Pastor Marty Baker is a believer in the idea. “When Jesus says, ‘I will build the church,’ he says, financially, I’ve got a system for you,” Baker preaches, “It’s called tithing.”
Tithing means giving a tenth of your income – and church construction is exactly what pastor Marty Baker is pitching his congregation to pay for.
“God doesn’t fund the church through bingo nights, pancake suppers and chicken dinners,” Baker says. “God funds the church through people willing to commit to the tithe.”
Over twenty years, tithing has helped transform Stevens Creek Church in Augusta, Georgia from a few people in somebody’s living room to a megachurch in the making.
My wife and I have tithed our entire marriage. We consider it the base of our giving. Tithing is an exercise in faith (or, as I prefer to call it, faith[i]ing[/i]) as we learn to trust God with our finances and make our money our servant rather than our master. The results? Well, we have no debt (save for monthly charges on our credit cards which we pay off in full at the end of each month), our childrens’ tuition and fees are paid in full at any State of Texas college or university, we have a fair amount in retirement, and we have enough money to live comfortably. Does this happen simply because we tithe? No. But I believe that tithing is the first step to this happening.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
The worst financial trouble I ever had came when I stopped tithing. Somehow when I just don’t have enough to make the tithe, something comes up to take that extra bit I held back from the Church. When I do make it, I seem to make it through the month, either due to reduced expenses or extra cash comes in. Funny how that works.
I will gripe a bit: I was raised on this business about God not funding his Church through group activities. Well, I suppose that’s technically true, since they hardly raise enough money to make it worthwhile. However, they are excellent occasions for building the sorts of friendships and working knowledge of fellow parishioners that can sustain a community through good times and bad. Besides, they can be fun.
[url=http://www.vulcanhammer.org/?p=542]I went back and forth with Russell Earl Kelly on this subject last fall. (At his initiation, I might note.) The summary of that is here.[/url]
“I will gripe a bit: I was raised on this business about God not funding his Church through group activities. Well, I suppose that’s technically true, since they hardly raise enough money to make it worthwhile. However, they are excellent occasions for building the sorts of friendships and working knowledge of fellow parishioners that can sustain a community through good times and bad. Besides, they can be fun.”
Yes, the economic argument is a good one and we all bought it. But the resulting fragmentation made it easier for what has happened to happen, they took out bazaars and brought in bizarre.
[b]Deuteronomy 14[/b]
[blockquote]22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. 23 [b]Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks[/b] in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always. 24 But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), 25 then [b]exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you[/b] and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. 26 [b]Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish.[/b] Then [b]you and your household shall eat[/b] there in the presence of the LORD your God [b]and rejoice.[/b] 27 And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
28 At the end of [b]every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce[/b] and store it in your towns, 29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.[/blockquote]
Pay close attention to who does what with the tithe, when they do it, and how often. It appears to me that we consume our own tithe, for two out of three years, as a celebration for what God has given us. The Levites (that is the “Church”- [i][b]if[/i][/b] the Church is the inheritor of this law), and through them, the listed poor among us, get the leftovers. Then, every third year, we are to take the whole of our tithe and give it to the Levites. BTW, if we are under obligation to tithe, then the Church has THE obligation of taking care of all immigrants, widows, and children of single parent households located within their boundaries.
Any takers?
[b]Galatians 3:10[/b]
[blockquote] 10All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”[/blockquote]
In for a penny, in for a pound! If a preacher wants the benefit of the tithe, he has to be willing to fulfill his financial obligations to all those single parent households, widows, and immigrants. If you don’t, our Lord has some particularly strong words for you:
[b]Luke 11:42[/b]
[blockquote]Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.[/blockquote]
Remember, if the preacher is taking the tithe and not providing for the fatherless, widows, and immigrants, he is [i]robbing[/i] God!
[b]Malachi 3:8-10a[/b]
[blockquote]8″Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.[/blockquote]
As observed above in Deuteronomy 14:28-29, the [i]third year[/i], the year that the “whole tithe” was brought into the storehouse, was to be the portion of the Church (God’s “house”) and with that third year 10th portion, the Levites (Church) were to provide for the widow, fatherless, and immigrants (aliens).
