I see a tremendous opportunity ahead for simple churches to impact our world through their use of finances.
The question, in simple/house church circles, is often “What about money?” meaning, is there a “right way” for money to be given, collected, or made use of? Is tithing a valid scriptural principle or is it an Old Testament principle that has been mis-appropriated by the church in an attempt to keep the organizational systems and buildings supported?
I would like to suggest that tithing, in so many ways, misses the mark. First of all, it often fosters a legalistic (even superstitious) way of thinking: “If I give God this specific amount, I will have His blessing; if I don’t, then I won’t.”
On the other hand (this is important), I also think that tithing puts a limit on giving because it misses the real principle we find in Scripture: generosity. In other words, theoretically, if we followed the principles of Scripture and listened to Jesus (i.e Luke 14:33) most of us would give more than a tithe as a regular part of our Jesus-following life.
Now, let’s take this out of the theoretical for a moment. My friend, Brian Hogan, in his missionary work in Mongolia (recounted in his wonderful book, “There’s a Sheep in My Bathtub), describes how the new Christians in this movement were taught generosity rather than tithing. The result was a net giving that far exceeded the typical tithe and a tremendous missionary impact on other regions as a result of their giving!
So, here is where I see an explosive possibility!
First, suppose “simple-church folk” began moving out of the limitations of tithing and into the dynamic realm of generosity. Imagine the release of finances this would bring.
Second, imagine all of these resources being channeled into workers (missionaries, regional facilitators of movements) and to meet the needs of the poor. I happen to believe that both of these areas are important and scriptural, but will not debate this at the moment. My point is this: In the USA alone, over 72 billion dollars goes to religious institutions mostly for clergy salaries and buildings.
I am not going to condemn this preferring, instead, to focus on getting the log out of my own eye and determining what I can do. I simply want to suggest that if we can sustain a movement without buildings and unnecessary staff, and add a new level of generosity, we have tremendous potential to use finances in a way that can change our world spiritually (deploying missionaries and workers where they are most needed) and physically (alleviating a good percentage of the world’s greatest poverty).
One final note. When I speak of “poverty,” I want to remind us that there is “true” poverty in the world. By that I mean (for example) that there are 27,000 children who die unnecessarily every day from causes related directly to poverty (i.e. no safe drinking water, no sanitation, malnutrition, or parents unable to afford medical treatment). We often think that poverty is an issue too big to tackle, but there is actually a great deal that we can do to alleviate the most deadly faces of need.
I am wondering if simple, Jesus-followers might be able to have a significant impact on some of these critical issues of our time!
Comments
7 responses to “Simple Church Finances: from Tithing to Generosity”
Roger, thanks for your article. May we indeed become a generous church! However, tithing is indeed a biblical principle we should not discount. Why do so many simple church teachers dismiss tithing as God’s method of raising support for God-called and gifted workers? I fully agree that our funds should not go to church buildings, but to God-called and gifted servants of the Word of God and the poor. The reality is that the global church gives less than 2% of our personal income annually to all Christian causes on average. So simply coming up to the 10% standard of the tithe would increase giving globally by 500%! That is a significant change. So I appeal to you to consider that in 1 Cor. 9: 13-14 and 1 Tim. 5: 17-18 the Word teaches us to support Gospel workers “in the same way” that the priests and Levites of the temple were supported. And since we now have the Better, New Covenant through our Lord Jesus Christ that replaces the Old Covenant, we must be speaking of principle, not legalism. So I submit to you that it is indeed Biblical and New Covenant to support the God-called and gifted ministers of the Word with the tithe of the people, even while our generosity spills over to serve the poor with our offerings.
I agree that tithing is important, and my family does. However, I am concerned that the modern church uses a staff position where a lay position would do. I hope that makes sense. For example, we don’t hear of a missions pastor in the NT example, nor do we hear of it in the OT example through priests, yet we have them today. Think of how many actual missionaries could be supported without paying the missions pastor? Just a thought.
Buildings though…doubt anyone can argue that one…pretty self-explanatory. They need to go. That’s what makes house churches so attractive.
I am fully convinced that tithing is a biblical principle that Christians need to practice today. I have been practising tithing for many years. In our Christian fellowship we teach that the tithe belongs to God and that we have we have not given anything before we have paid the full tithe and started giving beyond 10 percent.
We believe the tithe should be used for people as in the Bible and not for buildings etc. We support our full time leaders by the tithe and we send a lot of it to Christian leaders in Third World countries. We also believe that the Bible teaches that we need to use the tithe for the poor.
Offerings, on the other hand can be used for any good purpose. We use our offerings for any practical need as well as for mission projects.
Brian Hogan (referenced in the post) wrote me an email containing some of his thoughts on tithing. I thought I would share them here as a comment:
Brian Hogan here. The tithe is not a New Testament Command or practice of the early church. The purely Jewish churches may have continued to pay tithes to the Temple System (failure to do so would have been akin to income tax evasion), but none of the Gentile churches of the New Testament knew tithing. The reason is what you mention. The tithe was for the maintenance of the Levites and Priests (a full-time clergy also unknown to NT churches) and for the Temple complex upkeep (religious buildings were unknown to the early church which met from house to house).
So the question is, without the tithe (and verses from the OT Prophet Malachi to scare folks into coughing it up) where are we at in terms of Christian giving?
In YWAM Frontier Missions we have NT Guiding Principles (non-negotiable) for planting new churches among the unreached. One of those principles (and perhaps the heart of all of them) is:
We make disciples who are obedient to Jesus’ basic commands (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:37-47):
1) repent, believe, receive the Holy Spirit (these go together, we can’t do one without the others) Mark 1:15, John 20:22
2) be baptized (this includes living forever the new, holy life it signifies) Matt. 28:19-20
3) love God, family, fellow disciples, neighbors and even enemies (forgiveness). Luke 10:25-37
4) celebrate the Lord’s Supper (including cultivating the communion with Christ and His people which the meal affirms) Luke 22:14-20
5) pray daily, Matt. 6:5-13
6) give generously, Matt 6:19-21
7) make disciples, (witness, teach, train leaders, etc.) Matt 28:18-19, Luke 24:46-48.
The key command above for our topic is that we teach believers to obey Jesus in generous giving. This forces them to consult the Holy Spirit about how much and how often is generous. Tithing only forces us to consult a calculator, not God. And we all know it is not generous to tithe. (Want 10% of my candy bar?) We need to radically trust the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. We can’t enforce an OT system designed to support the clergy-class while we are planting NT churches where every believer is a functioning priest.
I would challenge you to ignore the last 1500 years and plant churches the way Paul did, introducing active obedient disciples to the living God who is willing to guide them in all things, including their giving.
Okay Brian, but let’s be practical. Does this actually bring in the bucks for church activities?
YES! I can affirm this from personal experience. In Erdenet, Mongolia, where our team planted the church, the believers were largely unemployed and poor. They were taught the commands of Christ in accordance with the Great Commission (“Teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you”) and our YWAM principles. They learned that the standard for ALL believers was generous giving. (Obviously generous looks a bit different for Bill Gates than it does for a poor widow. It is much more fair to the poor than tithing. 10% is NOTHING for the rich and may mean malnutrition or worse to one on the brink). The Mongolian believers gave generously – cash, jewelry, marmot furs they shot and cured, all sorts of things. And God blessed their generous obedience. After a year and a half the leaders we were training asked us to ask the church in Sweden to stop sending any money to them. The local church was fully self supported by the gifts and offerings of her people! I praise God we didn’t teach them to tithe!
By the way, if you are following the NT principles for church planting, then your group has no professional clergy to pay and no building to buy and maintain. House churches led by “lay” people have plenty of money for OUTREACH (and books and picnics)! And you can be content with whatever comes in as your people learn to obey Christ by generous giving.
Roger I appreciate your thoughts on generosity and I appreciate you sharing Brian’s thoughts with us as well. I was a pastor-teacher in an institutional church for 22 years but through the study of the Scriptures I rejected tithing 4 years into my ministry and began teaching grace giving. We started a congregation and I served as a pastor for that congregation for 18 years without teaching tithing and without passing a plate. I have found God’s grace to be sufficient and His faithfulness great! I really appreciated Brian’s thought on the Malachi passage and completely concur. For those that believe the tithe is for the support of God’s called and gifted ministers I would remind them that all New Covenant believers are called and gifted ministers as well as priests. For me, being rescued from an institutional view of the Church has expanded my understanding of giving and brought great joy into my giving. I now appreciate and hopefully understand in greater measure why Paul gave the quote of Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” to elders (pastors, overseers)and encouraged them to “work with their own hands” to help the weak… to be those that give to the Church rather than take from the Church. Just like the Master said, it truly is a blessing.
I use to Love everything about church and I was so close to Jesus and I was set for life….until I started taking drugs and my life just crashed, I started feeling like I was becoming unfaithful in my relationship with God, but ever since I graduated from Narconon Rehab I am getting back to the old lovable me again. Praise God.
Tithing is what Jesus says it is…’a matter of the Law’ Mat 23:23 (also Paul in Heb 7:5)
Jesus says if we change one ‘jot or tittle of the Law’ we would be LEAST in the Kingdom of Heaven
Tithing is
1) FOOD only (never money) Lev 27:30&32
2) for LEVITES only (never pastors) Num 18:21-23
3) for Israel only (never Gentiles) Lev 27:1 and 34 …and Acts 15)
Anyone changing this will make their lifes work of no avail!
regards in Christ
Chris