The judge

Like most churches, we occasionally receive requests for money from people in our community. I suspect I am not alone when I say that I have come to dread these calls. It’s not that I don’t think that the church should help people in need, or that I resent the “intrusion” on my time or anything like that. I am simply growing increasingly uncomfortable with my role as the judge of the “worthiness” or “legitimacy” of this or that request for assistance.

It’s not that I don’t understand the need for discernment. Our church, like many others, has been taken for a ride. Our church, like many others, has dealt with a number of, shall we say “creative” requests for money that were rather transparent exercises in deception and manipulation. Everyone has heard stories like this. Nobody wants funds to be directed in unhelpful directions when there are better places they could go. Everyone wants to be “good stewards” of what God has given us. And so, we institute policies and checks and balances and forms to fill out and questions to ask and assurances to request, etc, etc to protect ourselves from being taken advantage of.