Tithe Stewardship & Church Tithing

Came across this on A Little Leaven. Its called, “Personalized Promise Bible of Financial Increase”. Amazon has it here.

I was just going through some things in my notes wondering what i should write about when i found this book that i forgot i read. “The Great Investment” is written by T.D. Jakes. It covers faith, family, and finances. I read through the book pretty quick, but slowed down in the chapters alluding to tithing. I have to admit i am skeptical of T.D. Jakes because of his flaunting financial situation, and expected to hear mostly a false teaching about health, wealth, and prosperity. There was some of that in this book, but not as much as i expected. He does recognize that you cannot give to get and that getting is not exactly a direct result of your giving, or of your spiritual condition. Here is a statement that i did like what was said in his book.

“God is a businessman. He is not going to do business with someone who shows no sign of potential return. He invests in people who demonstrate an ability to handle what He has given them.”

Now, does he mean that God owns a business? No, but he’s saying that God makes the right investments that a good business man would make. God is looking for those who have been good stewards. He will not leave precious talents to those who do not have the responsibility to handle them.

I am really trying to focus this whole blog about the responsibilities of stewardship. I’m not completely focused about tithing, or other charitable donations going in and out of the Church. Yes, i do spend a considerable amount of time and energy writing about it, only because i do believe tithing is the largest sore in the Church today.

If i were to sum up the word steward in one other word, i would say investor. I like the title of T.D. Jakes book, “The Great Investment”. If we look at our time, talent, treasure, as an investment option for when the King returns, America’s debt and financial problems would start disappearing. We wouldn’t be so concerned about the here and now. I’m not talking about investing in church buildings or anything like that, i’m talking about investing in people’s needs. The people have needs in America. But, take heed Church leaders, the biggest need is not another colossal worship center. Here’s a challenge for pastors: ask your congregation to write down the biggest financial need of their family, and i guarantee you won’t get one vote for a church building. It’s not even on their mind, until the pastor mentions it.

If the people, who are the Church, do not have a Church building on the top 10 list of needs, why is it always on the top list of the needs for the Church? You might think that is an impractical way of looking at it, but really is it that impractical?

In the stock market, you know what the most risky, volatile, but rewarding sectors is: Small Business. Most brokers feel safe putting their money in the large sectors like google’s, microsofts’, and apple’s, but when it comes to investing in small business it becomes risky. This is the way that our churches are thinking today. We want to invest in the big building, the big programs, and the big activities, because they are safe. In the end there is no small business investing going on so our individuals get overlooked. Investing in individual people is very risky if you ask me, but let’s face it, they have the most to grow.

Anyways, i didn’t really mean to go on a tagent there, it just happened. T.D. Jakes book had some good things, but of course there were some things i could pick out that i didn’t like. I don’t care if you think God’s called you to be prosperous. I don’t care if you think God’s called you to be a pauper, just remember that the richest king in the universe invested everything he had in the small business sector for you. So how should you invest and return it back to him?

I’ve been meaning to write about this book for some time now, but havn’t gotten to it. It’s one of the very first books i’ve read about the tithing debate. The writer, Russell Earl Kelly has a PH.D. and i believe for his doctoral dissertation he researched and wrote about this subject. The book itself is 288 pages and refutes many of the common tithing arguments mentioned by the contemporary Church.

Many people look at those who oppose the tithe as someone who just wants to be rebellious and go against God’s word. But I have corresponded with Mr. Kelly a few times and know that his heart is in tune with God and his Spirit. I am on board with Mr. Kelly’s thoughts and support his writings on the tithe issue. Mr. Kelly’s in-depth thoughts on this subject show that he is a very smart man. I quote him many times in my own writings.

This book is a deep read for most people. I had to read through it slowly in order to understand what was being said. Overall the read is very rewarding and is one of the best books out there refuting the demand for tithing. For anyone who is beginning to study the subject of tithing i would always recommend this book. If i were to give this book a star rating i would give it a 4 out of five. I would give it a half a star higher, but as i said, this book seems more for the deep theologically minded person and lacks personal applications and challenges, as well as down to earth discussion. (Sorry Mr. Kelly :) )

Here is a link to his website
http://www.shouldthechurchteachtithing.com/

I finished reading this book the other day called, “Tithing - God’s Financial Plan” by Norman Robertson. I just recently wrote about a book called, “This Bull Crap Called Tithing“, and truthfully this book by Norman Robertson should have been titled “bull crap”. This book is nothing but a bunch of hogwash. It’s all about how tithing will do this for you and do that for you. There were so many things in this book that are blatantly wrong.

