Charitable giving to churches during tough times

By Anthony Magliulo
Economically, times have been rough on many of us of late, but how has this affected charitable giving where churches are concerned? And, does the season of Lent have any effect on giving?
Father Timothy Canaan, pastor of St. Johns and the Newman Center said it was a little lower, but there wasn’t much of a change seen. “People have not been stingy with the Lord,” he said. On the other hand Pastor Britt Vickstrom of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer says that the recession has hurt giving. John Millington, pastor of the Ellington Wesleyan Church says that that he has seen no difference. Lent does not really seem to have an effect on charitable giving, at least in monetary terms.
Even with the amount of giving remaining roughly the same, is it enough? According to Ronald Rene, campus youth minister, it may not be. It’s not so much that people may be giving any less, in fact on the whole they are giving about the same, but it is that inflation has been on the rise. This causes expenses to skyrocket, and a church, just like anything else, costs money to operate and to be maintained.
Monsignor Robert Aucoin, principle of Seton Academy says that the general public’s idea of what giving is needs to be changed, and that people need to be educated about giving. He said that “A true sense of giving is based on the need of a person to give.” Both Aucoin and Vickstrom spoke of people saving up money to give instead of giving what was left over. To Aucoin, monetary giving could also be seen as a form of fasting. He said “The idea behind fasting is to learn to do without so that you can learn to do.” This way you can discover how much more you can do because of God’s grace.
Giving does not necessitate monetary giving either. Father Canaan spoke of doing extra things to help those in need, such as volunteering. He also mentioned looking for ways to put your talents to use in order to help others.