The Bible teaches us that our baseline standard for giving is the tithe — contributing 10% of our income to the church. At Great Oaks Community Church, we know tithing has been a turning point for many people to experience the blessings of following Jesus.

The Bible asks us to give our first and our best back to God and He will bless the rest (Leviticus 27:30, Deuteronomy 14:23). This first is the tithe, or “tenth” of our income. We return to the Lord 10% of what He's given us, because it belongs to Him. The tithe is a very practical and tangible way to put God first.

Two Ways to Give

	PERSONAL ONLINE BANKING
	You may give your tithe, special gift, or offering gift through your personal bank’s online bill payment service.  Set up “Great Oaks Community Church” as payee and specify your name as the account.  Your bank will send Great Oaks a check and we will note it as if you had written the check yourself.
	EFT AUTOMATIC DRAFT
	You can set up a regular recurring draft that will withdraw your tithe, special gift, or offering gift from your bank account automatically based on the dollar amount that you set up.  Click here to download your EFT Authorization Form, fill it out, and drop it by the office with a voided check.

Sometimes God stirs you to give beyond the tithe.
That's referred to as an offering. You can direct your offering to the cause that resonates with you. In addition to our General usage, you can select from the following four categories:

	We continually discover needs in our surrounding communities. As we learn to “Love People” we are moved to help people with their physical and spiritual needs. Two current projects that are impacting our local communities are the School SnackPac program and The Community Garden
	Jesus commissioned the church to “be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This means we are to make an impact for Christ not only locally, but beyond our community as well. We are currently building partnerships with two least-reached people groups; the Basque of Northern Spain and the Yalunka of West Africa.
	As we minister locally through our facilities and property on Route 116, we are constantly looking for ways to make our facilities more useful and open to the community. Two current projects we are working on are a Children’s Playground and upgrading our “Big Room” technology.
	In 2006 we moved in to our new building. Prior to that time members of Great Oaks had raised nearly 1.6 million dollars to purchase property and build our facilities and develop the infrastructure. The final total cost was approximately 3.2 million. Since that time we have paid down our debt to just around 1 million dollars. We continue to pay this debt off through our regular giving of tithes and offerings. At the current rate we will be debt free in 7 years. If we can our debt off sooner we can free up thousands of dollars each month to impact our community and world for Jesus Christ.

If you would like to give beyond the tithe to one of these areas, you can get a special envelop from either the Church Office or at the Welcome Center and check which of the four areas you would like to give toward. Write your check to Great Oaks Community Church and it will be designated toward one of these funds.  If you have any questions about this call our church office at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by phone at (309) 383-4330 and ask for Stacey.