It starts in the Tithe

I started writing this post as I was sitting on holiday at a game farm in the North-West province, the hot day coming to an end with bush veld noises all around me.  Unfortunately the holiday ended prematurely with me sitting with a fractured collarbone.  So I apologise for this post being late.  Typing with one hand instead of two really lengthens the time it takes to type.

Now, onto the reason for my post.  I want to talk about tithing, and what bothers me about it.

I want to talk about something that has been bothering me for quite a while now. To give you a little background about myself and the importance of tithing:
I've always been a church-going person. I count it as part of my life almost as much as sleep, but I'm not a religious person.  In fact, I hate religious churches almost as much as Atheists do. I left the church I grew up in for this reason, and have been to quite a few churches trying to find the right one, the one that, although not perfect, does put Christ first.  This I did until I settled with a Charismatic church that was non-denominational and accepted everyone for who they are and who are willing to change their lives for what Christ wants it to be.

Now, always being part of a church did not teach me that I needed to tithe. In fact, seeing Church politics unfold as I sat on the sidelines for many years, still too confused and unschooled, encouraged me almost not to. Seeing how pastors and preachers got ousted out of Reformed churches for not toeing the line as the Church Provincial or National Committees/Councils would like, yet preaching the Word of Christ as they ought to and following that up with a biblical-inspired life, turned me away from ever wanting to tithe to a Church.

As I got into the habit of reading my Bible on my own, I realized the importance of tithing, and the reasons why one should tithe.  You see, before the nation of Israel existed, there was a person by the name of Abram, who, when blessed by the very first priest of God that we encounter in the Bible, Melchizedek, gave a tenth of everything he had to the priest as a thank you for the blessing he received. (Genesis 14:17-24)

God very clearly approved of this, as He instilled laws around tithing, making it an offering to Him that will eventually be given to those that serve Him in the temple, i.e. the Levites and priests (Leviticus 27:30-32, Numbers 18:21-28, Deuteronomy 12:5-12, 14:21-29).  Jesus also mentioned tithes when He rebuked the Pharisees (Matthew 23:22-24), and in Hebrews we encounter the unknown writer of Hebrews tying the tithe up with the entire priesthood, from Melchizedek all the way to our Savior Jesus.(Hebrews 7)

It is made very clear in the Bible that tithing is a very important form of worship, not only because it helps those that serves Christ as their jobs, such as our pastors, priests, and deacons and elders that are in full employ of the churches they serve without other sources of income, but it proves something of the person giving the tithe.   It proves that, at a very basic level, they trust Christ with their income.

Now, contrary to most preachings/teachings from pastors, preachers, and the like, tithing is NOT the following:

• Giving your time to the Church, whether it is in ministry, voluntary work, or just showing up on Sundays
• Giving money to other organizations that are there to help the poor and needy
• Putting money in the offering plate - if you think putting down a few coins is a tithe you seriously need to go back to school and learn some math.
• Giving money to the poor and destitute you find at traffic lights or on street corners, or in fact, anywhere.

Everywhere in the Bible tithes are a monetary or product-based giving that equates 10% of your income (before tax, I must add) that go to the Church or faith leaders.  Your time that you give to the church cannot truly be quantified, thus it's not a tithe, and since the Bible says that tithes go to those working in the churches, it is not the giving of alms to anyone.  What the Bible does say though, is that tithing can be anything that is not money, but can be quantified, such as buying the flowers for a woman's outreach in the church.  If buying the flowers and/or making food for the church costs you ten percent of your income, then that can be a substitute.  I'm sure you can come up with other examples.

To add to this, there is no such thing as someone that cannot tithe.  

• Don't have the money?  Then how did you get to church?
• You walked?  Did you eat anything during the week?  How did you get hold of the food?  If not from a garbage can, who gave it to you?
• If it was given, ever thought of perhaps taking 10% of that and sharing that with someone at the church, such as the gardener perhaps?

An extremely simple example to prove that there is no such thing as not being able to tithe. If you have an income, you can tithe. (Luke 21: 1-4)  And don't tell me that it is difficult.  With today's modern banking technology it is a simple debit order that can be instituted monthly from your account.  Or you could pull the cash or cheque from an ATM.  The only obstacle is you.

Something else that needs to be pointed out: It is a widely known fact (or at least it should be) that a person's actions will often center around that which is important to them, and very often this will involve them spending money on what they find important.  In fact, the majority of their time and money will be taken up by what they find important or love.   Don't believe me? Go do a Google search on the topic "studies on spending habits" and read a couple of those entries you find. 

Now, to what has been bothering me.  I have been able to get hold of most churches' budget plans, statements and income and balance sheets for quite a while now, mainly because churches in South Africa are required to be registered as Non-Profit Organizations, and as part of the corporate statutes for such organizations they must make their finance declarations publicly available. In addition I am a regular follower of Mark Driscoll's sermons, and very often he will report back on the financial state of Mars Hill Church during or after his sermons.  What has shocked me about all the statements, and all the feedback, is that, when all the figures are tallied up, most churches receive less than 33% of the tithes owed to them when compared to the attendance numbers or member numbers of those churches. Quite a few churches are lucky if they manage to see 18% of tithes in a single year.  Now disclaimer:  I'm only taking the few examples I have seen, and this number is by no means scientific, but I will bet that this picture reflects almost every church's situation around the Western world.

This bothers me.
This bothers me, because there are so many people that call themselves Christian but do not tithe.
This bothers me, because so many people that call themselves Christian say they are involved in the Church, but do not put their money where their mouths are.
It bothers me, because some Christians are involved with the Church, but do not tithe.

If your heart is where your treasure or spending habits are, and you are a follower of Christ, shouldn't you be spending the bulk of your income at your church if you love Jesus?  Isn't Christ your Savior? Isn't He your Treasure? If you are involved in church and you are part of the ministry, whether as a volunteer or as a full time employee, can you honestly say that you would care if that ministry fails?  I mean, it has been proven many times that people that invests money, not just time, have a bigger vested interest in whatever they have placed their money in, than say someone who only invested their time.  That is why the CEOs of the Forbes top 100 list are all paid with stocks and bonds in the companies they run.  They have a vested interest in the success of the Business, because if the Business gets a knock, their income will get a knock, and if the Business fails, they will lose their income.  Doesn't that work the same for Christians?

"But my pastor/preacher/church doesn't manage the money as I see fit, or doesn't manage the money well at all?" I hear you say. Well, first off, they are in charge of the tithes as Christ has put them in charge.  They have to make the decisions, and while the decisions may seem nonsensical to you, there may be a good explanation for it. Ever asked them why they spend the tithes that way?  And if the church doesn't  manage it well, why not volunteer your services to help them?  And if they say no, and they still mismanage the tithes, what are you still doing there? If a church cannot manage something as simple as the tithes they receive, how can they ever be trusted to give proper spiritual growth?  Leave that church and go to a church that does manage the tithes well.

I'm a firm believer that you cannot force someone to tithe, because it is not so much the action as the attitude that needs to be fixed.  But should I ever be in the position to have to hire people to do ministry for God, my very first question to them would be: "Do you tithe?"  I tell you now, that if their answer is no, regardless of their qualifications or past experience in ministry, I will not hire that person, because it will be very clear that their attitude is not Christ-like, and that they cannot be trusted to minister to others as their hearts are not where its suppose to be.