Christian giving (cha-ching$$)

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SparkleEyes

Senior Member
Mar 23, 2013
771
21
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I think God thinks it is acceptable to give the bulk of your financial support for a particular year to other Christian endeavors instead of the church you are attending. Examples of other Christian endeavors might be missionaries that you know and trust, Athletes in Action, providing scholarships for financially strapped families to send their kids to a church camp, help build a Christ centered safe house for the abused...

What do you think??? :cool:
 
Tithe is for the church (C'mon, Pastor's gotta eat). Offerings are for others.

Thankfully, we are not bound by law. Pray, search the scriptures, and the Lord will direct what your giving should be.
 
Misty77 said:
Tithe is for the church (C'mon, Pastor's gotta eat). Offerings are for others.

Thankfully, we are not bound by law. Pray, search the scriptures, and the Lord will direct what your giving should be.
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C'mon the tithe is simply Old Testament taxation that has absolutely no application to the New Testament where people pay secular taxes to a government that provides welfare. Any church that demands a "tithe" based on OT law is a false and heretical church.

All church payments should be voluntary in amount in their entirely, as all other offerings. Anyone who attempts to direct you in what and to whom you should give is acting way outside their authority and should be rebuked, or you might consider going somewhere else.
 
SparkleEyes said:
I think God thinks it is acceptable to give the bulk of your financial support for a particular year to other Christian endeavors instead of the church you are attending. Examples of other Christian endeavors might be missionaries that you know and trust, Athletes in Action, providing scholarships for financially strapped families to send their kids to a church camp, help build a Christ centered safe house for the abused...

What do you think??? :cool:
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Financially supporting my local church would be my main priority. :)
 
Gjolll said:
C'mon the tithe is simply Old Testament taxation that has absolutely no application to the New Testament where people pay secular taxes to a government that provides welfare. Any church that demands a "tithe" based on OT law is a false and heretical church.

All church payments should be voluntary in amount in their entirely, as all other offerings. Anyone who attempts to direct you in what and to whom you should give is acting way outside their authority and should be rebuked, or you might consider going somewhere else.
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That's why I added the last two sentences about not being bound by law and to search diligently for what is right in your situation. But keep in mind that the people who work at your church are WORKING. They are worthy of compensation and that amount should be determined by many factors which I really don't care to dive into.
 
So get a load of this........

My name is Matt.
I work for the Government.
I help collect property taxes for the Government.
I am paid by those taxes that I help collect for the Government.
I am also an Associate Pastor.
I sometimes receive a paycheck from the Tithes to our church.

As I told someone once, I am your Tax dollars AND your Tithe dollars at work!

In all seriousness, we give 10% of everything, big or small. Primarily, that all goes to our church, but it has also gone to missionaries and other para-church groups as well (Pregnancy centers, orphanages, etc). We have given even we didn't have, and we've never gone without.

Obviously, it's between you and God as to what you give. But never be afraid to give out of obedience to what God says, or has said.
 
Misty77 said:
But keep in mind that the people who work at your church are WORKING. They are worthy of compensation and that amount should be determined by many factors which I really don't care to dive into.
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It all depends and many work gratis. Some denominations don't have paid ministers. I like those better because I don't like being lorded over by people who think they are above the rest. There is nothing in the New Testament that suggests that pastors or elders or church workers should be paid. The most absurd case I ever came across was a guy whose congregation never numbered over 10 people, and yet he would not get off his backside and work for his living.
 
Gjolll said:
It all depends and many work gratis. Some denominations don't have paid ministers. I like those better because I don't like being lorded over by people who think they are above the rest. There is nothing in the New Testament that suggests that pastors or elders or church workers should be paid. The most absurd case I ever came across was a guy whose congregation never numbered over 10 people, and yet he would not get off his backside and work for his living.
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That would not be accurate. I do, however agree with your first sentence, "It all depends." Something to ponder:

1 Timothy 5:17-18 (New International Version)
The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages."

Galatians 6:6 (New International Version)
Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.

Luke 10:7 (New International Version)
Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

1 Corinthians 9:4-14 (New International Version)
Don't we have the right to food and drink? Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn't the Law say the same thing? 9For it is written in the Law of Moses: "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain."Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? If others have this right of support from you, shouldn't we have it all the more?
But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
 
In the interest of full-disclosure, I was an unpaid, layman preacher's wife; and now I work for a Christian charity. So if anyone had reason to tell you to not give money to the church but to support charities instead, it would be me. Instead, I believe that your first responsibility is to the place where you worship, then to the rest of the world. There was a church that I stopped supporting while I attended there. That was because I disagreed with how the funds were handled as I learned in the business meetings, but I did not yet believe God wanted me to leave at time.
 
I think if you can afford it then go for it. There's nothing better than helping someone in need.
 
Misty77 said:
That would not be accurate.
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I think it is accurate. I said "nothing that says that they should be paid." There is no instruction that any elder or church worker should be paid. Honour is not payment and neither are "good things" necessarily payment, as payment can be in kind - hospitality etc. I am minded of Christ in the temple, who rebuked the officials with "My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." Mat 21:13.

Certainly there is nothing to prevent church officials being paid. And sometimes they should be paid, especially in large churches. But when there is only 10 or 20 people in a congregation, and we all have printed bibles and christian literature, and we all pay taxes (in the UK, frequently works out that over 50 or 60% of all income is on direct or indirect taxes), and many people are heavily in debt, with mortgages, extortionate rents etc, then we have to ask ourselves, do we really need to burden the poor with paying the salaries of people that are quite capable of working for their living?
 
Gjolll said:
I think it is accurate. I said "nothing that says that they should be paid." There is no instruction that any elder or church worker should be paid. Honour is not payment and neither are "good things" necessarily payment, as payment can be in kind - hospitality etc. I am minded of Christ in the temple, who rebuked the officials with "My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." Mat 21:13.

Certainly there is nothing to prevent church officials being paid. And sometimes they should be paid, especially in large churches. But when there is only 10 or 20 people in a congregation, and we all have printed bibles and christian literature, and we all pay taxes (in the UK, frequently works out that over 50 or 60% of all income is on direct or indirect taxes), and many people are heavily in debt, with mortgages, extortionate rents etc, then we have to ask ourselves, do we really need to burden the poor with paying the salaries of people that are quite capable of working for their living?
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"the worker deserves his payment"

I think that means "pay the man!"
 
Misty77 said:
Tithe is for the church (C'mon, Pastor's gotta eat). Offerings are for others.

Thankfully, we are not bound by law. Pray, search the scriptures, and the Lord will direct what your giving should be.
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He has directed me. Pray I have the strength to carry it out. God is not in buildings made with human hands. In other words if Jesus, Allah and their respective pastors are paying rent light and gas bills, then that's not God and faith which pleases Him, but of work and expectant reward for it.

This leads to debt as you can clearly see all over the world. We have enough.

#Goddontpaynobills
 
Luke (18:22) Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. (Luke 18:11) And the pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself....(12) I fast twice a week and give tithes of all that I posses.(13) And a publican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast , saying, God be merciful unto me a sinner. (Lk 16:9) And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. (11) If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust true riches. ( Lk 14:33) Unless a man forsake all that he has ,he can not be my disciple. (Lk 12:33) Sell that you have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags that grow not old, a treasure in heaven that faileth not....
 
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