So, again…any takers?
S&T;- The church was the first group to care for the widows and orphans. Can you imagine how much good the Church could do if even half the congregation tithed?
For me and my family, the tithe is a guidline, not a rule. I give more than 10% when I include my extra offerings and expenses that I provide for the Church. I do not rely on the tithe for salvation, I tithe because of my salvation. I don’t give out of excess. I give out of the base and I find I have excess. For me, it is a joyful response to all that God has given me in Jesus Christ.
Tithing has not put me in bondage to the law; tithing has freed be from bondage to my finances.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
In some ways this belongs on another thread, but with Paul Moore being in the news lately, who was my bishop at one time, I never heard about what is now being talked about, but something I consistently heard, and experienced myself as to one of his ministries, is that for all his money, he gave very little of it away. It appeared at the time that he may have tithed on his income from the church, but not on the income from his inheritance, which was considerably greater (though I was also told it was structured through trusts with multiple family beneficiaries, so he could claim it was not his, though he did have access to it).
Well said Phil Snyder. Free will offerings are, according to Scripture, pleasing to the Lord. Choosing to give a tenth (or more) is wonderful. Being brow beaten (as I have experienced in some of my Church experience) to tithe is not pleasing to the Lord; again, according to Scripture.
I believe that the law on tithing was intended to be used to show the nation of Israel how abundant God’s gifts to them were. They were to set aside a tenth of their annual income (for two out of three years) and then consume it in a grand celebration of God’s bounty. It was a “forced” vacation, full of feasting, drinking, and buying whatever your heart desired. During the celebration, the Levites were to be remembered. Every third year, the whole tithe was to be given to the Levites, and the Levites (in addition to supporting themselves) were to take care of the fatherless, the widows, and the aliens.
What a wonderful economy!
S&T;While tithing is not a command that must be obeyed, if you are not giving proportionally to what you earn (and the tithe is a good guage of your attachment to what you earn), then are you really recognizing that “all things come of Thee, O Lord and of Thine own hath we given Thee”?
There is a fine line between showing the tithe as a standard and the phariseacle (is that a word?) pushing of the tithe as a requirement. Each person should respond to God as his/her conscience sees fit. But it is the Church’s job to inform that conscience. Some parishoners think that any sermon that suggests tithing is “brow beating” them about money. It is the clergy’s responsibility to help the congregation see that attachment to money hinders your relationship with God.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
Again, well said, Phil Snyder. I don’t disagree with what you have written. Since this is anonymous, I confess that we give more than a 10th as our offering…and not just to our local Church. I was, I think, reacting to what I percieve to be brow beating by the minister in the article, and to my own experiences as a life-long evangelical Christian. Having said that, you should know that I consider it a [b]joy[/b] to give. I actually am [i]planning[/i] how I can [b]give more[/b] and am trying to set it up (estate planning) so that my children can continue the trend. I delight in giving to God and helping my fellow man. I genuinely believe that “giving to the poor is lending to God”. However, the God we serve owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He doesn’t [i]need[/i] my offering or anybody’s offering. After all, “the wealth of the sinner is stored for the righteous”. He graciously allows me to make offerings…out of love for Him. He recieves them, not as a bribe or quid pro quo, but as an expression of love…my humble offering…my dandelion for my heavenly Father…my mud pie. It is only the love behind my offering that has any value.
I have no problem with ministers talking about money…Jesus did so and quite often. It is a very spiritual topic and much in need of discussion with sound Biblical insight to guide us.
Phil, my brother in Christ Jesus, I am not disagreeing with you. I hope that what I am writing is complementary to what you have written.
S&T;Perhaps, being on the other side of the pulpit, I am reacting to parishoners’ complaints about the preacher always talking about money or “beating us over the head with tithing” when the preacher only mentions stewardship a couple of times a year – duing the “stewardship campaign.”
What you write is indeed complimentary to what I have said and I have no problem with it. As I said earlier, there is a fine line between holding up a standard and making that standard a requirement.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder