Vacation expenses

Bill D. Hallsted

The pastor's confusion was apparent. "What's the problem, Bob? We do have a fellowship fund, but I didn't realize you were in a bad spot."

"Oh, I'm not," Bob replied. "We just want to take a little fishing trip, and we'd like the church to help out with our expenses."

The pastor was too confused to reply.

Bob explained. "I just figured that since other people had the church help pay for their vacations, fishing trips and recreational weekends, you'd probably help with mine as well."

The pastor regained his voice. "The church doesn't pay for anybody's vacation!"

"Sure you do!" Bob protested. "I was talking to Sam yesterday, and he told me you'd helped him to the tune of over $600 just this year."

The pastor was incredulous. "Sam said we gave him $600 to use for his family's recreation?"

"Yeah. Well, not quite that way. He didn't say you gave it to him. He just used it anyway."

The pastor shook his head. "Now I'm really confused."

"Okay, look." Bob leaned forward. "How many Sundays has Sam's family been absent this summer?"

"I'm not sure. A lot. They've been gone to the lake a lot, and had some family reunions and quite a number of things."

"Exactly. Now Sam told me that when they settled back after all the activity was over, they figured out how much their tithe should be for all the Sundays they had missed during the year. It blew his mind. He said it added up to more than $700! They'd used so much money with all their running around this summer, they didn't have an extra $700 laying around. So he said they just decided to drop in $100 and call it square. I figure that leaves the church paying for $600 worth of their vacations."

The pastor shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately, that's not unusual."

"My point exactly." Bob squirmed with excitement. "It's a common practice. Now, I've been careful to tithe every week--even when we went on vacation, I left a cheque for the Sundays we'd be gone. Since things ought to be kept even all around, I figure it would be a little more honest if you had the treasurer write a cheque so it will show that it was the church that helped pay for my fishing trip. Since the church has done that for all these other people, the church sorta owes it to me. Don't you think so?"

"But not everybody does that, Bob. Most of our people are really conscientious. They recognize that that money belongs to God. They recognize the church's expenses go on just the same, whether they're in church or out fishing. They really don't force the church to pay for their recreation."

Bob was still insistent. "Some of them do."

The pastor shook his head sadly. "I know. A few, but not many. Anyway, there isn't any way I can have the treasurer write you a cheque. Even if a few people do finance their recreation that way, that doesn't make it right."

Bob seemed a little subdued. "I guess I'll just have to fish a little closer to home, then. Oh well, it was worth a try. See ya, Pastor."