Tithe Stewardship & Church Tithing

Just randomly thinking today . . .

. . . Stewardship isn’t defined by what you give it’s defined by what you’ve kept. (hmmm, a good quote for those lavish televangelists)

. . . The tithe used to help the poor, but in these days it has created even more.

. . . In Matthew 25:25, the servant who gave 100% back to his master, was still considered a bad steward.

. . . It’s ironic that we trust that the Spirit will bring in some priceless souls, but can’t fathom Him bringing in a few bucks. That we leave up to tithing.

. . . Is The Spirit in charge of offerings, but not in charge of tithes?

. . . As long as one seeks counsel from the Spirit in his giving there will always be a spiritual battle. But as soon as we’ve replaced the Spirit with our own standards, then the Spiritual battle has already been lost.

The Barna Group just released some new statistics on tithing and donations for 2007. - here. Interestingly enough George Barna takes a stand against tithing as a legitimate practice in the New Testament Church. This is all kind of exciting to me, because i’m in the middle of reading the book, “Pagan Christianity” by Frank Viola and George Barna. I am about two-thirds of the way through and i can’t seem to put the book down. I will write a post about that when i’m finished it, but i just mentioned it because i had just finished up the chapter on “tithing”. Ironic. . . i guess.

I just want to highlight some things that were said:

“Whether they believe in the principle of tithing or not, few Americans give away that much money.”

I would like to point out that greed is not biased to non-tithers. I’ve heard many a times that Tithing is an antidote for greed. The reason why tithing does not over come greed is because tithing is not the master of greed. A pure heart, that is undefiled and led by the Spirit of God is the master of greed. Tithing has no power over sin, but the Spirit does. This is confirmed because although Israel had tithing completely spelled out for them, they still had to overcome their greedy hearts. Also regardless of whether our giving is plainly spelled out for us through tithing or is an unpredictable factor through spirit-led giving, we still have to listen and obey. In other words, just because how much we should give is written in black and white compared to Spirit led giving, which is not; we still have to put down our selfishness and obey one or the other.

“Strangely, tithing is a Jewish practice, not a Christian principle espoused in the New Testament. The idea of a tithe - which literally means one-tenth or the tenth part - originated as the tax that Israelites paid from the produce of the land to support the priestly tribe (the Levites), to fund Jewish religious festivals, and to help the poor. The ministry of Jesus Christ, however, brought an end to adherence to many of the ceremonial codes that were fundamental to the Jewish faith. Tithing was such a casualty. Since the first-century, Christians have believed in generous giving, but have not been under any obligation to contribute a specific percentage of their income.”

Many people are blinded to the point where they view tithing as a “principle” not a “practice”. George Barna said it right, “tithing is a Jewish practice, not a Christian principle”. There are 2 practices that come to mind when thinking about the Church. One, Baptism, and Two, the Lord’s Supper. Tithing is not one of them, nor is it a principle. I’ve said this so many times- tithing is a standard, not a principle. In the old testament we see Abraham as the first person recorded to tithe. But we are not commanded to follow Abraham’s actions, we are commanded to follow his faith.

Barna also mentions the 3 functions of the tithe. Support the Levites, fund Jewish religious festivals, and to help the poor. At this point i see the Church doing a good job of fulfilling one out of three of those tasks. That’s if you want to equate support of the levites with support of those who are ministering. If we were busy trying to build God’s kingdom instead of our own kingdom, i think we would be doing a much better job with fulfilling the other functions of the tithe (not that i want the tithe and all it’s purposes incorporated into the Church). Just hypothetically speaking.

During the first five years of the decade, an average of 84 cents out of every dollar donated by born again adults went to churches. In the past three years, though, the proportion has declined to just 76 cents out of every donated dollar.

I find this statistic very, very interesting indeed. This is saying that for the first five years since 2000 that of all the donations given, 84% of them were given to Church organizations, but since the past three years, only 76% of the total donations had been given to Church organizations. So people have been giving 8% less to their churches and giving it to some other organization. I don’t know, to me, that is a big jump. Think about it this way, imagine if 8 out of 100 people stopped giving the money to their church and instead gave it to the Red Cross. Hmmm, very interesting. Maybe a little wake up call for our greedy Church budgets. You can read more about my thoughts on the house church movement and its effect on Church budgets

“If this transition in the perceptions and giving behavior of born again adults continues to accelerate, the service functions of conventional churches will be redefined within the next eight to ten years, and conventional churches will have to adopt new ways of assisting people in need.”