He directly calls the Old Testament storehouse the symbol of the local church. The storehouse has nothing to do with the body of Christ or the place we worship. The storehouse was where the Levites and priests gathered the food and stored it. The priests didn’t perform any worship services there. Yes, they performed services in the temple, but even if where do we get the notion that the church building or meeting place is the focal point of the storehouse or temple.

Norman Robertson quotes Hebrews 7:8 exactly like this, “Here mortal men receive tithes, but there He (Jesus) receives them of whom it is witnessed that he lives.” He completely took that verse out of context when he inserted Jesus name In parenthesis. Instead the name in the parenthesis should read (Melchizedek). The priesthood of Jesus Christ wasn’t even brought up yet in that passage. That passage in Hebrews has nothing to do with confirming the tithe. Instead it has everything to do with confirming the priesthood of Christ in the order of Melchizedek. In Hebrews 7 it is talking about a change in the law, and only confirms the continuation of the priesthood, not the tithe. Find out more about who was Melchizedek

God calls each one of us sons and daughters that are also part of the priesthood. Matthew 17:25,26 says,
“What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?”
Peter said to Him, “From strangers.”
Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free“. . .

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood

God’s financial plan starts with stewardship and the giving amount should be led by the Spirit. Everyone thinks and wants tithing to be the means to end all, but all it does is hinder the communication that we should be having with the Spirit of God. Spirit-led giving is God’s financial plan for his people today.

Galatians 5:18
But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Romans 8:14-16
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God

I just finished the book, “This Bull Crap Called Tithing” by Nick Arandes. He had an interesting perspective on the issue of stewardship, money, and tithing. Some of the excerpts on the back of his book say, “How to attract unlimited wealth”, and Secrets of tithing that churches will not tell you.

Truthfully i don’t remember the whole secrets of tithing that churches will not tell you part, but i do remember his attracting wealth section. in a general sense he talks about how we think its greedy to want more money. In a sense he says so many tithers don’t have money and are broke all the time and struggling paying bills because they are always giving it away. He kind of goes off of common sense here by saying that if you give it, you won’t have it. In a sense that is true, and i agree. i have seen that first hand in my own life and in my family’s. As a child i remember my father being strict about giving our tithe to the church. Even if bills were not being paid, the tithe went to the church. The part i don’t understand about that is, he’s giving money so others can pay their bills, but that’s the logic of those who fail to see principles of stewardship because they are focused on task oriented christianity.

In this book he tries to attract the attention of people who tithe and tithe and are always broke. I don’t really care about the title. I think some authors make up titles like that to attract people’s attention (obviously it attracted min). Anyways, I think what he’s saying in the title is for those who think tithing is a magical obligation that you can do to gain financial security. So what people are realizing is that if you do give it away then guess what that means you don’t have it. It’s not like the stock market where you get a financial return on your investment. If tithing was the answer to exponentially grow your wealth, then it would be more popular than the lottery. Think about it this way. According to statistics(links below), the Jews are the richest nationality/religion in the world, and yet they don’t believe that tithing is commanded for them. That’s odd, don’t you think? You may think it’s because they are God’s chosen people and so on, but really although they are wealthy they are not a fortunate people. Just Look at the turmoil that country is in.

I hope this book review could help you making a decision on a book you want to buy on stewardship. I give this book a 2.5 out of 5 stars overall. It had some good points but i had mixed feelings about it.

(Jewish wealth stats)
http://www.halfsigma.com/2006/07/wealthiest_reli.html
http://www.adam.com.au/bstett/JwSocioeconomic86.htm

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When the Church and its pastors can’t convince people to give, leave it up to pastor Bill. This is the new book by Bill Clinton entitled, “Giving”. It’s subtitle is, “How each of us can change the world”. You know what’s interesting is that the title of this book sounds much like a title many of the self-help mega-church pastors would come up with. Actually, i’m sorry, correction, i just caught myself. I did say “self-help” pastors. This book is about giving to OTHERS. It is not about self. So i think Bill Clinton is one notch above the selfish help pastors.