Tithing Your Church in Hard Times

[Ringer]

I remember a while back there was a post that contained poll results dealing tithing/offerings to the church. One of the questions in the poll was along the lines of, "You believe you will receive greater blessings in your life if you regularly tithe your church."

For those who are skeptical in the existence of God, this may seem laughable but many of you seemed to indicate that by generously giving to the church, you've been blessed as a result. Money is something that we hold dear to our hearts and with the economy being the way it is, we have a tendancy to be hesitant with our offerings and focus more on saving in case things go South. I don't want to get too personal in people's finances but it would be interesting to know if anybody has changed their tithing habits as a result of the economic woes we are facing these days. I'll say right off the bat that I'm working on getting to a point that I'm giving my church the first of my fruits and not just what is left over if you understand what I'm trying to say. My mindset is basically, what can I get for myself and still have a bit leftover to put in the church offering on Sunday. If we truely believe that God is Jehovah-Jirah or "The Lord will provide", maybe this wouldn't be such a struggling point in our life but instead, recognize that maybe God will choose to bless us even more when we decide to remain faithful in our giving through uncertain times. Money can bring us a false sense of security and when we look to money for that security instead of God, I think we miss out on having a more personal relationship with God. I think I asked a few questions in there so have at it.

 

[Heneni]

Ok..lets see...

I dont know if you have a family, but if you are tithing to the church, and you cant look after your family, feed them, clothe them and provide for their basic needs you might as well stop tithing.

Matthew 15: 5 (jesus speaking to the hypocrites) But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, `Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' 6he is not to `honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you.

The word tithe...does not appear in the NT.

Giving gifts to the church is not wrong. But it is just that....a gift. How much you make up your mind to give,...give it, happily. But if you give it wondering how you are going to pay your bills, dont give it.

Jehovah Jirah is your provider. You have a job. He provided.

Money to the modern church is like temple tax to the priests in the OT. But since you are the temple now...go ahead and pay yourself.

LOL...i know that churches need money to opperate. I dont belong to a church so i dont tithe. But ..if I see a samaratan....i can go over and help him/her myself.

Heneni

 

[Bucket]

I don't tithe because I think I will get something for it. I do it to help fund God's work in our church and their mission projects. It is certainly harder now that the economy is tougher, but, at this point I can still do it.

 

[Katzpur]

I pay a full tithing (i.e. 10% of my gross income) and am absolutely convinced that I have been blessed for doing so. Since I believe that every thing I have is from God, it would be pretty hard for me to try to find an excuse I could live with to not pay tithing.

 

[Charity]

Ok..lets see...

I dont know if you have a family, but if you are tithing to the church, and you cant look after your family, feed them, clothe them and provide for their basic needs you might as well stop tithing.

Matthew 15: 5 (jesus speaking to the hypocrites) But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, `Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' 6he is not to `honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you.

The word tithe...does not appear in the NT.

Giving gifts to the church is not wrong. But it is just that....a gift. How much you make up your mind to give,...give it, happily. But if you give it wondering how you are going to pay your bills, dont give it.

Jehovah Jirah is your provider. You have a job. He provided.

Money to the modern church is like temple tax to the priests in the OT. But since you are the temple now...go ahead and pay yourself.

LOL...i know that churches need money to opperate. I dont belong to a church so i dont tithe. But ..if I see a samaratan....i can go over and help him/her myself.

Heneni

Heneni the word Tithe does appear in the NT, 8 times, however these scriptures refer to the OT usage. No where in the NT does it command the Christian to tithe. We are called to be faithful stewards with our money and possessions and Jesus did say render unto Caesar what is Caesars and unto God what is Gods. We were also reminded to owe no man anything and to render unto all their dues. Since most Christians feel like that everything, every good gift comes from God, I believe we should give as a voluntary and willing, cheerful giver to God. Not because we have to but give from the heart.

 

[Heneni]

We were also reminded to owe no man anything and to render unto all their dues. Since most Christians feel like that everything, every good gift comes from God, I believe we should give as a voluntary and willing, cheerful giver to God. Not because we have to but give from the heart.

I agree, but i never think that when i give money, i give to god. And since i cannot in all honesty convince myself that giving money to the church is in fact what god wants as a gift to himself, i dont believe in tithing.

I severed my relations with the church and my reasons and convictions for doing so is rooted (among many things) in my disapproval of churches 'selling' jesus on every streetcorner. They set up jesus shops. Sell Jesus books. Sell Jesus coffee, and have succeeded in turning the temple into a marketplace. I can not support such endeavours. No matter how noble they might seem.

 

[Charity]

I agree, but i never think that when i give money, i give to god. And since i cannot in all honesty convince myself that giving money to the church is in fact what god wants as a gift to himself, i dont believe in tithing.

I severed my relations with the church and my reasons and convictions for doing so is rooted (among many things) in my disapproval of churches 'selling' jesus on every streetcorner. They set up jesus shops. Sell Jesus books. Sell Jesus coffee, and have succeeded in turning the temple into a marketplace. I can not support such endeavours. No matter how noble they might seem.

But unless they have shops in the church that is not quite the same thing is it?
I don't think that giving money to the church is like really giving God a gift, but helping to support the efforts to preach and teach about God. For those who do like to assemble themselves with other Christians the money to pay for keeping the doors open in the church has to come from those offerings. A lot of churches do a lot of work in their community with soup kitchens, food baskets, transporting people to doctor appointments and etc.....I feel like that those type of churches are really showing love and compassion and deserve to be sponsored.
I feel like if I give for what I feel is the right reason and I give because my heart tells me to that I will be blessed for it. If they don't use the money as they should that is there responsibility and they will be the ones to answer for it, but it is a blessing to me to give to further God's word..... However I do understand your feeling on this and I'm really not trying to change you or how you think, just telling you why I like to give......

 

[Heneni]

But unless they have shops in the church that is not quite the same thing is it?
I don't think that giving money to the church is like really giving God a gift, but helping to support the efforts to preach and teach about God. For those who do like to assemble themselves with other Christians the money to pay for keeping the doors open in the church has to come from those offerings. A lot of churches do a lot of work in their community with soup kitchens, food baskets, transporting people to doctor appointments and etc.....I feel like that those type of churches are really showing love and compassion and deserve to be sponsored.
I feel like if I give for what I feel is the right reason and I give because my heart tells me to that I will be blessed for it. If they don't use the money as they should that is there responsibility and they will be the ones to answer for it, but it is a blessing to me to give to further God's word..... However I do understand your feeling on this and I'm really not trying to change you or how you think, just telling you why I like to give......

Hi charity...you know im ok with you right? This is not personal, so please dont take it as such. But the whole.....giving money to the church to further gods word, IS in my opinion a form of prostituting jesus to the rest of the world. It is like setting up a jesus shop. You pay us...we give you jesus. You pay us more...we bring you a famous preacher/teacher.

No I'm sorry...i just find the idea ....well WRONG.

As far as the soup kitchens and stuff go..the church sure can use this money to help the needy and the poor. But for what reason? To get them to come to church. And to accept jesus as their lord and saviour...and eventually to give money. That is ....well...WRONG!:sad:

Sometimes what we mean sincerely...can still be sincerely wrong.

 

[Charity]

Hi charity...you know im ok with you right? This is not personal, so please dont take it as such. But the whole.....giving money to the church to further gods word, IS in my opinion a form of prostituting jesus to the rest of the world. It is like setting up a jesus shop. You pay us...we give you jesus. You pay us more...we bring you a famous preacher/teacher.

No I'm sorry...i just find the idea ....well WRONG.

As far as the soup kitchens and stuff go..the church sure can use this money to help the needy and the poor. But for what reason? To get them to come to church. And to accept jesus as their lord and saviour...and eventually to give money. That is ....well...WRONG!:sad:

Sometimes what we mean sincerely...can still be sincerely wrong.

Heneni you know about the organization the Salvation Army they operate entirely on donations, and they do some marelous work with feeding the hungry and people who are sick and all those type things. Sure they have church services but they know the people who come there, probably would not be interested in attending services regularly at any church but come in sometimes, just for food and a place to get warm or cool for a while depending on the weather and the time of year.
There are other churches that do the same for those in need, knowing that those people could never bring money in for the church and I know some churches who don't even mention any religious references to those people, but sometimes those people do show up at a service. It's the Spirit that draws people not us anyway.
As you know I am not Catholic but one year at Thanksgiving a girl I worked with was talking about her church feeding the people at a soup kitchen for Thanksgiving. I asked her if I could volunteer and also told her my husband would help....It wasn't even in the church but in a building the church rented downtown. Those hours I spent in that building that day is something I will never forget. We served (Christians are suppose to have a servant's heart) those people for 5 hours that day. The faces of those children and those old people getting that dinner was forever etched in my mind. 5 hours out of our day, like tithing my time, or my firstfruit for that day..............