Tithe Stewardship & Church Tithing

I just transferred my hosting service to a new company and in the process, i just lost my blogging data from the past. I should have backed it up. Truthfully i really don’t care much for losing it. The reason i had changed my hosting service was because the old company does not have the capabilities to support my near future plans for this site. I have big plans for this site. I have been taking some time planning it and doing some behind the scenes stuff. I just recently moved to the first page in rankings for google for the terms tithe, and tithing. The visitors to this site have practically doubled, on some days tripled. It’s absolutely astounding to me the amount of people who search for and are interested in the subject of tithes. I never realized the amount of people that search for this topic every day. Keep an eye out for this site in the future. There will be lots of useful things coming soon.

For those of you who do not know, maintaining a website, at least a usable one is not easy. It takes lots of work and ambition. I have devouted much time to the study of tithe, offerings, and stewardship, and i hope you all will be blessed in some way through any of the resources available on this website. I really would like any input that you have for this site. Let me know what you expected and how this site has fallen short in your opinion.

Visit the tithing home page 

If i were to say to my kids, “tonight, we’re going to skip dinner so that mommy and daddy can save up for a house”, do you think that i could be reported to child affairs? I guess the same goes with how our churches operate. They neglect the immediate needs of their fellowship so they can fulfill the future goals. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with these visions and goals per se, but why have we neglected the immediate needs of our fellowship? You can’t nutritionalize and keep your family healthy by living on a vision. Visions and goals are good and all but let’s face it, i’m not skipping my dinners to fulfill them.

One of the bad doctrines that stem out of “The pursuit of Goals” is the enforcement of tithing. Many leaders call their church to follow in their footsteps as they are being led by the Spirit to build.  This raises much suspicion because the people must give by a mandated law to a cause that claims to be inspired by the Spirit. But how can the Spirit give a commission on building expensive structures, without the ability to commission potential givers? Can you see how using the law to fund the call of the Spirit obstructs the spirit of discernment? This is how cults are formed and people are deceived. All someone has to do is say, i had a vision from God, and now you should support this vision, no questions asked.

Let’s have some accountability with our visions and our giving. If the Spirit is prompting the pastor to purchase a nicer complex, then i believe the Spirit should be the entity that prompts the support as well. If a pastor knows that our giving is open to discernment, he’ll probably think twice before he neglects the needy to feed the vision.

I was just going over some news today about tithing and offerings in the church, and noticed how more and more churches are allowing debit and credit card payments for the tithe and offerings. In the back of my mind i’m wondering what the pastors think about the financial fees that the church pays for using visa or master card. I’m wondering if they are going to start telling their people to pay 11% of a tithe just to cover the fees? Obviously the credit card fees are deducted from what the churches receive so that they won’t be receiving a full tenth.

Also, The churches who tithe to other charities from what they receive; I’m wondering whether or not they will be willing to give a tithe from their first fruits(before the finance charges)? It would be interesting if they could justify giving a tenth from after the finance charges are taken out, and not justify the congregation from giving a tenth on their net income.

My logic and questioning here sounds so bizarre and almost funny but i guarantee many of the churches have pondered these questions. It blows my mind when tithe teachers say that “we shouldn’t follow the exact law of the old testament tithing, but follow the general rule of giving 10% to the Lord’s work”. It blows my mind because we say that the tithe is a “general” rule but we’ve gotta ask questions about, finance charges, should i do this on net or gross, what about profits, increase, first fruits, at the beginning at the end of the week, how should i, when should i, where should i . .. . in front of the church, behind the church, at the info desk, should i give cash, checks, or credit cards, what about my retirement money, what about my pension, what about my disability, can i give to the church, can i give to my pastor, what about charities, what about my bills, what about my debt workman’s comp, insurance payouts, food stamps, unemployment income, tax returns, rebates, . . . and bla bla bla, and on and on the questions come. Tithing is not a “general” rule or principle for that matter, when you’ve gotta hire a financial guide just to figure out how, when, and where you should tithe.
Even though our leaders have substituted Spiritually empowered giving with an Old Testament law, they still expect the Holy Spirit to intervene.