Finances and Giving 

Introduction

Money is often something we don’t like to talk about, and we particularly don’t like to talk about it in churches. We have never really understood that. Jesus talked more about money than almost anything else. He didn’t think it was to be avoided.

Easthampstead Baptist Church is a completely independent organisation. There isn’t a central group to which we are beholden or who give us money or staff. All of our income is raised ourselves. Most of it comes from the regular attenders of our church who give so generously and sacrificially.

By giving we are joining with over 200 others and we get to do so many fantastic things together. We get to be a part of helping some of the poorest people in the world in places like Sierra Leone. We get to support our local schools with assemblies and mentoring for students. We get to help provide lunch clubs and activities for older people. We get to provide great stuff for children and young people and lots more besides.
 

What We Believe About Money and Giving

We believe that God is generous and He calls us to be generous stewards of all that He has given to us. Our giving is a response to a vibrant and compelling vision of what God can and will do through a local church. We believe that the local church is the body of Jesus and its health is dependent on each of us who are part of the body playing our full part.

Because of the importance of the local church as the body of Christ we believe that:

• every Christian is called to give generously of their time and to give generously of their money to the local church to which they belong.
• we should give to our local church so that our giving can be joined with that of others to accomplish far more than it could by itself.

We believe that financial giving should be sacrificial (i.e. involve giving up something). The Bible talks about two key principles when giving is discussed - tithing (giving the first tenth of our income) and jubilee (helping those in need).

We believe that the biblical tithe is a good starting point for our giving but if God has blessed us with significant financial resources then we should be challenged to give away more than our tithe.
 

How to Give

There are several different ways that you can give financially to support the work of EBC. At many of our regular services we include an offering and people can put money into an offering basket.

Many people choose to give in a different way through a regular giving scheme. This has the advantage of helping people to remember and in allowing the church to plan and budget more accurately. We try to encourage everyone who is a regular attender with us at EBC to be on a regular giving scheme.

There are two ways that you can give regularly. Firstly you can get weekly offering envelopes. By using these you can set aside an amount each week to bring with you when you attend an event. These envelopes are available from Maggie Stevenson or Kat Morling who can be contacted through our Church Office. (Click here for the contact details).

Secondly you could choose to pay directly in to the church bank account. To do this you can use your online banking facility or alternatively you can ask Kat Morling for a Standing Order form (Kat can be contacted through our Church Office). You then need to fill this in and it is sent to your bank.

The other thing to consider is filling in a Gift Aid declaration form. By doing this we can claim back 25p per £1 you give from the tax man! If you are a tax payer please contact Kat for a form. Both forms are also available for download by clicking the links below.

Please click here to download a Standing Order Declaration form.

Please click here to download a Gift Aid Declaration form
 
You can also give one off gifts using Paypal by clicking on the button below: