Wednesday, July 27, 2005
tithe as an act of faith, not finances
I am getting close to finishing reading the book Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Throughts on Christian Spirituality.
Towards the end Don Miller writes about tithing in the most clear way I have seen or heard. Here is the link for this piece.
These were my reflections after having read those pages:
Around four years ago a person who use to attend worship at my church and who was a member, told me, at a meeting on our church financial situation, that it was unrealistic for me to expect other people of this church to tithe. He told me it was perfectly logical for me as the pastor to tithe. However, I shouldn't expect that of other folks of this church. Rather, he said, the Trustees should come up with financial plans to get the best out of the money we do get and I should come up with plans and behave in a way so we would get more members. Thus, with more members we would get enough money to keep the church going (which is a message of survival by a body that seeks to share the Gospel of salvation with the world.) This would be without anyone else having to tithe or even to focus on percentage of income offerings to God.
This was a person that a significant number of people listened to around the church about money. I knew when he said this, then, that we were dead in the water. I could preach from scripture until the cows come home about tithing as an act of faith and discipleship, and the giving of our first fruits to the "temple" (or whatever is the spiritual center and nurturing place of our life), but it wouldn't matter because folks were more entrenched in the financial managament as part of the business of the organization than the teaching about faith and money...from their designated spiritual teacher, the pastor. (I'm still wondering why folks pay a salary for a "preacher" if they're not going to use his or her preaching for spiritual guidance in their lives let alone for the church...where that preacher has been called to preach the Gospel!).
Well, that man was right about one thing...the Loar family tithes. Not because I'm the minister, but because we want to be obedient to Christ and grow in faith. (We practice Biblical tithing...10% to the "temple" and then above that to other charitable organizations who serve people in need. We grow spiritually from both. And we don't fuss over whether it is gross or net income for the 10%.) That's why I knew the church was in dead in the water when this man said this about the rest of the church not being able to or not needing to tithe. Because that meant faith was dead here. Growing in Christ, to higher levels of commitment, was dead here. In truth, that was an act of disobedience to God.
When we study scripture we learn that tithing is an act of faith. It is a risk. But it is a risk in the midst of growing trust in God. If we only give what we have left over in our budget to God, even if it is 10%, we are saying, "This is my money. (creation)" God calls for disciples who will give first in faith to his purpose and live in trusting their whole life with him.
In the ways of the world, including putting primary trust in financial management skills, none of this makes sense. (I think financial management is important. BUT, it comes as a steward skill after we have given over our whole life to Christ including all of our time and money. That seems unreasonable in the world we live in today, including the way that most of the church functions today...which is a strong indication of how the church has truly become more secular than spiritual.) But then, if we really studied what Jesus says about and does with money, let alone what is said in the rest of scripture about money, we would know that Kingdom values are different from world values. (In the world we give of "our" money to charities, including the church. In Kingdom values we give over all of our life to Christ and then through spiritual discernment via trust in God, use our life to share the Gospel message of salvation with the world. In that framework, you don't even have to prime the pump with stewardship campaigns for people to give to the church. You don't ask them to "pledge" to meet a budget. In that framework people give because they are growing spiritually via the church and know that their identity is tied up with the church. In that framework, churches always have more money than they ask for. Notice, I didn't say "more than they need." Because the mission of Christ is never fulfilled.)
In the terms of the Kingdom of God tithing makes perfect sense. Check it out in scripture!
