Some provocative words from Michael Spencer (aka, ‘Internet Monk’) at his blog this week:
Tithing to a local church … is a practice that I can’t see being scripturally required in any new covenant sense. I was taught my entire life that God commanded me to tithe to my local church. Awareness of the larger needs of the Kingdom, of other ministries, of individuals and even of other causes supported by my church was always laundered through the “tithe to the local church” first rhetoric.
Shocker: I don’t trust many local churches to spend that much money in a kingdom-savvy way. Insurance. Utilities. Salaries. Facilities. With a percentage to “missions.” I can no longer believe that is how I, as a Christian, am to be a steward of my financial resources. My church should help me manage and spend that money by showing me many different ways I can make it count for the Kingdom and teaching me to be a Kingdom investor in all of life. They should teach me to see the world with Kingdom eyes and my resources through the priorities of Jesus, which include the local church but certainly isn’t restricted to it.
A couple of questions that I’d like to discuss: how do you understand ‘tithing’? Is it a command for the Jesus-community or do you agree with Spencer, that it is thoroughly non-scriptural? And, perhaps a larger question: what is the relationship between the local church and the ‘kingdom of God’? How does participation in a local church (whether through financial gifts, serving, passion, sacrifice, etc.) influence or shed light on your participation in the kingdom?
Would love to read your thoughts and interact with you in the comments.
Related posts:
- Swiping the Offering at Church
- [Blank] Church
- Bonhoeffer on Church, Endowments, Clergy, and Social Life
Previous post: Helen Prejean on the Threat of Jesus
Next post: How Would You Introduce God?
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I think we fail to understand the context of the tithe as God gave it to Israel. The law of the tithe was given for them to be thankful for the fruitfulness of their inheritance from God. So the question is, is the wage we make from the job our fruitful inheritance from God? The answer to that question governs our relationship to the tithe. My thougts about that can be read if you click on my website link.
Keith,
I think the answer to the question: “is the wage we make from our job our fruitful inheritance from God?” is ONE thing that will shape our view of the tithe. Another question that needs answering: is a percentage gift/offering in line with a New Testament view of God’s inheritance?
How is the model of lavish giving (Acts 4:32-35), the call for sacrificial self-giving (Philippians 2:3-7), and the absence of instruction to Gentile communities on tithing consistent with a continuing focus on “tithing” in Christian churches?
My question is when does an athlete give 10%?, giving 10% is not an option if we are to follow the examples of the Apostles.
These were men that abandoned all, how where they able to tithe without an income? The movement of change that swept through the NT was so radical it was heresy to Jewish leaders. Jesus preached outside, away from builings and in nature to be closer to the fruits of creation.
He had no wooden pulpit, never reccalled exact scripture from the torah instead creating parables from the conscienceness.
The only time he passed a basket around is when there was food in it.
I can go on and on.
The whole bible can’t be right, you find a passage to support a view and theres to counter-act against that original passage. And you must take into acccount the mutitude of translations and the many different mediums for recording these documents.
I urge the readers of this blog site to discover how the bible was assembled from a pick n’ mix of scriptures.
I am have been Christian since birth, raised Catholic, married a baptist and am a practising Christian.
I tithe inn my own way and give time to the church around me to those who need assitance, I bring a bible
I accept the fact that God guided the hands that wrote The Bible. But humans been correcting things that THEY find wrong abh.ave corretctin his H iypotts sttypo…..scracth that……..
10 % sounds like a tax. God tax that is.
Wayne,
The answer to my question and yours takes us down a road most do not want to go.
I believe that Jesus’ commands in Matthew 6:24-34 about seeking first the Kingdom was His declaration that He is releasing us from the curse of Adam of eating by the sweat of our brow. The experiences and teachings of the Apostles shows us that God had successfully separated their hearts from the curse. They were no longer consumed by self preservation and consequently were willing to give it all up.
