May 19, 2006
Stewardship of the Tithe
I’ve heard it said, ‘Your tithe is not a vote’, meaning that I shouldn’t withhold my tithe just because things in the church aren’t running the way I think they should. I’d agree that withholding a tithe from God is inappropriate. However, Scripture gives me the responsibility of being a discerning steward of what God has entrusted to me. Likewise, the church is also under obligation to be a good steward of the financial resources they receive. When we see poor stewardship, whether in individuals or in the church, it should be questioned. Even though the tithe is often portrayed as something due to the local congregation, in reality it belongs to God. Personally, I find nothing scripturally against redirecting my tithe when it becomes obvious the offerings are being used toward man’s personal agenda rather than God’s kingdom.
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3 comments:
Gail;
----Fifteen hundred years of revenue mentality has trained most all of God's people to think of their tithe as being the rightful entitlement of their church. And the contemporary leaders are more than happy to keep them pressed into that mindset. But that is not the scriptural perspective on tithing.
----Reading the Bible from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22 will reveal that God takes six different relational positions with mankind, three of which have transpired, one that we currently enjoy, and two to come. The first position He took with mankind before the flood. Man was pretty much left to operate according to his own individual judgements without restraint. After the flood, God told Noah that man was to begin requiring the life of a man for the unjust spilling of another man's blood. In other words, in this second position, man was now expected to make and enforce laws. The third position God took towards man involved His direct particpation as the law giver and enforcer for His chosen nation of people. In this position, His people were to come to Him as a nation -- a group. Everything about an individual's relationship with God was directed through the priesthood. The support of His kingdom was directed also through the priesthood in the form of a determined tithe. It was automatic, mechanical, and given to God through the priesthood only. Everything about man's relationship with God was about corporate activity through a corporate structure.
----But now, in this fourth relational position with God, relationship with Him is personal, from the heart, and through only Jesus Christ. God no longer mandates His people to come to Him with their gifts only through the activities of a corporate structure. His relationship with His people today is turned from the law through a corporate structure to a condition of heart through a personal relationship with Jesus by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
----It does not make sense then that He would require us to return to the corporate structure of the church to validate the generosity of our hearts. In fact, quite to the otherwise, Paul makes a great deal out of the personal freedoms that Christ brings into our relationships with Him. We have been untied from the constraints of others in our service to Him, and we have been bound in love and peace to a fellowship with others, a giving to others, a serving of others, as the Holy Spirit prpares and enables us, rather than to a membership in an organization to which we give and which we serve.
----But most leaders overlook this fact of the new life in Christ. They are much too pleased to have thier brothers and sisters maintain the conviction of the bondage of giving to the corporate structure. Then as the leaders of the corporate structure spend those gifts upon what they themselves determine to be important to Christ, they bring back to the giver the message that the giver has done the works to which God determined he should do beforehand. And it just is not so.
----The New Testament presents giving as a direct involvment of the determination of an individual to meet a specific need. Thus the heart of the benefactor is always tied up with the beneficiary in a chosen participation. I have several well respected brothers and sisters who do not see the beneficial interest in contributing to this corporate structure and are therefore giving their tithes to other beneficial interests of Christ's church that they are better able to see. It has nothing to do with voting, and everything to do with Spiritual understanding.
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After years of frustration with what we perceived as weak or uncaring stewardship, or worse, what we considered a misuse of funds, we decided to look outside the church for deserving recipients of our giving. We found there are many Christian organizations involved in God's work that are open and accountable with their financial records, something missing in our church. We feel very comfortable giving some financial assistance to good causes and efforts that we can understand, that appreciate help given, and that provide an accounting of expenses.
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