Giving

There are many ways to give to the work of the church and we are fortunate at the West to have many people contributing their time and talent and other resources to help us serve God in our community.

Our sense of community has expanded in this digital age as people join our services and want to be part of our branch of God’s church from many places. We have been delighted, for example, to have folks joining our virtual ensemble and our bible study from different parts of Scotland or further afield.

One question we have been asked is how people can contribute financially, either because pandemic restrictions make in person attendance difficult or because they are joining us from a distance.

Financial giving continues to be very important, helping with ongoing costs like keeping the Church and Centre heated and maintained during this very cold winter, or enabling us to access specialist accounting skills when needed. Our financial giving also contributes to the wider mission of the church.

When we usually meet on a Sunday our offerings of money are collected and brought forward for the work of the church and the mission in the world. One of the consequences of not being able to gather for worship at present is that those who give to the church weekly through the envelope scheme or by open plate will be unable to do so.

The easiest way to do this is to set up a standing order with your bank. You may have already done this, but if not, details on how to so so while we are not worshipping in our sanctuary are below

Setting up a standing order

Standing Order is our preferred method of giving because it is the most efficient for yourself and for the church. Regular payments can be made monthly, quarterly or yearly. Please download a banker’s standing order form or contact our Treasurer by email, and she will forward a form and the information you will require. If you already have online banking, you can set up a standing order, our details are below:

Account Name INVERURIE WEST CHURCH
Sort Code 82-65-21
Account Number 40300079

If you are a UK tax payer, please consider signing our Gift Aid Form – this allows us to recover some of the tax you have already paid. A Gift Aid Form can be downloaded here or contact our Gift Aid co-ordinator. Inverurie West Church can recover 25p for every £1 you give, so long as you have completed a Gift Aid form. The tax recovery from HMRC itself is all done for you; your payments will be acknowledged annually.

Other alternatives

Freewill Offering Envelopes are still available if this is your preferred means of giving. You can gather your envelopes and drop them off periodically at the Acorn Centre, when it is open and it is possible to get out and about. Alternatively you can also send a cheque if this is easier.

You can also give through the Church of Scotland website. Click here to go to the Donate page on the Church of Scotland website, choose 'Donate to a congregation' and type Inverurie West in the box. This will ensure that your donation goes to the West Church

What should I give?

Although the church is reluctant to lay down hard and fast rules about giving, all of us can do with some advice in this area, otherwise some people feel guilty that they don’t give enough while others simply reach for loose change whenever they hear the word “collection”.

So how much should we give? This is a personal decision and one that deserves prayerful thought. Some churches advise including your local church giving as part of an overall principle of setting aside ten percent of your net income for good causes. Only you can know if this is reasonable for you. It is important not to judge yourself or others on levels of financial giving. It is also important however to review the amount you give every so often, just as you do with everything you budget for, to see whether it still fit for purpose.

A good principle is to give what you can, and maybe just a little bit more.