Why Give?
"God so loved the world that he gave...” (John 3:16) The God we see in the Bible is a God who loves graciously and gives generously. It has been said that we are most like God when we give; as we seek to love and obey Christ, our lives become an expression of the grace and generosity we have received.
​
We give because God is a giver - giving reflects Him.
We give because God gave first - giving is a response.
We give because it transforms us into God's image - giving restores us. "Freely you have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:8)
At Connect we value generosity. We aim to be a community where giving is a habit of our hearts and generous living becomes our way of life. We believe everything we are and everything we have belongs to Christ: our time, our talent and our treasure.
Tithing
We believe in the biblical principle of "first things" (Exodus 23:19; Matthew 6:33). As such, we teach that the "first part" of our money belongs to God and uphold the principle of tithing. We believe tithing is a faith principle founded on grace.
When we give the first 10% of our resource to God, we are:
-
Honouring God - "Lord you are first".
-
Responding with love - "Lord, I love you".
-
Making a statement of trust - "Lord, I depend on you".
-
Confessing ownership - "Lord, everything I have is yours". 

​
We believe that the place where the tithe should be given is 'His House' and we interpret this as the local church (the storehouse as illustrated in Malachi 3:10). We don't uphold tithing as a law but teach tithing as a principle. We acknowledge the diverse personal circumstances of people's lives and, while the 'tithe' is a starting point for most, we understand that sometimes it begins as a goal.
