my wife and i were driving around our fair city last weekend, when we encountered one of the first rites of spring: a homeless man on the off-ramp of the interstate (by the way, where do they go all winter?). he had a fancy sign–not some thrown together cardboard number–no, his sign was solid, painted and built to last. the most striking feature of this man’s sign was the christian fish painted into the corner. i remarked to my lovely bride, “look, honey, this fellow is a brother.” (does it seem to you like an inordinate number of panhandlers are devout?)
here is my thought for the day: does the church have a scriptural mandate to feed to poor? deeper questions might be, “how do we define poor?” or “how do we determine whether someone has fallen on hard times or is just lazy?” it seems clear that there is some kind of societal assumption that the church is the de-facto dispenser of charity. people call/stop by the church office with numbing regularity to ask for money, and their attitude of expectation–and even entitlement–always shocks me.
i hope to elicit a little conversation on this topic. what do you think, dear reader? is it the church’s job to give to anyone who asks? should we try to ascertain whether the need is genuine and, if so, how is that accomplished? in the age of govenment welfare, is our charity a statement of our compassion, or are we being taking for granted? should we try to find out how our money will be spent? do we give to asuage our conscience and avoid getting more deeply involved? what does the lord expect of us?
i’ll share more of my thoughts in a future post. for now, what is your opinion?
your best life later 
I think we need to exercise prudent judgment. There was a time when the poor were really poor, and not faking it.
Yes. we should help the poor, but we can do this in structured ways where some determination of true need is made. Sometimes the need is obvious if we take a moment and speak to the person. Or sometimes, we can speak to them and realize they have issues that would preclude really helping them.
Our welfare system is in place a little too much. People think the government is God, since it provides for them. They will sacrifice morals and ethics to elect someone who will promise them money. We really do not want things to be like this either. If we can help, and some time investment shows they are worthy, then we should help.
I remember once I was leaving the grocery store and I saw a panhandler with a sign. People passed him by. I stopped and something seemed genuine about him. He had lost his job. I gave him $5 which was the only cash I had, and the look of appreciation was very real. He got emotional because everyone else had rejected him, and cars were beeping at him. I saw that my decision to give was well founded. I have also seen others as you describe, and I have passed them by.
So I think we just need to determine for ourselves who really needs our help and focus on them.
thanks
marianne
http://heavenawaits.wordpress.com/
is this “church” with a little “c” or a big “C.” I think little “c” church needs to be run like a for profit business in most ways. in this matter, the benevolence fund should be used as seen fit. Peter, James and John had no silver, yet they helped a guy. They are part of big “C” church.