Offerings

I've been to a number of churches in the past few years. What amazes me is the fact that there is a 5 to 10 minute sermon about giving just before the offering is collected. The sermons tend to go along the lines of "you are sowing this seed and will reap more in the future", "everything belongs to God and you are only giving back some".

All christian, like me, will agree that giving to the church and others is vital. No christian will argue that giving is not beneficial to both the giver and the receiver.

I however have a problem. In many cases, the language used is rather aggressive. It's like they try to manipulate people to give or to give more than they had originally planned.

Why is it that some churches consider it important to remind people about the need to give at that crucial time in the service every week? Is it true that people really need to hear this every week? Is there a reason for these aggressive demands? Can the church raise money to fulfil its aims without this kind of aggressive marketing? How do the unagreessive churches survive?

I'll try to find answers to these....