This article is number 10 in the series: Work and Worship of the Church

How the Church is to Supply the Needs of Its Members

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How is a church to supply the needs of its members? We already have discussed much of it in the previous section on giving. But in cases where the church is supplying the needs in another church or supplying the needs of an evangelist working somewhere else, how should they do that after they have collected the money?

In both cases, the examples that we have are of the churches sending messengers with the money directly to the church or evangelist they are helping. In 2 Corinthians 8:18-20, we see that several churches chose the same man as their messenger (among others — see verse 23) because he was well respected and they knew that he would make sure that nothing was stolen and it would not be mishandled. But that is not the same as choosing an organization that will decide where the money will go and how it should be used. The organization is not a messenger; it is a decision maker for the churches.

Philippians 2:25 shows us that the church in Philippi sent a messenger directly to Paul to supply his needs. In that case, they were not just sending money, but also a helper.