What Would You Have Done?

holy heavens! quite ungodly that is! 2nd corinthians 9:7 teaches to give lovingly, willfully & cheerfully. whatever anyone can give in this manner is proper. i've heard of churches with rules similar to what you described. a church with controlling ways is against God. it's amazing how people allow themselves to be duped by control. i believe 1st Corinthians 14:40 also means to have a policy of cheerful giving. there was a church around here who established, that to join, you had to sign a paper that says you will tithe 10% all year. if someone wanted to be married at that church & didn't tithe 10% you couldn't get married there. yup!, you guessed it, a big division developed, amongst other reasons too, & people split off. charles stanley spoke the best statement i ever heard about tithing or extra giving: "i believe you shouldn't ask god for money"! he was only worth a bit over a million when it easily could have been many millions. i would not attend that church & to prevent people wasting time trying out that church, tell them not to attend.

A church I attended many years ago had written requirements for formal membership (and therefore voting privileges) that included paying a 10% tithe. I was never a member there, and though I left because I moved, I would have left soon anyway as I had lost all respect for the pastor, mainly because of his expressed views on tithing.

Churches can establish any criteria they like for membership, and normally must do so to maintain their non-profit status, but that doesn't mean those criteria have to be biblically sound... that is up to the individual to assess. A legal organization (which a non-profit is) must distinguish between those permitted to vote and those not permitted. Of course, a congregation may avoid all this by not registering as a non-profit corporation.

Recently, I questioned the elders about the proposed wording of a section of our church's 'vision' document which addressed tithing. I wasn't given a clear explanation why, but the proposal was withdrawn soon after that. Had they pushed forward with it, I would have requested a meeting with the elders to discuss, and if they persisted, I likely would have left the congregation.

Jesus never wrote about tithes.
None of the apostles wrote about tithes. Tithing is only listed one time in Hebrews as OT history.
Most denominations that teach tithing have control issues, which means they want control which is against Jesus' teachings.
God loves a cheerful giver.
But how does God feel about people in His church adding to His teachings as if He needed it? This speaks to me that churches think less about His Word than their "rules", & in the end makes the Word of God of none effect with them.
Do we realize that if Jesus came to most of our churches he would NOT be an active member with voting rights?
That .... to me.... stinks, period.

I thought church membership was predicated upon a credible profession of faith.
Only one person in our church knows how much people give besides themselves.
And if you are truly trying to build a church, it would be better to let newcomers sit in on meetings to understand what the church is all about.
The action was clearly a snub and was tantamount to giving the wealthy a nice seat up front. I wouldn't go back.

I think that the word tithe scars people as it means 10%