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One of the questions I often get
asked—mostly in private—is this one: “How much of my
charitable giving should go to the church? I give to the Heart
Fund, the United Way, Cancer research, my college, my graduate
school. How much should go to the church?” Sometimes the
question is asked more specifically. If you are trying to
learn to tithe, the question is simply, “How much of my tithe
should go to the church?”
For the believer, there is a
simple answer to these questions. I don’t think there needs to
be any hedging. Most of my charitable giving and all of my
tithe should go to the church.
There’s a monthly magazine on
the newsstands now called “Smart Money.” It purports to give
advice as to where are the best places to put your money these
days. I believe that the smart money is invested in the
church. This is the clear teaching and tradition of Scripture.
It can be found in the text for today, or it can be found in
the book of the prophet Malachi where he says, “Bring your
full tithe to the storehouse…”—the storehouse being the place
of worship.
A few years ago I was asked to
do a stewardship consultation with a large church in another
part of the country. When I arrived I met early on with the
leadership team for that particular campaign. The chair of the
committee took me aside and said, “Brian, we need you to know
that our pastor doesn’t give anything to the church.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“We just know,” was his
response. Then he said, “Would you talk to him about it!”
So that afternoon I met with
John in his office. I said to him, “John, your steering
committee says you don’t give anything to the church.”
“How do they know?” he asked. I
reply, “I don’t know how they know. They just know.”
He thought for a while and then
said, “Well, I guess technically you could say they are
correct. Here’s how it works for me. I send anniversary and
birthday cards to all the members of the congregation. I take
the postage and the cost of the cards out of my tithe. My wife
and I buy season tickets to the symphony every year. We buy
four tickets. Two we pay for ourselves, two we use to take
members of the church to the symphony with us. Those two we
take out of my tithe. We go out to eat often. We always pay
for our own meals, but we always take somebody else from the
church. The cost of their meals comes out of my contribution
to the church.”
I said to him, “John, that’s not
the way it’s supposed to work.” He thought for a long time and
then he said, “What you mean is, I’m keeping the letter of the
law, but cheating God.”
“Yes,” I replied. “I think
that’s what I mean.
That year he and his wife made a
major change. That year they pledged 13% of their income to
the church. The last time I saw him he had a huge smile on his
face. He had made a discovery he had not known before.
I believe that most of a
believer’s charitable giving should go through the church.
Elaine and I give something to my college fund and my seminary
fund every year. We give to the Alzheimer’s Foundation because
Elaine’s mother died of Alzheimer’s a few years ago. We give
to Mothers Against Drunk Driving because of the serious
accident Elaine had in an encounter with a drunk driver eight
years ago. But most of our charitable giving and all of our
tithe goes to Christ Church.
Now that I’ve laid all my cards
on the table, let me tell you why.
GOD’S WORK DONE BY GOD’S PEOPLE
God’s work must be done by God’s
people. This is the clear message we get from the Hebrew Bible
and from Christian Scriptures. One person puts it this way;
“God’s work is to be supported by God’s people. That has been
God’s plan from the beginning.”
Can non-believers support the
church? Of course they can. There’s a story of a church that
was trying to raise some money for a major building campaign.
The owner of the local tavern happened to be at the meeting.
In the course of meeting he stood up and said, “I will give
$10,000 to this campaign.” A major discussion ensued. Would it
be okay for the church to accept money earned by a tavern
owner? The argument went back and forth for a while until
finally one older member of the church stood up in the back
and said, “Oh, go ahead, Reverend, take the money. It’s all
our money anyway.”
Non-believers and casual givers
can support the church. You may remember the story of the man
who called the minister over to his home. He said, “Reverend,
I have not been a very good Christian. I have seldom attended
church. I have not supported the church in any way throughout
my lifetime. However, my doctors now tell me that I have an
incurable illness and I will not live much longer. Do you
suppose that if I gave $50,000 to the church right now I could
get into heaven?”
The minister said, “Well, I
don’t know, but it’s worth a try.”
Non-believers and casual
believers can support the church. But the ministry of the
Kingdom is mostly from active Christian believers. Other
generous people may build hospitals or endow colleges. Other
good work will get support along the way. Giving is still high
in America, mostly coming from individuals.
Good work will still get done.
But Kingdom work is our work. We must share the good news with
both classical and traditional expression and with a
contemporary beat. We must reach out to seekers and to wanna-believers.
We need to begin to reach people whose primary learning mode
is visual, rather than auditory. We need to form disciples
with passion and design. We need to reach special niche target
groups such as children, youth, young adults, and singles. We
need to encourage and support new calls to the Christian
ministry. (Right now we have four members of this congregation
who are actively considering that call.) We need to practice
excellent hospitality in Jesus’ name. We need to provide
spiritual care for the sick, the aging, and the dying. Funding
these things is the joy and the responsibility of the
believer.
Occasionally a foundation grant
will come through. The Lilly Foundation is well known for this
kind of support. Occasionally a non-member dies and bequeaths
an unexpected sum of money to a church. Occasionally a service
provider or a contractor will say to the church, “Hey, it’s
okay. No charge.” Or perhaps they will say, “Half price.” But
the work of undergirding ministry is primarily your
responsibility and mine. Ninety-eight percent of all of the
resources that go to ministry in this church come from the
freewill offerings of members and friends.
THE TITHE IS A SPIRITUAL GOAL
That’s why the tithe has always
been the spiritual goal. It was the goal of our Hebrew
forbears. It was the goal of the early Christian community. It
is still the goal today. The tithe is God’s wisdom for keeping
God’s work moving.
