There are many things a church could be doing with the money it receives.

One of these is that the church could become a church that gives.

The Church that Gives

Rather than spending the majority of our income on buildings, salaries, and church programs, so that only what is left over goes to help the poor and needy, maybe churches could reverse this practice, so that a majority of the money that a church receives goes toward feeding the hungry, helping the poor, and serving those who are outcast and rejected in society.

Though there is no hard and fast rule, it seems that if loving and serving others really is a priority for our church, our church budget should reflect this by setting aside a majority (51% or more) of the church income for such service-oriented ministry. Such a move would be impossible for most established churches, but they could begin to move in that direction by portioning off an ever-increasing percentage of their annual budget for serving the community in this way.

Majority to Missions?

I am aware of several churches that actually do this, but most of them are in the mega-church category, and have annual operating budgets of $5 million or more. These churches often pride themselves in giving 51% of their budget to “missions.” This is wonderful, and is to be encouraged and praised. And yet I sometimes think that for churches like these, 51% is not nearly enough. They still spend thousands of dollars a month to air-condition their empty building. They spent tens of thousands of dollars a year on new choir robes, colorful bulletins, professional cleaning for the padded pews, and on and on it goes.

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The central chapters in the New Testament about giving are 2 Corinthians 8–9. In these chapters, Paul provides his suggestions on who should give, how much they should give, where they should give to, why they should give, and how the church should use what they give.

Giving is not about Tithing

Note first of all that not once in these chapters do we read about tithing. Paul is not writing about the Christian tithe. He is no interest in resurrecting or reworking the instructions about tithing from the Mosaic Law. He recognized, as we have seen above, that the laws about tithing were for Jewish people living in a covenant relationship with the God of Israel, and with the Temple and the priestly Levitical system as one of the central symbols of that covenant. There was no command from Paul for the Corinthian believers to give. He explicitly states that what he writes is “not by commandment” (2 Cor 8:9). Instead, he was urging them to finish what they had already started.

Giving is to Help the Poor

What was it they had started? There were several Macedonian churches in deep poverty, and the Corinthian church offered to help these other churches out financially (2 Cor 8:2). Being in deep poverty does not mean that these churches were unable to pay their pastor, or were falling behind on their mortgage. No, remember that such things did not exist at that time. When Paul says that these churches were facing affliction and were in deep poverty, he means that the people themselves could not afford food and clothing. Many of them had probably lost their jobs as a result of becoming Christians. Some of the men had probably been imprisoned, or even killed, leaving their wives and children without income and support.

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Over the past two weeks as I have written several posts about tithing, several people have sent me articles about tithing, or linked to them in the comments. I wanted to remember where they all were, so am making a short list here.

• Frank Viola – He has a great section on tithing in his book, Pagan Christianity.
• Frank Chase – Tithing in the Present. A well-done PDF slideshow about tithing and some surrounding issues. Very thorough!
• Ray Meyhew – Embezzlement: The Corporate Sin of Contemporary Christianity? Well researched, well written, and quite eye-opening!
• George Potkonyak – The Truth about Tithing. The formatting and tone is a little odd, but the information is good.
• Robin Calamaio – No Tithe for the Christian. The author’s writing style seems a bit arrogant, but the information is helpful.
• Russ Kelly on Tithing
• Rough Hewn Ministries – Tithing
• Freed From Tithing, Free To Give by Joel Brueseke over at Grace Roots.

Do you know of any other helpful articles and studies about tithing? Include them below!

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