The type of society and economy we have created for ourselves over the last 150 years is totally built on self-preservation and the curse. It honors the sweat of the brow over everything. And the church’s teachings and activities toward the tithe are part of that system.
So, to address your question, the activities and teachings of the Apostles reflected hearts freed from the curse. The focus and teachings of today’s Christian churches on tithing is a reflection of hearts that are not only bound by the curse of Adam, but thoroughly embracing it.
Keith,
Can you clarify how teaching on tithing reflects being bound by (and embracing) the curse of Adam.
Thanks – look forward to reflecting on that some more …
Michael,
A couple of questions come from your comment – you wrote that the apostles abandoned all and had no income, and yet the evidence (implicit in Acts and explicit in Paul’s letters) is that at least some worked to support themselves. And so, the question of what to do with income is not so easily swept off the table.
You hint that Jesus received no support (didn’t pass a basket for collection!), and yet Mary, Joanna, and Susanna in Luke 8:1-3 supported him and the apostles financially. And, I would suppose that this explicit mention would go along with other implicit suggestions of support, such as lodging with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
So, I’m a little lost on your point. I like the analogy of an athlete giving 100%, but I’m unable to make the connection with a biblical ethic of giving.
I don’t want to take up a lot of space here. The blog I am linking to kind of explains the reasoning.
The style of economy described by God in Leviticus and Deuteronomy is one that allows its participants to live based on the fruitfulness of God’s creation, the gift of God. It’s true that they had to be diligent to plant and harvest the crops and tend the cattle, but the growth of the crops and the life of the cattle all depended on God making them grow. Thus, the tithe wasn’t from man’s labor, but of the blessing and fruitfulness (the gift) of God.
The style of economy we have today, where almost everyone earns their living by earning wages, is very different from the one God envisioned for His people. This style of economy completely separates its participants from any kind of fruitfulness or blessing from God (His gift), and completely depends on man’s labor. Thus, if we give 10% of this in an offering, it is a tithe of man’s labor and not of the fruitfulness or gift of God.
The importance of this is that man’s labor is the curse of Adam — you will eat by the sweat of your brow. If we are giving money in offering and calling it tithe, and if that money is coming from the wages of a man’s labor, then we are giving the tithe from the curse. By contrast, the tithe of the old testament was from the blessing of God’s gift to Israel and was not part of the curse. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 6:23).
How does the church’s teaching on tithes reflect hearts that are bound to, and embracing, the curse? I believe that Jesus, in Matthew 6:24-34, has offered us a chance to live in this world by the blessing of God’s gift. But the church, and the whole world for that matter, has failed to take Him up on His offer. Instead, we want to embrace the wages of man’s labor. Why? Because we have more faith in our own hard work than in God’s ability to bless us. For this reason, tithing based on money reflects hearts that are bound to and are embracing the curse. Tithing, as we practice it these days, is a celebration of our hard work (the curse), not the rejoicing in God’s gift.
Keith –
Thanks for the clarification, and I hope everyone will click on Keith’s name, which is a link to his blog, which he referenced.
So, if followers of Jesus were living according to his offer in Matt 6, is it a N.T. command to tithe?
I get what you’re saying about the church and world all being bound to an embrace of the curse, but if this weren’t the case, what would be the Christian ethic of giving?
No. In my opinion, Matthew 6:24-34 has nothing to do with tithing or giving money in any way. It’s about Jesus declaring that He has freed us from the curse of Adam, so that the primary focus of the activities of our lives do not have to be about making a living. When we get to this point we are no longer afraid and do not have to hoard. We can then freely and lavishly distribute what we have to others.
As for the Christian ethic of giving if we were not living under the curse? Giving has to come from the goodness that comes from the new creature that God has placed within us. Giving $1 to the church, if it comes from what God has placed in my heart, is better that giving 50% if it comes from folowing a man-made rule or to demonstrate my righteousness before God. Also, providing a hungry family food for a month, if done because of the love God has placed in my heart, is better than giving a year’s salary to the church if I do it because of a rule or to make myself look righteous. The rules and procedures the church has set up are man made and have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God.
