Tithe Stewardship & Church Tithing

Found a Baylor University survey on USA Today. Read it here. There were various statistics that were mentioned but one stuck out to me below:

Widows and widowers are some of the biggest tithers, with 17.6% giving 10% or more of their income to the church, compared to 8.6% of non-widowed people.

Of course the heretical tithing burden is not the focus here. It is irrelevant under the grace of freewill giving in the New Testament. But this reminds me of the corresponding biblical passage.

Mark12:41-44
Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”

Now there could be a number of reasons why widows are still giving more than everyone else. One, could be that they have a huge life insurance inheritance. Two, could be the depression that they have no one to spend their money with any more, so why not just give it away. One thing is for certain, their purposes in life have evolved into something greater than themselves.

Thousands of years later, and the widow with two mites is still a relevant example for us today. Either way, we can say for certain that these statistics just prove that nothing’s changed for the past 2000 years.

A person reported in the news sacrifices and gives up $3 million in an offering plate, and on the other hand the church gets excited about hoarding it. Here’s a news story of a person anonymously putting a lottery ticket in the offering plate of a (here we go now. . .) strugggglllliing church. Ooooh! doesn’t it just make you shiver! Man, this church was busting out the seams and now they can afford a new building. yippeee! God is glorified. When our building cup runneth over, God just goes all out and gets us a new building cup.

If your cup is full? Duh! Just get a bigger cup. We don’t need to plant more churches. Duh! Just make ours bigger. That’s the problem with us Christians. When our church is packed out, we think the size of the building is to blame. When a cup overflows, the size of the cup is not at fault. The fault is those who don’t pour it out when its full.

Our first reaction when we are full is to get a bigger cup instead of pouring ourselves out into a completely different cup that’s empty. There are desperate and empty parts of town that need a church, but we don’t want to pour ourselves into that area, because we just want to get bigger. Our first reaction is “let’s just expand ourselves “IN” here”, instead of “let’s just spread OUT there”.

Before you get onto me about the big deal of getting a new building, let me explain something to you. What was all the hype about in that news video? The truth is that the excitement was generated from what they were going to “build” with that money. You didn’t hear anything about needs being met, or bodies or souls being fed with that money. Because. . . well. . . duh. . . that would just be boring. Who would just give away that money and not use it on themselves? Giving away money is boring. Using it on ourselves, now, that’s exciting! Apparently, the person who gave the lottery ticket away in the first place felt that it was important to distribute the wealth. Unfortunately the Church doesn’t think it’s important to distribute. The church is truly where the buck stops.

The deception our church leadership has is that we take this money in the offering plate every Sunday and invest it into facilities and programs and call it a distribution. We don’t recognize that we are just spending it on ourselves. For instance, if me and my wife saved money for some long term goals, and rarely and barely gave to others; we would be considered selfish. But if a church does this very same thing under the cloak of “God’s will”, then they do not fall under the same accusation. But why not?

God’s Word does not provide instructions on how to fund an organization. It does however show us how to help those in need. We are the only thing left on this earth that resembles Jesus Christ. Jesus left us a legacy from his works and actions. He didn’t leave us a building, or a worship center, or a youth center. On the other hand, we’ve done a good job of leaving all the things that Jesus didn’t leave. Unfortunately, we have not done a good job of leaving Jesus. Where does the buck stop with you?

This article was introduced to me in the tithing group. You can read about the article here. Of course most of you have heard about the senate investigations into the TBN preachers. CBS News in Dallas states, “the first time, officials with Kenneth Copeland Ministries are talking publicly about an investigation into the church’s spending habits.”

hmmm, this ought to be interesting, listen to what John Copeland, Kenneth Copeland’s son and Chief Executive Officer of Kenneth Copeland Ministries said, “Where in the Bible does it say you should have watch dogs and judgment groups that watch over ministries?” Ooooh! if only i could have been there to respond. I would have said, “where in the bible does it say that you need millions of dollars to fund an empire?” The only thing the bible talks about in the New Testament is helping the poor, distributing to all and paying for the needs of ministers. Sorry people, John Copeland is an idiot. There. I said it. He’s an idiot!

Copeland jr. said: “How can you reach the world if you don’t have money to do it?”

My Response: Listen dude. I understand the importance of money, but i do believe that all it takes are willing lives who are ready to sacrifice themselves, not their money. There is so much more that this guy says. He should keep his mouth shut. Let’s go on. . .

Copeland Jr: “A lot of people may see that[private Copeland jet] as a luxurious lifestyle, but when you hit 19 countries in 12 months, what are you going do that with? The jet is a tool. It’s just a tool to use in ministry.”

My response: Sure it’s a tool for you, but it’s not a tool for the poor. Besides that, I agree that’s pretty much all your doing is hitting other countries up for their wealth as well.

Copeland Jr: “There’s a lot of doctrine that teaches that you’re not a good Christian unless you’re poor,” Copeland said. “But, that’s not our doctrine, that’s not what we believe.”

My Response: HUH? what doctrine are you talking about? I’ve never ever heard of that. I don’t know about you but monks are non-existent in this era.