Unchurched and non-believers
don’t understand that. They think that tithing is some sort of
religious legalism. Or perhaps it’s a trick being played by
the Finance Committee. We know that it is neither. Tithing is
a spiritual goal. It always has been. It always will be.
Last spring I was asked to lead
a spiritual life weekend at a Pittsburgh church in the eastern
side of the city. I agreed, and then discovered that the
entire weekend was to be on the theme of tithing. Could they
really be serious? A spiritual life weekend on tithing? I was
to make a Friday evening presentation and then one on Saturday
morning and Saturday evening, preach twice on Sunday morning,
speak again on Sunday evening, and a final wrap-up session on
Monday morning. I was uncertain. Could I prepare four or five
talks, plus preach a sermon on that one theme? I discovered
that I could, and I did. It was a fascinating experience, and
it was definitely growth for me.
Jesus speaks more about money
and possessions than any other topic in his New Testament
teaching, and our faith tradition says the tithe is a worthy
spiritual goal.
A colleague of mine sent me a
book last week. It’s a book called Stewardship Studies.
The subtitle is “Brief Interpretations of 237 Stewardship
Texts.” As I began browsing through the book I discovered that
all 237 stewardship texts were on the subject of tithing. Let
me share with you a paragraph from the introduction to the
book.
Throughout
our entire experience in the Christian ministry my wife and I
have adhered to the principle of the tithe, not as a slavish
obedience to a law, but as a confident expression of faith.
After an experience that has continued for more than 40 years,
we are prepared to bear our testimony to the fact that God
honors the confidence we put in him…No single religious
exercise has contributed more to our spiritual life than the
habit of laying aside one tenth as the Lord has prospered us.
This book is a testimony offered in the complete assurance
that God will prove Himself to any honest Christian who will
accept the challenge.[i]
I discovered the book was
published in 1954. That’s when I was 15 years old. I realized
that I had already been tithing for five years by that time. I
began tithing when I was 10 years of age. I learned a lot
about tithing from two tithing parents.
I tithed my morning paper route.
I tithed my grass-cutting money each summer. I tithed what I
earned by dipping those silly skyscraper ice cream cones for
Isaly’s over several summers. I discovered that youth who
begin to tithe never really want to let go. I tithed my $200 a
month church stipend while I was in seminary doing youth
ministry. In my first appointment here in Western
Pennsylvania, my salary was $375 per month. Elaine and I
tithed our first monthly paycheck.
We have tithed throughout our 40
years together. During the past 10 years we have set new
goals. Our children are grown. They’re on their own now.
(Well, almost on their own!) We see the needs for ministry in
the church that must be funded. For us, tithing is no longer
an adequate spiritual challenge, so we have set new spiritual
goals. We moved up to 12%, then to 15%. We will probably move
beyond that in 2003. Tithing is a spiritual goal, not a
financial goal. The believer understands the word “spiritual”
in matters of tithing.
After a very strong stewardship
worship emphasis in one particular church a woman came up to
the pastor with a check for $500. “Is this satisfactory?” she
asked. Replied the pastor, “Of course it is, if it represents
you.”
She took the check back and
returned a week later with a check for $5000. “Is this
satisfactory?” she asked. He smiled and said, “Yes, of course
it is, if it represents you. Does it represent you?” She said,
“Let me have that check.” She returned a few days later with a
check for $50,000, and this is what she said: “After earnest
and prayerful thought, I have come to the conclusion that this
gift does represent me, and I am grateful that I can give it.”
The smart money goes to
the church.
WHY IS THE CHURCH THE PLACE?
Why is the church the place for
the smart money? Because the church tries to be on the cutting
edge of what is finally important. This church—Christ
Church—tries very hard to exemplify that principle. We try to
move with vision and prayer toward Jesus’ will and work.
We will do what it takes to
bring more people to Jesus. We will do what it takes to make
sure our youth have something on which to hang their
hat—something substantive—when they graduate from high school.
We will do what it takes to
keep young adults on track with a lifelong faith journey. I
was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a couple of days last
month. On a Sunday night we sat at an outside coffee shop and
watched people gather between 7:30 and 9:00 p.m. By 9:00, the
place was packed with people, mostly young adults. Our host
turned to us and said, “In Fort Lauderdale, at least 90% of
the population is totally unchurched.” I looked into the faces
of the young adults that passed by. I saw people looking for
excitement, for relationship and for connection. Partly, that
experience increased my determination to sustain a young adult
ministry here. It is a ministry of inestimable importance and
growth.
We will do whatever it takes to
be proactive in health and welfare issues. We will do it
because God asks us to. Health, wholeness, and salvation are
all part of the same root word in the Gospel. We will sustain
a parish nurse, a health cabinet, and a counseling center. All
of these are clearly faith-based. More than this, they are
Christian faith-based at every step.
You can trust this church to
stay on track with resolve, with a creative edge, and with
integrity. The work of this ministry will go forward as you
catch the vision.
There are many good causes in
our world today. They will be cared for. Americans as a whole
are generous people. But most of your giving—and most of my
giving—is invested with the smart money. It is invested in
Kingdom goals.
I do not know the future of the
American economy. I do not know whether there will be job
growth or decline. But I do know that the local church has a
major role to play, and I love being a part of it with you.
So this week as you consider
what you will do in 2003, I urge you to consider making the
church your primary charitable investment. Do it because it is
the clear Scriptural guideline for over 3500 years. Do it
because you and I are called toward the spiritual goal of
tithing. Do it because you can trust the church to use your
gifts wisely, creatively, and prudently for Kingdom work.
i]
From Stewardship Studies, Bishop Roy L. Smith, pub.
1954, p. 8
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