*Questions for setting policy
•Who has priority in receiving help?
•What kind of help will you give?
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•What kind of help will you not give?
•What is the limit of your help?
•What structure will you use for members?
•What structure will you use for strangers?
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•Who makes decisions on exceptions?
•When do you call in the Elders?
The questions above are meant to help you write your policies.  Those will be different for each congregation based on your resources, the social-economic context of your neighborhood, the frequency of acts of mercy in your daily or weekly ministry.
    Some churches have no college students, so when you have one to ask for help with tuition that might be appropriate.   If you live in a college town and dozens, if not hundreds of students come to your church, you may have to decide that tuition assistance is not something you will give.   This decision rests on your resources and your mission.  We have found that food is usually the easiest help to give, and can usually be given without too much concern if someone is getting it falsely.   Food is valueless unless someone eats it.
    However, protecting alcoholics and drug addicts from themselves by not giving them any resource they can sell and turn into drugs is a good idea.   If someone is hungry you can always buy them, or cook them, a hot meal and sit with them as they eat it.   Some churches might not pay a phone bill, especially not for “call waiting.”   Yet for a handicapped person to have a phone it might be an act of mercy to help them have one.
    Helping church members can sometimes be difficult since they don’t always ask for help until things are desperate.   Sometimes their lifestyle is producing debt and financial crisis, or their need is chronic and they feel embarrassed to ask again.   Referring them to the Pastor or the Elders for counseling about spiritual issues involved in their struggle might be helpful.