When people who have not been to church before or haven’t been in a see members around them give, a few things may come to mind but I will focus on two. 1. Where is all that money going? 2. It looks like everything is ok so why do they need what I have?. Well, giving is voluntary and most people are not generous by nature. The church (in most cases) is the place where people regardless of their socio-economic status pool… their resources to help others. Over 90% of churches are under 100 people in the U.S. so that money when people give (which is about 20% of congregation) goes to keeping it open…if there is anything over that it goes to benevolence to others, outreach, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting prisons and other projects of economic empowerment (which doesn’t get headlines)…Churches are tax exempt in most cases and therefore gives an advantage economically to the institution to be more beneficial to those around them (after all people “must pay” taxes personally so why tax them twice in regards to donations they give). For the urban community this serves as a great advantage to move forward but sometimes a poverty mindset, envy and mismanagement by leadership derails it or it takes several years to build and no real progress is made.