I feel that a church could help out but cannot sustain the poor.I am a big believer in helping the needy. But why CAN'T the Church be involved? My goodness... I have a long discourse to give but I really don't want to go through all the scriptures that support it.
The PRIMARY purpose of the Church is to preach the gospel and provide orderly worship. But a strong secondary purpose is to help thr poor.
Do you not trust your church to do so? If not you should find another Church. Most Churches have Beneficiary Committees which judge the needs of its members. I would hope they consider all the evidence and make a wise decision.
Finally, yes I know 10% is burden. But once aagain, I looked to turn to simply being a giver. I thi k a tithe is a good place to start, but if you can't make it, at least commit to being a giver.
It takes a lot of money to sustain and not only HELP.
Persons have a lot of expenses: rent/mortgage, food, clothing, electric, heating, taxes!, etc.
I DO feel that churches should help, I just don't know how much they help.
If I give someone 10$ however, I know they have $10 to spend.
I do feel that the govt helps more than the churches do.
This is my personal feeling...I have no statistics.