Thanks Keith, for your insight. I dig what you say about giving being a heart-deal! I agree. And the example you give of feeding a hungry family seems to point back to the quote in my original post – a “kingdom” perspective, addressing kingdom needs with our money // as opposed to just “paying dues” to the local church with no heart.
Thanks for the topic Wayne. I think this topic is generally an emotional one for a lot of people, than again, what biblical topic isn’t? (;
My observation is somewhat skeptical that believers will listen and give what God tells their spirit to give, so I typically think 10% is a good place to be as a reference point. If anyone wishes to test my hypothesis however as to whether there should be some number Christians should adhere to, just ask your local churches how many of their members even give THAT much. You’ll generally find across the board that those with the least give the most and those with the most rarely give in such a way that it stretches them. I’m actually not breaking any new ground here with this information though, the statistics are well known, especially if anyone is familiar with George Barna’s research. You could say that this problem the Church has as a whole, defending the ideal but avoiding the reality, is quite troublesome and shows up in more areas than just one.
Christians don’t want many things to be the way they are, (poverty, abortion, addiction, etc.), but the fact still remains that people will be in need of help and will need to get it from somewhere, even IF it doesn’t have the approval of the saints (that’s actually a whole other topic for another day!) As “unbiblical” of a “rule” as the tithe is, churches will need money for us to enjoy the air conditioning in the Summer and the heat in the Winter, the lights will need powering so we can follow along in our Bibles, and I won’t be too specific here, but the toilets will need a flushin too. I can see how one can defend the fact that the New Testament does not specifically say to “tithe”, and I would agree 100% (pun intended), but I see no merit in defending the ideal versus the reality that the church needs a certain portion every month to run its facilities, and if it takes the tithe to get it to her, so be it.
Rich,
What you’re getting at near the end of your comment is interesting – the “logistics” of local church ministry. Here’s what I’d like to see – a church just be really honest and say, “if you’re a part of this community, there are some things that happen that require money, we want each of you to commit to giving so that we can pay the bills and do ministry the way we’ve set it up.” In some churches, this means salaries, mortgage/rent, utilities, and other practical needs.
But, here is what I’m wrestling with. Can the church say, with integrity, that the work of the kingdom that God has called us to REQUIRES the salaries, mortgage payments, and bills? If the answer is yes, and you’re a member of that local church, then by all means, you should give from a generous and glad heart to support the mission of your church as it works to bring the larger kingdom purposes of God. But, I’m just not so sure that we can say the work of Jesus, the one who ministered as a homeless teacher and who embedded himself within the culture in radically small and relational ways, REQUIRES much of what fills the budget lines of so many churches today. If your community has decided that it WANTS to do ministry in a way that requires all these expenses, fine, just say it like it is: “If you’re a member here, we need you to do your part and pay your dues so we can persist.” And for that, I suppose 10% is as good a place as any to draw the guideline.
Thanks for creating this community for us to fellowship and share Wayne. I appreciate your openness about what you wrestle with and I agree that giving to the local church should be done through an honest open share with the people concerning what the needs of the church are.
My area of tension is the role of the practical in the spiritual. I can clearly see that God conveys to us in the NT that He wants our hearts more than He wants to see some kind of mindless action played out on a stage before Him, but I also see how believers abandon areas of the church and society you would think they would be more involved in if they were truly listening to God’s voice. Giving to ones local church is one of the many areas I think it is good to have some sort of “at least” number so as to care for the needs of the local church. If one sits down and determines that a larger percentage can be given, that is great, but otherwise like I said earlier, it’s a good reference point. (Of course I don’t speak to whether I think 10% is a command or not, but I think it’s because the NT doesn’t specifically say it is, so I am not sure about the Church enforcing it as such. Maybe my stance is: If you’re not giving at least 10% it’s a command, if you are than it’s not. haha).