That was a part of Barna’s interpretation of what the statistics are telling him. And i agree.

What’s your thoughts on the new tithing statistics and trends? Do you think Barna is on target with his analysis? Do you think this blog is on target?

1Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh had a dream; and behold, he stood by the river. 2Suddenly there came up out of the river seven cows, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow. 3Then behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river, ugly and gaunt, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the river. 4And the ugly and gaunt cows ate up the seven fine looking and fat cows. So Pharaoh awoke. 5He slept and dreamed a second time; and suddenly seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, plump and good. 6Then behold, seven thin heads, blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. 7And the seven thin heads devoured the seven plump and full heads. So Pharaoh awoke, and indeed, it was a dream. 8Now it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh.

25Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do: 26The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years; the dreams are one. 27And the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine. 28This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do. 29Indeed seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt; 30but after them seven years of famine will arise, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine will deplete the land. 31So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. 32And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

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!

What do you think about stories of people giving money and then they magically get back exactly the same amount or exactly double the amount they gave? After listening to so many stewardship sermons, i’ve heard so many pastors give a story where they would give $210 in the offering and magically they would get a check in the mail that was almost the exact amount that they gave in the offering. These kind of stories kind of twist my bones a little. Who am i to say that God didn’t do that? What evidence is there to say that God gave them almost to the penny what they gave to him? Hey, maybe if they had a little more faith, God might have given them the exact amount down to the penny, back.

I don’t doubt that God rewards those who sacrifice for him. Maybe i get bent out of shape because i do not have a story where i gave such and such amount and God gave me back twice that amount through an anonymous gift. I guess i get annoyed at these stories because it gives me the idea that God is a slot machine.

Here’s what i mean. Do these miracle stories happen every time you give? No. For the people that do tell these magnificent stories, it only happens to them once in a blue moon. But when it does happen, they love to publicly display this miracle as though God does this all the time. Its like when someone sits down in front of a slot machine. They keep popping in quarters and pulling the lever, time after time. Hey, soon enough, after enough quarters and enough time, you’ll hit the jackpot. Don’t murder me here or get me wrong. I know God provides miraculously for his children, but do you know how many people can give a testimony about them winning the jackpot? probably the same amount of people that can show how they got the same amount of money back in return that they gave. Hmmm . . . maybe God is a slot machine?

So what do we do? We ask for the Spirit of God to rise up a Pastor. We ask the Spirit of God to equip Sunday school teachers. We ask the Spirit of God to call more missionaries. We ask the Spirit of God to train our children. We ask the Spirit of God to start a new Church. We ask the Spirit of God to help us with our words. We ask the Spirit of God to lead us when we witness. We ask the Spirit of God to heal, intercede, interpret, and perform miracles. We ask the Spirit of God to guide everything, except our pocket books. So What do we do? we just play that safe and leave that up to tithing.

I’m not the type of person to just spit out a bunch of verses and say, “these verses are so clear about what God says”. I like hearing things myself that just kind of thump you on the head. Like the one statement above, “we’ll just play that safe and leave that up to tithing.” What it does is sum up the folly of the tithing mentality into a sarcastic thought. It’s not going to prove anything but it just shows how the tithing logic is so off. Sometimes i get so sick of trying to prove the role of Spirit-led giving. I can write chapters and chapters about that, but who wants to read all that stuff. There’s plenty of authors and theologians out there that repeat the same points as me.

I love the times in life when you say something and it sounds so profound. It’s like, where did that come from? then you feel happy about yourself and you start repeating it over and over in your head so you don’t forget it. I guess that’s kind of what i’m doing now. Are there times when you say something or hear something so profound that no one else seems to be on board with? Hopefully i won’t get any comments like that. If you do want something that is a little more definitive about the tithing argument you can read my tithing rebuttal with supporting verses. That has some of that boring stuff i talked about earlier.