Copeland Jr - in response to why his parents preach the prosperity gospel and live in a mansion: “It would be kind of silly for that to be your doctrine, but then put your pastor in a 2,000 square foot house,”

My Response: That’s right, i forgot, the greek word for manger actually means a mansion. For all the talk Jesus had about heaven and the kingdom, he sure lived it here on the temporary earth. would you consider Jesus poor?

It’s a bad idea for Jr. to open his mouth in public. If you think the copeland’s are God’s children, then i’m sorry, I think they are pharisees, they are wolves in sheep’s clothing, and they are vipers.

I don’t have much time to write about this one, but here’s a news article that talks about a Church who is kicking out an 80 year old, social security paid, single woman because she only paid her tithe twice this year.

See News article here

I hate that churches can keep their non-profit status after pulling stunts like this. The Church acts just like the IRS.

Scientific research says that there’s one thing that you can do with your money that will buy you happiness, and its called giving it away. Here’s an article on msnbc, that talks about money buying happiness.

“New research reveals that when individuals dole out money for gifts for friends or charitable donations, they get a boost in happiness while those who spend on themselves get no such cheery lift.”

Instead of spending money on youself to find happiness, why not try spending it on others. We probably spend money on ourselves to attain some level of satisfaction, but that doesn’t seem to be a sure fire way to gain it. It’s amazing that we are wired this way. According to evolution it seems that charity and giving is counter-productive to the survival of the fittest, or the preservation of a species. You see my dog doesn’t know how to give. It doesn’t know love. Everything it does is selfish. Those of us who have dogs may think it loves us back by licking us and being excited when we walk in the door, but i’m sorry to disappoint you, but that’s not love. Dog’s do not fight with their conscience about their selfish attitudes.

This brings me to another point that i was thinking about while watching, “The Bee Movie” by Dreamworks. I don’t know if anybody saw this movie, but it made me think why do bees make all that honey? Do they need all that honey? I started to wonder if God just gave them that task for our enjoyment. I know it was a cartoon, but i was getting some profound thoughts about God and creation. Aren’t bees such a testimony against evolution? Everything that bees do tell you is that God made them to work so that we could be blessed off of their production. There’s no need for bees to make all that honey, but God created the bees so that we could enjoy all that honey.

I don’t think bees get enjoyment from giving away their honey, cause they seem pretty pissed off at the dudes wearing those netted outfits. But what if we worked and gave just like those bees do? Yeah, yeah, i know its a stretch analogy, but if you think about it, God made those bees for us. So what did God make us for? Didn’t he make us to serve others, just like the bees serve? Are we producing enough honey to give to others in need? We should be giving liberally and generously. We also need to fight laziness.

Does our giving taste sweet to God by giving with a Godly heart? When you put that honey in your mouth, the sweetness just makes your tastebuds tingle, and it just satisfies your cravings all around. So, does your giving satisfy God’s cravings for his children just like honey satisfies your own?

It’s obvious that God has called us to serve.

News article found here.

“BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (AP) ? Dwindling donations to the Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park have prompted its high-profile pastor, Mac Hammond, to put his private business jet on the market.”

Once the pastor pays off the outstanding bills, i’m sure he’ll take the extra and buy a rolls royce. Of course, it would be used for ministry. Duh!

I wonder how many churches own private jets in America? That would be good to research, but i do not have the time for that. I don’t even know where to begin to find out that info. I know a lot of TBN preachers have jets.

I’m sure these slimy little weasels have covered their tracks with their finances. I mean they have enough money to hide anything. Here is the article on US News. US News stated that these “religious” organizations complaint is two-fold, “that the IRS, not Congress, is the proper body to investigate tax matters related to religious groups, and that the focus on members of the Prosperity movement is discriminatory and threatens their First Amendment rights.”

What makes them think that their luxurious lifestyles doesn’t send up a red flag? They are just plain foolish in their logic. Who should congress be discriminatory of? Maybe they should investigate the poor old ladies that have devoted their life savings to these organizations. These poor old ladies don’t get investigated cause they don’t flaunt their stuff! Who should congress pick on if these money raking fools can’t take the heat? I guess congress should just pick ministries out of their black hat that they should investigate. Oh yeah, i guess that goes the same way with everything. We should just pull names out of a hat when we investigate the steroid problem in baseball. Of course Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, and Mark McGuire are gonna get investigated, for the simple fact that they turned into big huge monsters and their batting numbers showed it.

So deal with the discrimination, dollar, hinn, meyers, and copeland cause the rest of the world does!

It looks like Creflo Dollar is refusing to turn in some of his financial records to the Senate Finance Committee. You can read about the CNN article here. 5 of the 6 ministries have already turned over their documents or have asked Senator Grassley for more time. It looks like Dollar is willing to be subpoenaed from the committee if they don’t accept what he’s given them. I understand the concerns that these ministries have with the government meddling in the Church. But at the same time, what do you expect? I mean, if you consider your organization a charity with a non-profit status, but you are living in a multi-million dollar mansion and are driving around in a rolls royce, what do you think they’ll do?

I just recently posted a funny blog post about these televangelists. I made up the game from Monopoly and called it Televangoly and made up a board game and game pieces with pictures of these televangelists on it. It’s definitely worth a laugh.