I love giving to the church, but my spouse feels we give too much. Biblically, how can I make my spouse see giving God's way?

     I think its really important that couples come to a place of agreement on their giving. Often, this kind of disagreement comes when one is a committed Christian and involved in the church, and the spouse is not. We wouldn’t expect a non-Christian or someone who does not regularly attend our church to give towards its ministries. Your spouse might be thinking that this is your thing but not theirs, but its taking money from the family budget.
     My suggestion would be to pray and ask God how to approach it. Then I would have a heart-to-heart conversation with your spouse and explain why you would like to give the amount that you have been, but that you do not want to do anything that would disrupt your marriage. If your spouse continues to insist on a lower amount, then I would give that amount, and keep praying for a change of heart. First and foremost, however, if your spouse is not yet a committed Christian, that’s what we want to pray for.


Should we borrow money so that we can give to the church?

     No.
     I think this question came from the illustration I used last week of how some of us, when it comes to giving, think only of how much cash we have available at the moment, but when it comes to personal acquisitions, we then come up with all kinds of creative ways to come up with the money, like long-term loans or leases. I just want us to see how we differentiate our giving from personal purchases. And the reason we often do not have the cash to give is because we’ve made too many of those “creative” purchases and are now paying off debts that take away from our ability to give. I think that would fall into the “greed” category, and that was my point. I was not suggesting that we borrow money to give to the church. I would prefer that we not borrow money at all.