Benevolent?

Well meaning and kindly? We are having some great discussions regarding benevolence and the church. At our church we do not have a benevolence fund. That may sound good or bad to you and let me elaborate...

Our church is called Fellowship and we hold relationship as a high value, thus the name. I have seen people give directly to people in need based on these relationships. Last night the leaders of the church were talking about adding a line item (benevolence) to our no existent budget. (we don't take up an offering) As we talked about Acts 2:42, (fellowship verse) I was marveling at the magnitude of giving that was going on inside these relationships. One single mom had received over 1,000 people hours in the rehabbing oh her first home. Another young man had received a cash gift of $1,000 from fellow students. None of these gifts came from the fellowship checking account. Or did they?

I wonder if we had placed a % line in our budget, would the giving would have been capped at that level? If we add up all the gifts: $, food, car repairs, housing, cars, clothing, computers, time and talents, it would have far surpassed the total budget of Fellowship.

Is there another way for people to share burdens?