Whew! Cj2, you got me all stirred up now!!
I'll respond by telling N'Him's story. We used to go and dance whenever and where ever asked and didn't say a thing about money. As a matter of fact, I wanted to make a point NOT to be a team about money and I didn't want us to get caught up in the "your all about money" whirlwind that was surrounding many preachers at the time.
Then one day at the end of the year, we did an assessment of our activities that year. We had kept up with every dance date, where we went, what we did, and whether or not the requestor made a donation to the ministry. We realized that in a year's dancing only 2 or 3 churches gave us even a dime! What in the world!!??! That made us realize why we struggled so much financially. I mentioned this to our pastor, and I was OK with letting it go. He said to me, "Put it on me as a requirement from your pastor if you have to, but from now on you won't dance unless you request a donation". So now you will see on our site that we don't charge for dancing, but we do request a donation. In other words, we're not going to make you give us anything, but we are asking that you give something. No amount specified, just give something. Nevertheless, it is just a request and if they don't give anything we still give our everything in the dance.
The thing is that people don't realize the costs that come with ministry. They ask you to dance and don't even think that a donation is something they should do. But most of the time when they hear that we request a donation, they say, "Oh! OK, no problem!" It takes us asking to make them think about it and then they are wanting to do it.
I'm not mad at the leader who wants a fee, because I know the frustrations of the ministry!! I agree with Sonji that requesting a donation is the "more accepted" way to do it... and probably the better way to do it. Trust me, though, people will take advantage of a ministry in a second without even realizing they are doing it. When we did our year in review that year, I felt taken advantage of to say the least. Since we changed our policy, things have been MUCH better. We absolutely respect and appreciate those churches that can only give us a few dollars as much as we respect those that give us a healthy donation! I still want us to be careful not to be considered a team that is about money, but I gladly ask for a donation and don’t feel bad about it. Dance uniforms, props, etc. are not free... but writing a sermon is!! As Cj2 said, go figure!!
Man! I told you I got stirred up! I wrote a book!! :-)
Karmel