 3:8-10; Matt 23:23). This is called a tithe (the word “tithe” comes from the word “tenth”). But if you’re just starting out in applying the biblical principle of giving, it may take a bit of time before you can achieve a 10% level. But it should be a goal to move toward more and more. To help you move in that direction, set an annual goal that you want to reach in terms of the percentage of your income that you plan to give. Then give 1/12^th of that annual goal each month. Each year move your annual goal closer to 10%. And when we give that 10%, even in our “poverty,” Jesus always sees our giving as a sign of our faith in him and his promises, and he is pleased (Mark 12:41-44) because we are building treasure in eternity rather than in this world (Matt 6:19-20).

So giving is just that—giving away something that is valuable to us. That’s why it’s always hard to do, particularly when we start giving for the first time. Sometimes we have to lead our heart where we know it needs to go. Over time, maybe slower rather than faster, giving will become a joy the more we understand the gospel (2 Cor 8:9). Like everything in our Christian obedience, it often feels like a duty when we begin to tithe. And to some degree a part of our heart may always see giving that way. But the more we understand the gospel—all that God has done for us and is for us in Christ—the more our experience in giving will be an act of joy and thankfulness than obligation and duty.

What is the Operating Fund?

When we begin to give it is important that we start by giving to the Operating Fund to enable ministry at The Crossing (see How does The Crossing use the money I give?). This is important because we make our annual ministry plans based on projected giving by each member and attendee. If you want to give above your tithe to The Crossing, we have Special projects that are aligned with some new ministry goals we are pursuing throughout the year.

How does The Crossing use the money I give?

We have one goal in how we use offering dollars: to do more ministry. God uses ministry to help people see the glory of Christ and in turn transform the lives of individuals and families (Eph 4:11-14). God also intends believers to do ministry in their communities, to live in and prosper with the community in which he has placed them (Jeremiah 29: 4-7, Psalm 37). So we transform money into ministry within our church and community. And while we have savings goals and conservative financial practices, we’re focused on funding ministry, not building a big bank account.

Ministry at The Crossing is financed by the Operating Fund and our budget  (How does the crossing ensure financial accountability) can be broken-down into four broad categories:

Staff – Our staff team, by God’s sovereign blessing, is a very important asset in accomplishing our mission of moving hearts and minds to believe the gospel more and more and treasure all that God is for them in Christ. We have an approach to hiring that we think builds a united ministry team that performs with excellence. Excellence means requiring pastors to be seminary trained, requiring ministry and administrative staff to prepare and sometimes even over-prepare for classes and events, and paying staff for a level of professionalism and dedication that is expected in any effective organization.

Facilities and Operations – The Crossing is not a building. It is a community of believers joining together, being devoted to one another, serving together to help each other battle our unbelief, and encouraging one another to live by the promises of Christ in the gospel (Rom 12:3-10). For years we met on Sunday mornings in a school, so we know well that we don’t need a building to have a church. Yet God chose to have more people join our community than can be accommodated in a school. He’s chosen us, at this time, to be stewards of highly visible property in Columbia and an excellent facility on that land. So we have a responsibility to cultivate and develop these blessings. Who knows what our building will be used for in 50 or 100 years from now. But right now it is the visible footprint of The Crossing in Columbia. And on the horizon we have a view to expand and grow our facilities to do more ministry among our growing community of faith and in our city and the surrounding area.

It is obvious how we use the facilities to these ends when you attend a large event or you see thousands of people there on Sunday morning. What is not obvious are the costs associated with keeping the facilities running, the lights on, the 45,000 square feet clean, the climate comfortable, and the office machines and computers running. Everyone finds it more motivating to give to support a national speaker coming to The Crossing than to be someone who gives to pay the property insurance for the building and land. Who wouldn’t? But in truth, facilities and operations are the environment and means of effective ministry at The Crossing. So when you give, you are equipping us to maintain our facilities and fund our operations and pay our staff and equip our volunteers—all as God’s blessing and tools to change lives.

Ministry Programs – Almost every ministry program and event has two goals: 1) to foster the building of relationships, and 2) make known the gospel in a greater and deeper way. All of our ministries run weekly or as special events throughout the year. Your giving funds these events in a way that allows us to always keep them fresh, appealing, and something to which our congregation always wants to invite new people.

Missions & Outreach – The extent to which we believe the gospel really is the greatest need of a lost world is reflected by our individual and corporate giving to missions work. That is why The Crossing supports local and international missions with 7% of our 2012 general operations budget and an additional 4% through funds that members designate for us to support specific missions work. Visit our missions web page to see the list of missions projects we support. Although we work closely with many of the international missionaries, take special note also of the local outreach missions. These missions partners have an important, well-articulated vision that we want to help move forward with financial and other resources. You are always giving to missions when you give to the Operating Fund. These are your missionaries and your outreach to your community. Perhaps you may want to read some of the information on the website and pray for these missionaries we support and for their current outreach efforts.

How does The Crossing ensure accountability in its finances?

At the end of every year, the current year’s finances are audited by an outside accounting firm that is not in any way affiliated with The Crossing. Every audit has provided high marks for our accounting practices.

Also at the end of the year, each ministry submits a budget for the following year. That budget is reviewed and adjusted by the Finance Committee (Pastors, Operations Director, Treasurer) and finally reviewed, adjusted and approved by the Elders of The Crossing.

In the office you can request a copy of our audited 2012 financials and our annual report shared in the members forum. In 2012 the four major categories of expenses were: Ministry (59% of budget), Facilities and Operations (18%), Administration (16%) and Missions Giving (7%).

Our day-to-day financial controls include:

·       Accounts payable and receivable are separated in that they are processed by different staff members

·       Two individuals have visibility to all financial transactions in that the Treasurer manages the bank accounts and the Operations Director signs all checks

·       Large expenditures require committee oversight in that fixed asset purchases over $500 must be pre-approved by the finance committee on a month-by-month basis

How do I give?