Should I borrow for church offering?

I was asked the following questions through a phone text message some days ago:

Is it proper for a Pastor to borrow money to build a Church? Is it proper for Church members to borrow money to build a church? What is the scriptural basis for this?

My response is below:

My response is YES and NO.

Yes, a Church Pastor take a loan or borrow money to finance Church building, it is like an investment and he may expect to recover it through tithes and offerings over a period of time.

Yes, a church member take a loan or  borrow money and use it as a building offering depending on his level of income and faith. This can be used by a person to demonstrate his love for God or the person can use this sacrificial offering to challenge God especially if he is believing God for a specific miracle

No, if such a building offering is made compulsory for church members, then in that case it is no more an offering but a tax/due.

No, it the Church member is not earning enough income to repay the loan or borrowed money,  or if this will affect his ability to cater for his immediate family, then it would not be a wise step.

In summary i believe if people can take loans to finance personal businesses, they should also be able to take a loan to finance the work of God. But just like all loans, a person taking a loan to finance the gospel must ensure that he is able to repay the loan. Otherwise, he will be a subject of ridicule

The scriptural basis is in the Book of Haggai, chapter one reproduced below

babatope babalobi

Haggai 1

A Call to Build the House of the LORD

1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua ^[a] son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’ ”

3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

7 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD.

9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. ”

Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.

11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”

12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.

13 Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD.

14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius