Tithe Stewardship & Church Tithing

In the last post we had spoken about providing and helping people pay for health care. In continuation of the “Invisible Church” series, let’s talk about “hunger”. When it comes to world hunger the Church takes the verse, “man shall not live by bread alone” in a literal sense. People ask for food around the world and we just hand them a tract, or we send them a missionary. We say, “here, this is even better for you”. In a sense, when they ask for food, you might as well just give them a stone:

“If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?”

There’s nothing wrong with sending missionaries, or a shipping container full of bibles- that’s part of Jesus’ commission to us. The other part of the commission dealt with taking care of the poor, and feeding the hungry and the stranger. Send food also.

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’”

We have much to be thankful for in our country. We need to share what we’ve been given. We are stewards, but we are acting like a bunch of glutenous wasters. We put so much money into things that are not needs. We have purchased so much “Jesus junk”. I’m talking about all the little knick knacks that you can purchase at the Christian store. Everything from TestaMints to t-shirts. Sure, that stuff is creative, it’s thoughtful, and it might even have its rightful place in our Christian sub culture; but for the most part it is just junk.

As we’ve stated before, God doesn’t need anymore advertisements; he needs ambassadors. He doesn’t need posters, He needs people that advertise his work through actions. Helping those who are hungry is one of the ways of doing that.

Everyone knows that the red cross, and heifer international brings aid to desolate people, but do the poor know that the Church does as well? The Church wasn’t meant to be a hospital just for Spiritual care; it was meant to be a hospital for physical, emotional, and mental care as well. I don’t know why we have handed that torch over? I don’t know if we think it’s too expensive, or too demanding? In essence, we didn’t hand over an opportunity to feed people, we’ve handed over an opportunity to witness. God gave us the call to take care of those in need so that they can see God in their needs through us. Zechariah 8:13 says:

“And it shall come to pass
That just as you were a curse among the nations,
O house of Judah and house of Israel,
So I will save you, and you shall be a blessing.”

The opportunity to be a blessing to others is not an opportunity to show off ourselves, God saved us and blessed us so that our actions would glorify His name. I know people need to find a place that has good doctrine and fellowship, but i’m kind of intrigued at the idea that churches put their address on the back as if that’s the road to salvation. I know, i know, it’s there for a good purpose, but it’s just funny to me how it shows in a slight way that a purpose of witnessing is to bring more people to “Our” church. It was funny to see that when i moved into our new house, i received a couple letters from churches stating, “come visit our bla bla bla church. . . we are a friendly people . . . bla bla bla.” Cold calls, mailing lists, and email marketing is what i learned to run a business in college, so that type of outreach kind of ruffles my feathers.

In closing, i wrote a poem called, “Why is God so Selfish“. It has a deeper meaning than just to say that God is selfish, so i would recommend you read it. But for now, here’s an excerpt:

“Why should I give to God’s missionary
When my own city is cold and hungry?
Why should I find God by going to church
As if God wanted me, but didn’t search?”

Love is an invisible source, but always has tangible retributions. Sure the gospel message is a huge benefit package initially of God’s love. But what if we advertised God through our own giving and our service? Of course we can’t do away with the gospel message and just rely on our good works to save others. So what if we start organizing and providing proper health care along with preaching the gospel message?

The Problem
47 million Americans are without health insurance. This means that they are not getting proper care, and that means many more in the world are doing even worse. What makes matters even worse is that people are turning to government to cover their medical needs instead of turning to the Church. The government is not an efficient resource to organize proper care for individuals. It is not even the biblical responsibility of government to perform this duty either.

God left the church in charge of the care for the sick and indigent. Outside of miraculously healing the sick, our resources should go towards providing proper health care through our money or services. People cry every day about the government not doing enough for them, when they don’t even know that it is the Church’s fault. We think that we are getting away from our responsibility, but i guarantee God does not overlook our neglection. Why should government spend time dealing with health care issues when their responsibility should be devoted to other issues?

The more responsibility you leave in the hands of Government the more it will cost you. Read the account of Israel trying to replace the provision of God with the provision of an earthly king in 1 Samuel 8:14-15

“And [the king] will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it to his officers and servants.”

Government will cost you more than what it’s worth. Sure, the church will no longer pay directly for the health care of individuals, but our taxes will pay for it. The opportunity that we lose to be a testimony is an even greater cost. We cannot neglect the health of human beings and still call ourselves a loving body. It is hypocritical.

Jesus did send invitations out addressing sinners, but he also addressed those who were sick and weary. He said, “come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and i will give you rest.” God allows sickness, and struggle in our lives to remind us to come back to Him. Jesus created many witness opportunities by calling the sick and weary. The Church’s negligence reminds people to go to the government, instead of God for their care.

We are so concerned with improving our entertainment programs, worship experiences, and facilities. What do you think the world sees? They see a self serving Church. Why would the unsaved want to come to a God who has representatives that serve themselves? Sure, we give to missionaries outside of our walls, but in their eyes we are still serving our own agenda. But what if they saw representatives that were more concerned with the health of others than their own?

The Solution
I can go on a rant all day about what’s wrong, but it would be more profitable to provide solutions. So here are 2 solutions to solve the health care dilemma:

1. Start a Health Care Fund

Initiate a program or start a fund in your church that pays annual health care costs to a set of individuals. All this will take a plan before this is approved by anyone. Here’s a few simple steps to follow.

• Evaluate a process to find those in need
• Assess the cost of paying for health care
• Brainstorm ideas of how you can fund this operation
• Finally, go to your pastors or elders and propose the ideas to them

It may be simpler to start this in your small group first, and work your way up, but you might as well present it to your church leaders. Some things to remember is that you might not have the funds to pay for everyone that comes and asks for help, but the important thing to remember is that they see your love in action.

2. Adopt a person in need

Even if you can’t get this ministry approved by your Church, nothing is stopping you from doing something about it. Also, nothing is stopping you from spreading this idea around. Here’s how you can do that

• Write about it in a blog
• Share about it in your small group
• Share about it with your friends
• Tell how you have been blessed through this
• Tell how the one you helped had been blessed by this
• Write a story about it in the church bulletin or website

Chances are, if the Church starts seeing others get on board with this idea or if they start seeing souls saved and hearts touched; then your democratic influence will change their minds also. Even if your idea never does get anyone on board, still do it. It’s worth eternal consequences.

No doubt the greatest needs are spiritual, but there’s no doubt that God left the care of the needy in our hands. What if the needy saw a Church, who cared and showed it through their actions? Would the invisible Church once again become visible?

Can a city on a hill be hidden?

Some recent thoughts about the availability and efficiency of the Church have prompted me to write a series titled, “The Invisible Church”. Make no mistake, I said “invisible” NOT “invincible”. This series has been prompted by my thoughts about how billions around the world are homeless, starving, or without proper health care. I would even love to write a book on this subject, because there is just so much to say.

We’ve made ourselves visible through our elaborate sanctuaries, energetic conferences, social alliances, political influence, catchy billboards, pop music groups, energetic websites, tag line t-shirts, bible verse tattoos, entertainment events, radio and TV broadcasts, Christian concert and cruises, and engraved jewelry; but our efforts have brought anything but tangible results. The above ways of “reaching out” have very little to do with actually reaching out. Advertising is not reaching out. Making sure our church sign is lite up at night is not reaching out. We have to be in the mindset that putting money towards any of these things could be considered an overhead cost, because they do almost nothing in performing the actual work of Jesus Christ.

Ok, Ok, so you get my point. I understand those things are not wrong. Well let’s look at this practically. I do not put a sign up at my house with spotlights saying, “i am a Christian”, just so everyone can know, that God is here, just in case you didn’t know. Ok, analogies are not perfect, but i want to show that actually reaching out is in contrast to advertising God. We should give them help when they need it. Give them food if we have extra. Mow their lawn if they are incapacitated. A house next door doesn’t show that there are any neighbors, just like a church building does not tangibly prove that there is a loving God. This is why you can have millions of dollars in real estate, top-notch church programs, energetic worship team, and thousands in attendance, but still fail miserably.

We have said enough about Jesus, written enough about Jesus, sang enough about Jesus, it’s about time we just be Jesus. The world doesn’t need anymore words, or pictorial reminders. They need real tangible help. The repetitiveness of Jesus name in public is not going to stop world hunger, cover the homeless, and bring back proper health care.

We pour so much money into displaying our God and our Church that we could easily pay for all the commercial spots available during the Superbowl! Are we afraid that people don’t know that we are here? Does God need a greater display than the heavens? Does He need a greater display than what nature gives us? Will our t-shirts, billboards, tattoos and jewelry make the Church tangible in any way? Will our humanistic efforts to display God make God more real to us or others?

People are over gorged with our Christian sub-culture. We are so accustomed to displaying Jesus, instead of being Jesus. Jesus laid simple principles of this in his teaching. He said,

“for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

This is the first part of a series on this blog about the invisible Church. In the next couple of posts, our stewardship methods will be on trial; and hunger, poverty, and health care will be on the witness stand. My final question to you is, “Can a city on a hill be hidden?”

Why is it that those who have the truth like to argue; and those who do not have definitive answers for their beliefs, do not like to argue? It annoys me that people say that i just like to argue about tithing. I don’t like to look at it as arguing. I like to see it as spreading the truth. Sure, we could say that there’s no sense in arguing, but you see it all the time in the bible. The truth of the matter is that as long as wrong has the opportunity to infiltrate right, then there should always be arguing.

Whether you like the tension or not that is created because of arguing, you should never be one to go against it. I guess “arguing” is a bad word. I guess you could say that it is more along the lines of “stating your case”. Doesn’t “witness” come with the meaning of standing up for your beliefs?

All I’m trying to say is don’t be upset for my tithing arguments. Don’t look down upon me because i am strongly opposed to mandated giving. Don’t shut your opposition up either.

I can say that my experiences so far in life have shown me how not to be. There has not been much experiences in my life that have shown me how i should be. I guess i could say that is true up through my life in college. Once outside of college i became involved with a bunch of friends that were able to show how to be. One of the things we did often was discuss and debate issues in the bible.

People think that if you are debating that you are questioning God. Arguing can be a part of seeking God. Most of us have the same goal right? We want to do our best and to do what’s right. To simply state that you don’t like to argue, is stating that you think you are always right and do not want to change your ways. If we were all perfect, i could go along with the peaceful non-argumentative discussions, but the problem is that I am not perfect. You are not perfect.

Iron sharpens iron, right? You can’t sharpen iron without beating it and heating it. You are not going to sharpen iron by just polishing it. Iron is strong, just like our stubborn personalities. We have to be beaten. A soft polish will not help us become sharper. Positive thinking and conversations that do not consist sometimes of debating keep us dull.

I know what some of you are thinking, “I stay sharpened by praying, reading my bible, and fellowshipping at my church.” I would say to you, “WAKE UP!” There is a literal battle going on between good and evil - between right and wrong. And here we go just, fra la la, thinking that the absence of conflict means that everything is good. You are SO wrong. The absence of conflict means that you are not in the fight you dummy!

Church history over and over has repeated this mistake. We don’t like to debate and we don’t like conflict so we’ll just divide and separate ourselves and begin a whole other denomination. Instead of creating arguments and debate that is healthy for growth, we’ve decided that what we believe is right and separated ourselves from all those who are so very wrong. We’ve gotten out of the fight, and became complacent. Every single denomination is a testament to the fact that what we think is right, and what everyone else thinks is wrong. We think we have it all figured out. We will just call ourselves Baptist’s, Methodists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, that way everyone knows what we’re about. Our identity portrays our core denominational beliefs and allows everyone to separate out the wheat and the chaff.

Ok, back from the denominational rabbit trail. In my experiences arguing the tithing debate, there have been countless times where people have bowed out of this discussion because they do not want to debate. I call them feather Christians. They fight with a feather instead of a sword. I post many comments on blogs that are very thoughtful and even open minded but my comments are not approved just for the fact that they disagree and don’t like arguing. I guess that’s what prompted this post. I posted on a blog on some financial website and my comments were never approved. Instead that blogger just posted his own comment stating his criteria for allowing comments. Suffice it to say he has had very little comments. Another note about that blogger is that the very few comments that are left are mostly comments praising the blogger. A pride issue? I don’t know. . . maybe?

I can say for myself that i don’t have any ethical or moral guilt about arguing. Arguing and debating fuels me spiritually, and mentally. It forces me to search the scriptures, and find out the truth. It helps me pursue God. Even though i have put so many hours into tithing studies, i have corrected and tweaked so many of my writings due to ability to debate. I would venture to say that debating fuels a lot of men. Us men want a fight. We want a challenge. I’m sorry ladies but that’s how we’re fueled. That’s why we watch sports or play video games(for those of you who do not watch sports). I am addicted to both LOL!

Is there a right and wrong time to debate? Sure there is. Do i start debating every time i hear the word “tithing”? No. But i am always ready for a good challenge? How about you?

By the way if you want a list of tithing arguments that i have debated with scripture please visit the link here
http://churchtithesandofferings.com/topargumentsfortithing.html

Came across a news article titled, “Pastor Pitches Tithing as a Budget Solution” in my daily browsing across the internet. You can read the article here from TwinCities.com. Ok, the gist of the article talks about how tithing has been declining, but there’s one statement in there that strikes me.

“. . . many people now see government, not private religious organizations, as the primary vehicle for serving the destitute.”

How embarrassing for God. The rotten, stinkin, filthy government is now his representative. The Church has passed on the torch. If i was God, I’d be shaking my head in shame. I’d be embarrassed. No wonder giving is down in the Church. Until we’ve learned what we are called here to do, then why should God trust his Church with more money?

Giving, feeding, and serving the poor was the hallmark of Christ’s ministry while on earth. On top of that, one of his last accomplishments before leaving the earth was destroying the temple, but we’ve defied his actions and re-resurrected the temple and neglected the poor.

The problem we have is in the title of this article. We think we need solutions for “our” budgets. We think that the lifeblood of our church is our budget, our buildings or our programs. When these things are deficient we think that our mission is being compromised because of lack of funding.

I wish i could go back to the early church and see how simplistic giving was. Taking care of needs was the number one goal of giving. Now we literally have book stores, coffee shops, amusement parks, malls, theaters, and fitness rooms that have jumped on the band wagon of “needs”. And it will not stop there. The future holds more and more possibilities that will rob the poor.

I read the book, “Tithing in the Age of Grace” by Joel Parker. Most of the book was filled with the scriptures that dealt with tithing, but did not include as much application as much as other tithing books i have read. In one of the sections a scripture passage covers 10 pages of the 117 page book. It is also written in large print with the border taking up much of the room. Suffice it to say, for those of you who enjoy reading shorter books, this is the one for you. I read through it pretty quickly.

I’ll get right into this review with a quote from the book,

“He [Abraham] tells the king of Sodom ‘I will not take anything that is yours‘ demonstrating that what he gave to Melchizedek didn’t actually belong to him.”

Most people use Abraham’s example as proof text for tithing, but Abraham did not gather any increase from the spoils of war, because he gave it all away. He also acknowledged that it was the king of Sodom’s stuff anyway. Abraham said, i will not take anything that is YOURS.

“Now look closely at Malachi 3:5b. Who does it say ‘the Lord will come near for judgment’? It says ‘Those who exploit wage earners, and widows, and the fatherless, and those who turn away an alien (or stranger)’. Did you see what I saw? Who is noticeably missing from Malachi 3:5 that is otherwise included in Deuteronomy 14:29 and Deuteronomy 26:12,13?
That’s right! The Levites are missing. They are not in the list of people being exploited.

What was actually happening in Malachi 3 is that the Levites/religious leaders were exploiting the poor. These leaders were in charge of distributing the food that came in from tithing. Does this sound familiar to the operations we see today in the Church? Is there no wonder why Barna’s tithing study points out that many people are diverting more of their funds to charitable organizations rather than the church?

Maybe the lack of funds for the church today is a passive way of us telling our leaders that they are not doing their job. Their job isn’t to make me comfortable, or to have great coffee for me, or to build internal church programs that only help the ones inside, or to have an exercise room for me, or to have a great sound system for me, or to have a great preacher and worship team to help my experience. Outside of taking care of our ministers needs, it seems that everything we’ve done inside the church is extremely self serving. Why should I be convicted about serving the desires of my family, and in the mean time be justified over giving back to myself at Church? Instead we staple God’s tag onto the internal dreams of our church, and in the same sentence rip out the “American dream” out of the hearts of families. Is there a difference between the church’s dream and my own? There is none, besides the fact that we’ve sanctified the one dream and made the other unholy.

Anyway, there was more in this book than what I’ve quoted above. Most of the other stuff i have already been mentioned. I would give Tithing in the Age of Grace 3 out of 5 stars. It’s not that it’s got the wrong view or bad content, it just that there’s really not much new content in there. I really don’t enjoy a book loaded with arguments that are speculative, and there was a lot of that. For instance Parker points out that Jesus never asked for money even though he had plenty of chances. Yeah, Parker is right, and no I’m not against speculation, but with a book that had very little deep discussion on the issue, speculation is not a weapon he should be using.

Has anyone read Tithing in Age of Grace? If so what are your thoughts? If not, what’s your input about this discussion?

Came across a good tithing illustration today in search of blog posts on tithing. It has a really good illustration about the validity of tithing. It’s called The trial of pastor Jones. It seemed too long for me to read at first, but i’m glad i read it, and i enjoyed it throughout. It’s a dialogue of a pastor on trial for demanding tithes from the church.

I was going through my bookshelf the other day and reorganizing some things and i noticed this book. I knew i had read it but found out i haven’t written a review yet about it. It’s been a while so hopefully my memory isn’t too blank. I purchased the book because the title intrigued me, “Tithing and Still Broke”. Niral Russell Burnett is the author and basically spins the idea of the book off of people’s doubts about tithing’s financial return. Of course most of us are familiar with the Malachi 3 statement, “I will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing so that you will not have room enough to receive it.”

Before i read this book, i remember using this exact phrase as a pundit to get my point across. Many people were tithing, but they were still broke. Supposedly, if that’s the case, God is either punishing you for that one Sunday you missed five years ago, or your faith is not strong enough, or your heart is not right. Although you have been faithfully giving the tithe, one of these three issues is what is keeping you from God blessing you right?

I write a lot of comments on other blogs that talk about tithing. I try to add my 2 cents, but the one type of blogs that i do not add comments on are the personal testimonies. I’m sure many of you have heard testimonies that portray a couple that gives their $127.67 tithe check to the church and then God doubles or even gives them 10x the amount to the exact penny. Some things to note on those people. One, that only happens once. Two, for some reason it doesn’t happen to everyone. Three, it never happened to me.

I have no doubts that God purposefully blessed them with that exact amount, but i have no doubts that it wasn’t because they obeyed the tithe. Why? Because those situations happen to those people who give freewill offerings as well. I forget to mention above, but the reason why i do not comment on the testimony blogs is because the ability to convince them that their blessing didn’t come from an old testament law is similar to convincing you that you are not real. That tithing testimony is so real to them, that scripture will not convince them otherwise.

You see, God blesses the faith and the sacrifice. He does not bless us on our performance. Let me ask this? What do you think God would bless more - A person who makes a decision to pay a bill of $200 to get out of debt, or a person who gives $200 to his church? What is the greater spiritual need? Who determines that the building fund is a greater need than someone paying off debt? I don’t know? You tell me. I’m sure the question follows, “Well why can’t we do both- Pay off some of the debt and give some to the church”? I’m not saying he can’t. My point is that God does not judge man on how much he gives, he judges man on how good of a steward he is.

Giving can be part of stewardship, but for illustration sake let’s refer to the master who left 3 of his stewards some talents. Two out of Three had taken the talents and invested it, and had more in the end. The third one actually gave 100% of his talents back to his master, but was still considered a bad steward.

I appreciate Niral Burnett’s challenge to bring more faith and sacrifice into tithing, but tithing + faith is not the only equation to God’s blessing. Yes, i do think finances can be a blessing for those of you who think money is a curse. I don’t know about you but i appreciate material things. They are not a curse until they become an idol. An idol is not exactly something you bow down to. It can be a material possession that God’s Spirit asks you to give up but you hold onto.

First, I think people are tithing and still broke because they lack the financial discipline to say “no” to their idols. Second, i think people are tithing and still broke because they put themselves under the requirement of a law that had been fulfilled. I think people are tithing and still broke simply because they can’t afford to tithe.