Each year determine the minimum amount of money you need to operate your church - costs like salaries, mortgage payments, utilities, purchase of resources and materials, etc. Inflation will cause that amount to rise slightly each year. Every church should pledge that amount with little or no effort. Everything beyond that should go for ministries and missions. Fat churches, according to the Ronsvalles, are simply churches with more money in the operating budget than they need to operate the church.
Fat churches spend most of what they collect on themselves.
The same analogy would apply to fat associations, fat state conventions and fat national conventions. One of our staff members in the meeting told a story about a group of billionaires who met to talk about the best ways to give their money to worthy causes. Church was never mentioned as an organization to be considered for their support. In fact, one participant in the billionaires' group stated that they would not give money to their church because the church would just spend it on themselves. Stewardship is an integrity issue.