Giving
Thank YOU for caring enough to wonder about giving. If you clicked on the tab that brought you here, you are either here by accident or because you have a noble heart and wonder how Branches handles the subject of giving.
Our church would not be here without the free will gifts of those that have freely received and freely given back. Ministry at a congregational level does cost, but we don’t charge admission or bill our recipients. Instead, we put our faith in the approach that Jesus Christ and our Father God took; they so loved the world that they gave first, without any promise of what they would get back. Their hope was that their gift would be received without cost, even though it cost them dearly. Many different people have sacrificed/invested their own money into the ministry of Branches with the hope that this church could be here for others like it was for them. These are not financially “well off” people, but everyday people that desired to forgo a variety of worldly things in order to give others a chance to know Christ in a very real way that makes sense without any financial strings attached.
In a step of faith, those of us that launched Branches of Christ at the end of 2000, prayed to The Lord about several things. Besides questioning Him if He even needed another church here, we asked that He would provide WITHOUT us passing an offering plate or without saying what several of us had heard our whole church life, “It’s time to TAKE UP our offering”. Knowing that we wanted to reach people that were skeptical about God/church, or had been burnt by churches, we felt that it might be refreshing to just let people give if they wanted to. So we have never passed an offering plate. We don’t have any endowments or trusts. We don’t have any Daddy Big Bucks that make up the difference, and we are not subsidized by anyone. Branches staff, building, furnishings, Live Streaming, and entire ministry are a result of people that made a choice to give to Jesus, by giving to His church, in order to give to people of the world.
If you really and freely want to give here are the ways that can be done. For those that attend, there are two mailbox slots built into the side walls of our sound booth. Some give as their initial part of worship as they come in the door; others, in gratitude as they are leaving. Several of our folks give weekly or bimonthly through their “bill-pay” that comes to us in the mail. By request, we have started providing the option of giving using your card and online as well. We are registered as a Domestic Non Profit Corporation in the state of Georgia and give annual giving statements at the end of the year to those that give and share with a way to identify them. There is no way for us to account for cash given without an envelope.
Again, thanks for wondering.