The local bank, which the church here has been doing business with for over six decades, is closing its local office. The next nearest office is over 20 miles away. If we maintain our current account, the church treasurer would have to drive the extra miles to make the contribution deposit, and at other times when his presence was necessary for carrying out church business. The men have talked about moving the church’s business to another bank or credit union. Several of us have a local account with a credit union, which pays unsolicited interest on our checking accounts.<\/p>\n
Will God be pleased with using an interest-bearing account?\u00a0 At the same time, we are concerned about the conscience of others.<\/p>\n\t
The only means a church has to raise its operating funds is through voluntary contributions (I Corinthians 16:1-2). This is why objections are made to churches raising money via sales. If you were discussing storing the church’s funds in a stock market account to increase the amount of cash available to the church, then we would have a problem.<\/p>\n
The amount of interest typically offered by banks on their accounts doesn’t even cover the loss of monetary value due to inflation. Bank accounts do not generate profit; therefore, such accounts don’t violate the idea that churches only raise their funds by voluntary contributions.<\/p>\n\t
Question: The local bank, which the church here has been doing business with for over six decades, is closing its local office. The next nearest office is over 20 miles away. If we maintain our current account, the church treasurer would have to drive the extra miles to make the contribution deposit, and at other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[154],"class_list":["post-43448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church-funds"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92979,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-church-spend-money-on-community-service-to-get-people-to-evangelize\/","url_meta":{"origin":43448,"position":0},"title":"Should a church spend money on community service to get people to evangelize?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 31, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Should a church use its money in community service to gain the attention of people to preach to, because of the current lack of seriousness in people toward the gospel? Is it the correct pattern of evangelism? Answer: \"Jesus answered them and said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57658,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/james-127-and-the-orphan-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":43448,"position":1},"title":"James 1:27 and the Orphan Home","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jimmy Mickells When I obeyed the gospel in 1974, the issue of church-supported orphan homes had been debated among brethren for a good number of years. This subject, along with a discussion of colleges being supported from the treasury of the church, had already caused a great division among\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7616,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-co-sign-a-loan-for-a-church-building\/","url_meta":{"origin":43448,"position":2},"title":"Should I co-sign a loan for a church building?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a member of a fundamental Bible-teaching church and firmly believe in the \"literal\" Word of the Bible. But I find myself in a difficult situation.\u00a0\u00a0We are building a new Church building.\u00a0\u00a0The building project was kicked off using traditional construction bank financing. We had enough assets and membership\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2044,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-should-aid-be-sent-to-members-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":43448,"position":3},"title":"How should aid be sent to members of the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How should aid be sent help disaster victims who are members of the church? I received the following letter [edited] and I don't know how to respond. Dear Brethren, I would like to offer a unique opportunity to you and your respective congregations. So many times, when there are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41067,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-proper-to-rent-out-the-church-building\/","url_meta":{"origin":43448,"position":4},"title":"Is it proper to rent out the church building?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Here is my question. Is it right scripturally to rent out the church building to non-Christians for business or charitable purposes? I feel uncomfortable about a congregation that does this. Answer: The only authorized means for a church to collect funds is by voluntary contributions of its members (I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20511,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-much-autonomy-does-a-church-have-when-its-evangelist-is-receiving-outside-support\/","url_meta":{"origin":43448,"position":5},"title":"How much autonomy does a church have when its evangelist is receiving outside support?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How much congregational autonomy does a young church, without elders and deacons, and its evangelist is supported by an overseas congregation? Answer: It remains autonomous. Your evangelist is supported, I assume in part, by one or more congregations. \"For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}