Luke

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NASB	Luke 12:42 And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time?
AMPLIFIED 2015	Luke 12:42 The Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise steward [of the estate], whom his master will put in charge over his household, to give his servants their portion of food at the proper time? [Matt 24:45-51]

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Bible Question (short): Biblical guildelines on serving communit

Question (full): Biblical guildelines on serving community?

Our church has received a request for special offering from a sister branch (I don't know how it termed in English. We belong to the same denomination but just serve different regions of the city and our church is financially independent but they are not). They have deficit almost every year and they rely on other sister branches' special financial offering to help their operation.

In order to understand more of their situation, each sister branch assigns a representative to sit in their meeting (4 times a year). The main reason for their inadequate offering received from their congregation is because of that the community they serve are the low income group people. Most of them are single-parent families and new immigrants of low education or unskilled people. It is a district with serious social problem.

Today in our monthly deacon's meeting, we have to decide the allocation of the special offering whether it should be offered to this sister branch or another organisation. We all think that we should help this sister branch. However, when our representative further updated us on the situation, I found it questionable (it sounds so to me) on their usage of the money. She said that they have organized quite a lot of entertaining activities (e.g. picnics, outings, social gatherings) providing a big portion of subsidy for the participants (where most of them are out-sider, just a small portion of regular church members). By doing so, they hope to attract (I wanted to use "lure") people to church. I hardly agree to such practice. Although we should serve the poor and needy people, this is not the way it should be. I believe what really attracts people to church has been fully demonstrated in Acts (i.e. the gospel and love within true-believers in church). Nothing to do with materials and benefits. Therefore, I proposed that the amount should be offered for the purpose of education or training.

However, I would like to know the biblical guidelines for us to serve the community.

Thanks for your help.
Love in Christ.
Azure