Commitment to tithe is waning; soft economy among reasons

Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | 6/21/03 | K. Connie Kang

[rhema]

Jean and Jim Darrell are a Los Angeles couple of modest means who live frugally by necessity.

He works part time for an internist, doing office work, and she augments the family income by house-sitting and taking care of a friend's pets. They drive a 1989 Mazda and seldom go out to eat.

Yet they've been giving one-tenth of their gross income to their church for the past 20 years -- even when Jim Darrell was laid off.

[rhema]

Pastor Jack Hayford's article on tithing

[rhema]

BTTT (and see #2 also)

[Ff--150]

Tithing is a principle. Giving is a principle. Note on your jobs how hard donating to charities and the like becomes to raise money. The big-shots, in their stratosphers KNOW that the business itself will prosper with the large amounts collected, hence prospering them. In that upper-crust world their social lives rotate around giving to the less fortunate.

Therefore giving is a proven principle the masses seem ignorant about...

[RichardW]

Let's get real about this. A lot of that tithe money is just used to build fancy new churches and little else. Tithing might have been warranted 2,000 years ago but with the social welfare net and high taxes of most modern countries and the budgets of the average person stretched so thin to the breaking point it doesn't make much sense.

The churches should be modest and the preachers don't need to be driving Rolls-Royces.

[billbears]

budgets of the average person stretched so thin to the breaking point it doesn't make much sense.

To the world no it doesn't make sense. However as someone that struggled with this for years, I never tithed thinking there's no way I could actually tithe and still be able to pay the bills. Now that I tithe I know that God has blessed me financially and spiritually. I feel a lot closer to God knowing that I'm doing what He wants instead of what I want

[aimhigh]

Tithing is one of the few Old Testament laws that pastors preach. Giving is biblical in the New Testament, but not tithing. Jesus mentions it to some Pharisees to get them to realise they are sinners under the tithing law. Then it is never commanded to Christians.

[Ff--150]

Now that I tithe I know that God has blessed me financially and spiritually. I feel a lot closer to God

There you go. You can't really explain how this works. You can't just tell the skeptics "do XYZ" and God will "ABC back to you" in order to convince.

For example, just today I got a bank statement in the mail for an account I manage, and it's nearly $200 more than my records indicate it should be. There's no explanation why, so Monday I will delve into that account to try to see where this blessing came from, LOL!

[LiteKeeper]

Check out this sermon on giving

And this one too.

[NestorMakhno]

You're right on the bull's-eye with this. The way out of the church's dilemma, as I see it, is to admit that they are business enterprises - which is true - and tax them accordingly. Then they will have to focus their revenues on their real purpose, and forego the new buiildings, salaries, perks, etc. And they won't be able to raise tithes like taxes, either.

Churches get away with hell and it's time they shouldered their responsibilities to the rest of the community in which they operate.

[meadsjn]

We already tithe over half our income to the government. Charity, on the other hand, is voluntary and doesn't require a bureacracy to facilitate it.

Most churches are just an extension of government. If you don't believe that, just have your pastor start preaching politically incorrect stuff and your church will soon be repossessed by its government owners.

[aimhigh]

it's time they shouldered their responsibilities to the rest of the community in which they operate.

Studies show that churches dwarf all other charitable institutions when it comes to giving to the community. You apparently believe the liberal democratic dogma that government can do it better.