In talking about giving of your time, Richard Slater wrote in the Salvation Army Song Book these words… And dost thou ask a gift from me the gift of passing time? My hours I’ll give, not grudgingly, I feel by right they’re thine.
I just gave a message on giving and Michelle and I have been led to give more. So on the topic of tithing and giving I re-read The following writing by Keith Drury, taken from a blog from 2006 entitled "What Evangelicals Believe About Tithing" - let me know what you think...?
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I’ve been closely watching the laity the last few decades and I think I am ready to describe what evangelicals believe about tithing. Read it and see how much you agree.
To evangelicals… 3. “The tithe should go to the church—but the church is bigger than the local church.”
Evangelicals are a generous people. They’ve blessed a thousand parachurch organizations and mission ministries. Many evangelicals count their giving to these organizations as part of their “tithe.” Pastors say, “You ought to give your tithe to your local church and your offerings (above the tithe) to these worthy causes. But evangelicals don’t buy it. They consider as their “tithe” their total charitable giving spread around “the church.” I think they do this because they’ve been told to believe this. This is what the preachers told them, though not directly. Evangelical preachers say, “the church” is not the visible collection of people before their eyes, but a world-wide invisible gathering of born again believers. They preach that whenever there are believers gathered there the church exists. The evangelical laity adopted this doctrine and have simply applied it to their tithing. Thus, they believe “the church” exists whenever “two or three gather together in His name.” So if two or three Christians found a 503(c)(3) corporation for a “kayak ministry” evangelicals are quite comfortable giving $500 of their tithe toward their nephew’s kayak trek down the Atlantic coast. After all, (in evangelical ecclesiology) the three Christians who formed this adventure camp are “the church” every bit as much as the gathered local church. In fact, many who read this column won’t see anything whatsoever wrong with this view of the church—which only goes to show how far evangelical ecclesiology has wandered off from orthodoxy.
So that’s what I think evangelicals think about tithing. At least most of them. Or, at least the average evangelical. Or at least the future evangelical. Don’t believe me? Then here’s my dare—do the math: Take the total income from your local church then multiply that figure by ten. Next divide that result by the number of Christian wage earners in your church. Go ahead and do it—even roughly. What’d you get? Is that final figure the average salary of your people. Is it? Or have you discovered what most pastors discover when they do this—if every Christian (even every member) wage earner in their church tithed a full 10% to the local church it would double the church’s income? For many churches it would triple the income. (For my church—five times!) I’m afraid there are few other issues where the laity and the pastor differ more. Most pastors say: 1) A tithe = 10%; 2) The Bible requires it; 3) It should go to the local church; 4) it is an obligation; and 5) it should be given without concern for being thanked. Those five views are just about opposite of the average evangelical’s view above. Which views are right? So what do you think?
To evangelicals… 3. “The tithe should go to the church—but the church is bigger than the local church.”
Evangelicals are a generous people. They’ve blessed a thousand parachurch organizations and mission ministries. Many evangelicals count their giving to these organizations as part of their “tithe.” Pastors say, “You ought to give your tithe to your local church and your offerings (above the tithe) to these worthy causes. But evangelicals don’t buy it. They consider as their “tithe” their total charitable giving spread around “the church.” I think they do this because they’ve been told to believe this. This is what the preachers told them, though not directly. Evangelical preachers say, “the church” is not the visible collection of people before their eyes, but a world-wide invisible gathering of born again believers. They preach that whenever there are believers gathered there the church exists. The evangelical laity adopted this doctrine and have simply applied it to their tithing. Thus, they believe “the church” exists whenever “two or three gather together in His name.” So if two or three Christians found a 503(c)(3) corporation for a “kayak ministry” evangelicals are quite comfortable giving $500 of their tithe toward their nephew’s kayak trek down the Atlantic coast. After all, (in evangelical ecclesiology) the three Christians who formed this adventure camp are “the church” every bit as much as the gathered local church. In fact, many who read this column won’t see anything whatsoever wrong with this view of the church—which only goes to show how far evangelical ecclesiology has wandered off from orthodoxy.
So that’s what I think evangelicals think about tithing. At least most of them. Or, at least the average evangelical. Or at least the future evangelical. Don’t believe me? Then here’s my dare—do the math: Take the total income from your local church then multiply that figure by ten. Next divide that result by the number of Christian wage earners in your church. Go ahead and do it—even roughly. What’d you get? Is that final figure the average salary of your people. Is it? Or have you discovered what most pastors discover when they do this—if every Christian (even every member) wage earner in their church tithed a full 10% to the local church it would double the church’s income? For many churches it would triple the income. (For my church—five times!) I’m afraid there are few other issues where the laity and the pastor differ more. Most pastors say: 1) A tithe = 10%; 2) The Bible requires it; 3) It should go to the local church; 4) it is an obligation; and 5) it should be given without concern for being thanked. Those five views are just about opposite of the average evangelical’s view above. Which views are right? So what do you think?
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Live holy, preach Jesus!
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