Finally, someone told my church the truth…about their excessive quest for donations

"It may be bad of me but I’ve always found myself getting very irritated by the constant financial requests of the church. I know the congregation is the church’s real benefactor since it’s not a business but a lot of times, especially these days, it gets out of hand. I don’t remember the last time I went to church and enjoyed the simple and singular pleasure of plain worship ….oh no! There’s always something for which we’re required to donate funds towards and frankly, it gets on my last nerves.

Anyway, I used to feel like the devil’s prodigy anytime my face squeezes at yet another fund raising / request announcement. I wondered if I was the only one who really disliked the constant inundation of money requests at a place of worship. But one day ….one fateful Sunday, I realized….ah, I was not alone in this.

Like with every aspect of life, even churches have had to become ingenious with fund raising. From joint birthday celebrations where people are cajoled into coming out to cut some presented cake with money, sales of items or some other thing for which we’re emotionally blackmailed into buying, or the hiring of ‘outside’ charismatic clergy who use their talents to get people to dish their cash. Fund raising in the church has become a very serious business and even more, these activities elongate the usual service time meaning that an ordinarily one hour service would usually run to about two hours. 

On this particular Sunday, another fund raising request had been made and we, the congregation, were being waited on to come out and make donations. For many minutes (or it could be seconds but felt longer), no one stood up. Maybe it was just one of those days when people were not in the mood to co-operate easily. In the deafening silence, the announcer came on again, appealing to the emotions of the congregation to co-operate and make donations for yet another cause. People still remained seated minutes after this and time was dragging along.

When nothing happened after many minutes and it looked like the announcer was not ready to give up until someone came out, one man stood up and quickly walked to the podium. Picking the microphone, he spoke words that many were thinking but none dared to say. The man lambasted the church for making its congregation uncomfortable with its constant requests; he complained about being tired of never getting the chance to focus on his worship because of the constant requests for money; he attacked the church’s constant need to do many things at the same time which put a strain on the congregation because they were always feeling pressured by the need to perform despite their many financial obligations; and he said he was tired of having his time constantly delayed every week by such fund raising activities. He said he didn’t understand why stuff like this had to be done every week, making the process a painful one for many. After his speech, he made a substantial donation and stormed off. The entire church was dead silent as people stared at the man in astonishment. I couldn’t believe someone finally had the courage to say what had been bothering me for a long time.

Once the man left, the pastor apologized for any inconvenience such requests caused and ended the service. It was pretty funny and I had to control my urge to laugh out loud. Serves them right, I thought, though later, I felt bad about it and wondered if, maybe, the man should have taken an indirect approach by approaching the pastor privately after the service. But somehow, I think he felt that a public medium like that would drive the point home better. It was hilarious and best of all, it actually made a little difference. Constant fund requests are still being made but now, we get to have some Sundays off where it’s pure and simple worship. Halleluyah!!”