When you read through scripture you realise that God is very interested in what we do with our money and possessions. There are twice as many verses in the Bible that deal with the subject of money than there are about faith and prayer combined. That does not mean that faith and prayer is less important than money, but it does highlight the significant role that it plays in our understanding of God, ourselves, what it means to love others and what is truly valuable. It is as if the way that we deal with money is the litmus test of whether we really understand the Gospel and trust God.

Throughout the Bible God calls his people to give and to give generously. In the Old Testament we see God instruct his people to give to the work of the priests and the temple; to give to the poor and those in need as well as one off projects. Some of this giving was incorporated into the law but all of it was meant to flow from a cheerful heart that trusted God and saw the value in the things that God valued. In the New Testament Jesus takes this to a whole new level, where his people are called to move beyond the “training wheels” of Old Testament legislation into a lifestyle that is characterised by generous giving. A lifestyle that reflects the generosity of the God we serve and love who, holding nothing back, gave himself for us that we might have all of him.

There are a number of reasons why we should give money. Here are a few:

• As an act of obedience to his will,
• When we give generously we imitate Jesus,
• When we give generously we are refusing to allow ourselves to be mastered by money. We are refusing to worship possessions and find our security in our finances and we are choosing to place our trust in God our Father instead. We are waging war against other idols that want to dominate our heart!
• What we spend our money on shows us what we really value AND when we begin to sow money into something we find that our heart often follows,
• When we sow money into the things that God values it is the best investment we can make. What we do with our money has eternal consequences and God wants us to store up “treasures in heaven” which are eternal rather than focus on temporal riches which are so easily lost.
• God promises us that if we use our finances in line with his purposes and will and what he values then we can be absolutely sure of his provision. Luke 6:38 “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” (NLT)
• Giving is worship

Broadly speaking the Christian is encouraged to give into four areas:

• For the work of the ministry.  This was reflected in the Old Testament by the tithe (10% of our income) which continues to have relevance for us even now. Jesus spoke about the tithe and the history of the early church indicates that this continued to be practiced.  When we sow generously to the church we are demonstrating that we value the preaching of the word (Galatians 6:6), that we value the significance and importance of local church and we value the work of those who have dedicated themselves to shepherding God’s people (1 Timothy 5:17)
• For one off projects or initiatives.
• To the poor. It is impossible for one to read the Bible and not see the significance that God places on providing for and helping the poor.
• For mission and apostolic work. The are numerous references in the New Testament of collections being taken up to support those who have dedicated themselves to:
  • sharing the Good News of Jesus and,
  • planting churches and,
  • supporting and encouraging churches,  

The giving of KingsGate church tries to mirror this breakdown.

It is our conviction that scripture calls us to walk out our faith in community – what we would call the local church. It makes sense therefore that our giving is reflective of what it means to be part of that community.

We would give our tithe and anything related to the “the work of the ministry”, as described above, to our local church – the place where we are spiritually fed and cared for. Not only does this make sense, but we believe it to be biblical and it reflects a commitment and ownership to our spiritual family.

In the New Testament we see a number of references where general, alms and apostolic giving were given by the people to elders of a church in order for them to do what they felt led by the Holy Spirit to do. This is a good practice as the elders are often aware of needs that others are not. However, although this can make sense it is by no means the only way and we are always so blessed when we hear stories of people within our community blessing one another or helping people out of their own initiative and in their own way without any involvement from the eldership.

The answer to that is no. You will be loved and cared for to the best of our ability regardless of whether you give anything or everything. We as elders try as much as we can to be totally oblivious to who gives and who doesn’t give. However, as pastors we would encourage everyone to grow in their giving. We do believe in tithing but see it only as the training wheels as we grow in ever increasing measures in our giving!

Maybe you have never given to a church before and we would encourage you to begin not only because it blesses the church but far more importantly because of all the important reasons mentioned above.

Most people prefer to give electronically over the internet but we also do provide opportunity during our Sunday meetings for people to give.

Click here for easiest way to give to the church electronically. However, if you want them, here are our bank account details:

Account Name: KingsGate Church (Kingston)

Account Sort code: 40-52-40

Account Number: 00019298

Reference: please reference your giving with your Gift Aid reference number if you have one.

Final responsibility for the finances rests with the Trustees, who ensure income, expenses, budgets are monitored and audits are completed. The finances are reviewed at every trustees meeting and with our new accounting package a real time review of finances is available to our trustees, accountants and eldership. Our finances are reviewed by accountants every year who in addition help us with the compilation of our monthly accounts.

All budgets are set by the trustees and none of the salaried staff are involved with the setting of salaries in any way.

Our latest accounts are available publicly here.