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… 5. “Whoever thanks the most gets the most giving in the future.”
Pastors will hate to hear this but it is the truth—the more you thank people the more they’ll give in the future. Parachurch organizations know this. They have to know it—or their money’d dry up. Parachurch organizations study giving patterns and know what encourages people to give. They never scold people to give. They never take gifts for granted. They even hire people to do fund raising. (When’s the last time you heard of a local church hiring a fund raiser?) Local churches take your giving for granted. They act like you owe your tithe to the church and you’re robbing God if you don’t “pay your bills.” Yet even the tiniest parachurch organizations hire fund raisers while giant mega churches still don’t have them. Why is this? They know you’ve got to go about getting money professionally, and not assume people will just give “because it’s right.” Fund raising folk know human nature. They know you’ve got to thank people to get money later. So, let’s say you did send off a $500 check for your nephew’s kayak trip. BAM!—you get a personally signed note thanking you by return mail—five days later, from the President of the ministry, and he includes your tax deductible receipt with a scribbled note on the bottom saying, “Thanks for this—Kevin will be a delight!” Then two days later you’ll get a fancy little wedding-announcement-quality card from Kevin thanking you for your generosity. Then a month later the President of Kayak ministries will send you a really cool CD with last year’s “Kayak Choir” singing hymns. You love the CD and start to play it every Sunday morning before attending church. And of course the following January you’ll your year end statement from the Kayak ministry’s President—this time he’ll write with a bright blue marker on your letter, “Thanks once again for your generosity—I just sent an email this week to Kevin.” This is the sort of gratitude a parachurch organization does routinely. But what of your local church? Let’s say you gave several thousand dollars there last year? I know what happens in most churches. In January you’ll get a computer-generated statement detailing your giving along with a photocopied letter from the pastor “to the congregation.” At the most you’ll get a quarterly statement. Right? No wonder parachurch organizations are getting such a chunk of tithes—they understand people better. Gratitude breeds greater giving. Sure, I know…evangelicals ought to give without being thanked, and they do. But in the future I bet they’ll increasingly be giving where the gratitude comes back the most—and I suspect the local church is going to have to face this fact about people sooner or later.
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… 5. “Whoever thanks the most gets the most giving in the future.”
Pastors will hate to hear this but it is the truth—the more you thank people the more they’ll give in the future. Parachurch organizations know this. They have to know it—or their money’d dry up. Parachurch organizations study giving patterns and know what encourages people to give. They never scold people to give. They never take gifts for granted. They even hire people to do fund raising. (When’s the last time you heard of a local church hiring a fund raiser?) Local churches take your giving for granted. They act like you owe your tithe to the church and you’re robbing God if you don’t “pay your bills.” Yet even the tiniest parachurch organizations hire fund raisers while giant mega churches still don’t have them. Why is this? They know you’ve got to go about getting money professionally, and not assume people will just give “because it’s right.” Fund raising folk know human nature. They know you’ve got to thank people to get money later. So, let’s say you did send off a $500 check for your nephew’s kayak trip. BAM!—you get a personally signed note thanking you by return mail—five days later, from the President of the ministry, and he includes your tax deductible receipt with a scribbled note on the bottom saying, “Thanks for this—Kevin will be a delight!” Then two days later you’ll get a fancy little wedding-announcement-quality card from Kevin thanking you for your generosity. Then a month later the President of Kayak ministries will send you a really cool CD with last year’s “Kayak Choir” singing hymns. You love the CD and start to play it every Sunday morning before attending church. And of course the following January you’ll your year end statement from the Kayak ministry’s President—this time he’ll write with a bright blue marker on your letter, “Thanks once again for your generosity—I just sent an email this week to Kevin.” This is the sort of gratitude a parachurch organization does routinely. But what of your local church? Let’s say you gave several thousand dollars there last year? I know what happens in most churches. In January you’ll get a computer-generated statement detailing your giving along with a photocopied letter from the pastor “to the congregation.” At the most you’ll get a quarterly statement. Right? No wonder parachurch organizations are getting such a chunk of tithes—they understand people better. Gratitude breeds greater giving. Sure, I know…evangelicals ought to give without being thanked, and they do. But in the future I bet they’ll increasingly be giving where the gratitude comes back the most—and I suspect the local church is going to have to face this fact about people sooner or later.
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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