For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
While reading in Galatians 5:13, we see that use of our liberty is commanded. If you keep reading we also see our limitations on it. We cannot use it as an opportunity for the flesh, but instead maintain it by serving others. If liberty is a command, would a personal standard be considered a law or a principle? Standards are not laws, but instead they are used to guide our personal liberty. Take what we give for instance. If a minimum amount of giving is a law, then Christian liberty cannot be involved in our giving. If there was no set amount to give then our liberty is maintained by a standard we have for our own lives. Law and liberty do not mix like water and oil. This brings us to our next question. Is tithing a law or liberty? We’ll answer that with another question. In classroom learning today, is the same teacher equally effective for every pupil? No. There maybe more qualified and relevant teachers to help certain students. Because of liberty, we can use 7% or 11% as a teacher to help train our giving.
So without the command to tithe what principles can we use to train our flesh? Look at Galatians 5:16. Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The Spirit is used to war the flesh, not the law of tithing. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what teacher you need to help maintain your liberty. He’s not going to put a pee-wee league player in the majors, nor will he put a major league player in the minors. We know that the Holy Spirit is capable of that, but the question is, are we capable of listening? Whether you believe in tithing or spirit led giving, both positions have to listen to what God has said. Yes, spirit-led giving makes our giving unknown and unpredictable, and that makes checkbooks nervous. That’s why tithing has such a hold on the teaching and preaching of today. We can’t completely let go, and let the people of God be controlled by an invisible source, because we’re physical people that want to rely on tangible things, written on stone tablets
Remember the wall in Germany and the division between East Berlin and West Berlin? East Berlin was so prosperous, why? Because of their freedom. Along with their freedom they had more responsibility. That’s what I am trying to say with tithing. Although the NT covenant promotes freedom there is still more responsibility than the other side of the wall, which is the OT covenant. In order to open up the minds of those being burdened under OT commands, then you have to tear down that wall. That wall is tithing. Tithing is like a security blanket. As long as ministers can hold on to that for financial security then the more control they have. Although the wall had no power in and of itself, it dictated what the people did. Yes, people could migrate east and west, but overall that wall had mind control and limited the boundaries of the heart and mind. The law of tithing allows people to migrate over to the other side of freewill giving by giving offerings, but overall it will dictate and minimize the minds of the people. Yes, you can create equality through the tithe, just as communism and West Berlin created equality with communism. Through all that time, the people of West Berlin had the power to overcome the burden that the wall and communism had on them. But over time the wall minimized the minds of the people. It took a free person living outside the walls of West Germany to help tear down that wall. The people inside West Germany could only see what was inside and had no vision of beyond that wall.
That is what I present to you. Tear down the wall. It’s a dictator that only acts as a curtain and a security blanket. Maybe you see beyond the wall in your own life, because you’ve migrated to the free side with the offerings you give, but it is not so for others, whether you like it or not.
A recent study by Barna, the leading Christian research and statistics organization, has found that “House Churches Are More Satisfying to Attenders Than Are Conventional Churches”. While on the other hand the satisfaction of conventional churches stagger. There are many effects this movement has on the conventional churches, but of course since this is a tithe and offering blog, we’ll touch on the finances. According to Barna, many of the house Church attendees are donating to ministries that may not be given to the conventional churches. These funds typically get directed to some sort of mission-minded organization that helps the poor, or evangelizes. This puts the pressure on conventional churches who have betted on the future attendance of their congregation. The house church movement continues to grow, and why not? If these statistics are accurate and that many more people are satisfied with the operation of their house church, why attend or put your money into something that you are not as satisfied with?
I think the key to satisfaction within your church is involvement. The more you are involved the more it becomes a calling. One of the things that Baptist Churches are known for, is their business meetings. They usually have the congregation sit together and vote on budgeting, support, maybe some new carpet. This is one of the reasons why Baptist’s are the strongest supporters of the doctrine of tithing. Here’s why. If the congregation is involved with decisions during these business meetings, on where their tithe and offerings could be directed, then they will be less likely to question further use of it, because of the complacency in their own decision. We are all guilty of this passiveness in one way or another. Take political voting for instance. The party that we’ve voted for, is the party that we tend to overlook questions about. Can you see how participation and direct involvement in any ministry naturally leads to greater satisfaction? Outside of the financial input, where i think conventional churches have taken the wrong turn is in the shortcuts. Many people attend these mass services, but walk out un-involved. You can’t expect the pastoral staff to be totally responsible for this, nor can you put all the blame on the members attending. Cell groups, life groups, and small groups help, but all the advertising and money is put into the mass, sunday service. Sunday service is not where most of the merchandise is sold. It’s sold during the weekday in smaller fellowships. When selling a product, mass-mailing is the shortcut form of advertising. So, if people receive the advertising of the conventional church, and find the best merchandise is in the house church, then that’s where their money is going. Even though most of the advertsing dollars goes into the conventional church.
