Baptists and Offerings

Some people wonder why there are so many Baptist churches. But without beginning to step into that deep river of Baptist experiences and growth, we would do well to explore some of the common threads of Baptist-ness that deserve understanding.
One of those threads is the Baptist way of giving. Baptists arose as a small stream of believers flowing out of the great Reformation era of change who gathered around a common biblical conviction regarding believer’s baptism. Also connected to their developing community was a strong aversion to the support of a state church with which they did not hold common beliefs and feel the necessity to support. Nonetheless, taxes levied on behalf of state churches was the practice across England and Europe and was transported into the American colonies as a standard practice until the Revolutionary period brought some modifications. In that regard, the church and the state were closely aligned by the sheer connectionalism of the line of support designated to sustain their co-existence.
Early in America, Baptists, having long suffered the harsh outcomes of dissenting views…such as jail time, confiscation of homes and property, the levy of taxes and fines, the demand for an end to preaching without proper state-church licensure, among other humiliations…had suffered long because of the “state-church” stranglehold over their religious conscience and freedom to exercise their religion as they believed appropriate. In other words…Baptists resisted a religious practice against their conscience. Baptists also felt less than inclined to support a state-mandated taxation for the support of an official “state” church. This led to charges of delinquency in paying taxes, even when they offered evidence of their giving to support their own congregations. Fortunately for all Americans today, Baptist influence had an effect on the leaders of our new nation in calling for religious liberty for all. Along with that came the provisions that ended “state churches” and called for the state to make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion or any law establishing religion (as a state tax-supported entity).
So today, when you hear Baptists who remember this history or who have studied it long and hard rallying against calls for tax credits or vouchers to support church related schools and faith-based endeavors, do not interpret it as a failure to appreciate Christianity or the work of Christian education or the moral support of positive causes in the community. Rather understand it is the deeply felt and long established concern that no one should be directly or indirectly taxed by the state to support the religious activities of others with which they do not agree nor can hold in conscience supportable.
The protections of the first amendment to the constitution for the freedom of religious expression must not be sacrificed on the altar of parental dissatisfaction seeking alternatives to public education. Nor should tax dollars go to support the specific aims of religious bodies in the promotion of their religious aims. State funded church work should be regarded as inappropriate. Too often when it has occurred, both state and church essentially prostituted themselves in the responsibilities they were to carry out.
There is no question that the work of the church in sharing Christ has positive effect upon communities across the nation, but we should not muddy the waters with state funds for accomplishing that work that comes from those who do not hold to our beliefs. At the same time, if churches are to be sustained in their work, it is necessary to utilize the biblical bases for church support described in scripture, namely tithes and offerings, freely given in thanksgiving and obedient response to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Such giving is proportional, regular, and dedicated to the work of the Gospel.
When such giving undergirds the work of the church by the willful, purposeful, and intentional giving of its members…the church will have resources in abundance for doing the work God has called them to do. When it is otherwise, there will be pandering, begging, fund-raising, and otherwise distasteful and often shameful attempts to manipulate resources for the “survival of institutions” rather than for edifying the body of Christ.