Conventional churches are going to have to find more effective ways to get everyone involved and participating. I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe its taking offering in the small groups and using that exclusively for outreach or other funds in the larger church. Whatever it may be, the first place they’ll begin to notice it, is in their pocket, and that’s where it’ll get their attention.
Out, are the controversial sermons, and the offensive gospel, and in, are the “one size fits all” challenges. Pastors are beginning to avoid controversial words such as “tithing“, and are using more generic terms, such as “offerings“, for doctrinal principles of giving. In order to accommodate the diversity in their audience, the mega-churches are the hot-spots for these generic messages. They stick to messages about prosperity, and joy, and avoid specific controversial subjects. Shortly, in the future, If their message does not change, their soft spoken-ness could come back to bite them. The obligation of giving is slowly disappearing amongst congregations, because tithes were the piggy-back of obligatory giving for so long. Today, when people enter the church, convictions on singing, bringing their bible, tithing, repenting, are avoided for the sake of offence. There are few that are trying to hang on to strict interpretation of tithing, but for the most part, the obligation to tithe is slipping out of the minds of the rising generation. We can see this trend being proven with statistics from the recent years. www.barna.org has written an article in 2004 stating, “Americans Donate Billions to Charity, But Giving to Churches Has Declined”. In this article is proof that the force behind obligatory giving to the local church is dwindling down, but the freewill spirit of offertory giving is rising. In order to accommodate this swing in trends, and to avoid bankruptcy, Pastors, have no choice but to modify their message. In turn it will raise an oblivious generation that has not been confronted with the pressure to give a minimum amount to God. Of course there are many questions as to how this would affect churches of all sizes in the future. My feeling says it could affect many churches, if in some way they do not shift the focus from 10% tithing to 100% stewardship.
What do you see in the pew/chair in front of you at church, tithing envelopes, a bulletin, maybe a hymnal, or a pencil? Do you ever find chewed up gum stuck to a giving envelope all folded up? It’s usually from some teenager deciding to stash his used gum away for the next visitor interested in something to chew on, if the service had no meat to the message. This ABC gum is much like how the older generation passes along their commitments and debt to the next.
While sitting in my church the other day, I looked in the pocket of the seat in front of me, and noticed what resources they had provided for a welcoming experience. in the pocket was not just a giving envelope, but also a commitment card. On it, was a list of optional gifts you could donate towards the building debt. The card was a help to those of us who could not figure out what types of personal assets you could withdrawal value from. It listed many ideas such as, donating money from retirement accounts, old cars, and so on. The only other thing in the pocket was a pen - no bible, no hymnal, no bulletin. I guess there is no bible because the pastor expects us not to forget our bible at home, but on the other hand the commitment card is there just in case we forgot our money at home.
I know this similar phrase is used many times in correlation with tithing, but giving is an obligation as well as an opportunity. (In order to fit an Old Testament law under the age of grace, tithers say it differently, in that tithing is opportunity not an obligation) There are so many burdens of church debts that hinders us from practicing our opportunity to give. It’s like a bottom-less pit that we must constantly dig in order to stay on top of the bills and collectors. I pity the grandparents who feel they have to extinguish their dying assets to the church, instead of leaving an inheritance for their children. Read Proverbs 13:22, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children”. Because of debt, our giving is over-burdened with obligation.
Instead of leaving wealth to the next generation, we are leaving them with church debt and describing it to them as an opportunity for their era. These older adults have filled out their commitment cards without realizing that they’ve placed the card right back into the newly renovated pew with their wad of debt attached. Throughout the years many give thousands upon thousands to fulfill a dream of an organization and forget that their family is standing there wanting an inheritance. This older generation is much like the younger teenager who leaves a commitment card with gum attached for the next person to chew on. Stop leaving the next generation with your dreams and commitments with debt attached.
