Why give money to church or why tithe?

The church we've been attending has a very traditional worship service with hymns and standing up, sitting down, bible lesson readings, benedictions, the Lord's Prayer, and all that. Not my personal style, but I am learning to appreciate aspects of the liturgy and it's becoming easier for me to worship in it.

One of the things that we do is the traditional protestant passing of the offering plate and then the "offering benediction," or whatever you call it. When I was kid I used to hate that kind of worship, and frankly found it "pomp and circumstance." But I've learned to appreciate the aspect of "worshipping in our giving." That is, I understand more how worship is not just the singing, but all aspects of life, and aspects of the "gathering of the saints."

We worship in the giving of our provisions to the church.

The words to the "offering benediction" (again, I'm not sure what it's actually called, but I can sing it from memory) mean more to me now as I've had to live in times of quite extensive trust in God providing:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him all above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost

Both of my sons like to put something in the basket as it goes by. My oldest, Eli, has made a habit of putting in his own money he earned or was given.

This particular Sunday he gathered $0.21 from his "doggy bank" (we have a dog instead of a pig, so we call it a "doggy bank") to put in the basket. 21 pennies from his penny bank. He actually pulled out 20, but then found a penny on the floor that he dropped and decided to give that. My youngest, Caleb, was listening to his older brother gather money and found 4 quarters on my desk and decided that's what he was going to give.

Caleb doesn't know the value of money. But Eli knew Caleb was giving "more" money by giving 4 quarters, and felt a little ashamed.

We talked about money a bit and daddy's job and how daddy used to make alot more money than he does now.

Eli said, "When I grow up I'm going to get a job and make alot of money."

Well, I summarized the story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar (read it here: Luke 16:19-31), and how the rich man worked for all this stuff but died and went to hell and the poor man went to be with God. Not exactly the Gospel, but I did explain that money can be good or bad and is not one of the most important things (I've taught him that the two most important things are "Love God and Love others" so that when he is doing something he shouldn't I ask him, "What are the two most important things?" and then say, "Are you doing those?" It worked till I realized the definition of love had to be taught, so now I'm teaching him by asking, "What is love?" and he's learning that it is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"... my point being...money was not one of the important things.)

It was difficult because I've never really talked to Eli about the penalties of sin being "hell."

(I've always used examples of suffering because of sin, but I've never talked to him about "hell." I don't know that he's ever conceptualized "hell" before, but he does know sin and the damage it does to relationships and that Jesus died so that his relationship with God can be restored now. I guess I've always tried to talk in terms of forgiveness is now, redemption is now, and the Kingdom of God starts now...but I digress from the topic of money...)

Then I asked Eli,

"Do you know why we give money to the church?" He said, "To give to the poor." I thought that was a better answer than I would have given. Yes the church should be giving to the poor.

Why do we give to the church?

I think the church should be giving to the poor. But not that church.

What I mean is, Yes, I think the church, the body of Christ, should be giving to the poor and taking care of the poor. I am not sure it's as helpful if the "church," by that I mean the organized 501c3, is caring for the poor as much as the body of Christ should be.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is helpful (not as helpful), and probably necessary, that the organized church "budget" should reflect caring for the poor. But I think it's much more important that we, the body of Christ, us the believers, the true church, should have budgets that reflect caring for the poor, or at least being generous with our money that we do have.

What is a tithe then? Why do we give to the church?

Tithe means 10. You can't "tithe" unless it is actually 10%. That is, I can't say I'm tithing if I've given only 5%. That would be "penting" (greek word for 5).

I'm not overly scholarly on this, and there is much more in depth studies to be had, but I like the idea of "kiss"-ing it (Keep It Simple Stupid) for myself. So this is what I understand as a "tithe" biblically:

A tithe in the OT was 10% of everything you had (primarily agricultural at the time) that was given to "God" through the temple:

Leviticus 27:30" 'A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.

And then the tithe was used for the "Levites." The Levites were the tribe of Israel (remember, there were 12 and one set aside for work in the temple, or the place to come before God before Jesus), because the Levites were not given any land by God. Instead, God made their work be in the temple and provided for them by requiring the people to give a "tithe," or a tenth, of their provisions:

Numbers 18:23 It is the Levites who are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting and bear the responsibility for offenses against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. 24 Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the LORD. That is why I said concerning them: 'They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.' "

So, a tithe was 10% of all you produced in life (materially or monetarily) and then:

1) Given to the Tent of Meeting (temple or place of worship) for the gatherings
2) Used to provide for the people who served at the Tent of Meeting, the Levites

A tithe doesn't seem to translate perfectly into our New Testament and American culture.

There are a whole host of problems with trying to directly translate a tithe to the New Covenant under Jesus and the Body of Christ.

One problem with drawing the idea of "tithe" from the New Testament is that we don't have one place of worship, or Tent of Meeting, that God asks us to meet at. We, the people, have become the "temple." We are the place of the Holy Spirit, (I Cor 6:18-20) the living stones, (I Peter 2:5) that are where God meets us because of the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. It is Jesus' death that allows us to go directly to God from ourselves.

By my experience, most church budgets reflect about a 40%-60% of the "tithes" as salaries, or provisions for staff. In actuality, it is considered very bad "church business" to allow the budget to be much more than 50% for staff. I mean, what if people stop giving? Then what would the staff do? (a little sarcasm there - the staff would trust in YHWH Jireh, which means "God the provider").

So the first problem is that tithes in the OT were provisions for the Levites, but today our tithes tend to be about 50% for the workers in the "organized building place of meeting" and 50% for the upkeep of the building and other things. Some of that "stuff" is necessary. Others should be closely evaluated as whether they are necessary or not.

My point is, that the OT tithe is not something we can give today in the same capacity in the New Covenant or the church and the body of Christ.

There are some great principles behind the church's idea of tithing. But there is something more important.

TO MAKE A LONG POST...SUDDENLY SHORTER B/C IT'S BEEN SITTING IN MY QUEUE A FEW DAYS...

I see a few major biblical ideas that are influencing my ideas of "tithing" or "giving" to the church.

The true church, the people, should be doing two major things with their money:

Number 1 thing to be doing with money and stuff: Take care of one another, and the poor, and the needy. Widows, for example, that had no way to provide for themselves anymore (early part of Acts). The poor, obviously, since Jesus made that pretty clear. Not hoarding it, obviously, or making money a use of power and ultimately a place of putting our trust (easy for us to trust in a retirement plan to take care of us - hey, it's the American way to save for that...maybe some wisdom in it too...but I'm not sure how to think about that yet).

Number 2 thing to be doing with money and stuff: Advancing the "ministry of the word" or the spreading of the Good news of Jesus death and resurrection on our behalf so we could be with God now. Sometimes stuff is helpful for that, like a building can be. But sometimes the stuff can get in the way.

For example: Are we spending money on us, for us, our things, our stuff, our entertainment, our style of church, and not for those who are in need of the Gospel? Or maybe, paying the church to provide for us the ministry of the word when we should be doing it ourselves - that is, giving a tithe so the church reads and tells us what is in the Bible rather than us searching the Bible alongside them. Do we pay the church to read the Bible for us and tell us what it says? I fear we do far too much.

As far as giving, I have these concepts in mind:

My number 1 Biblical concept about "tithing:" In Acts people gave money and "put it at the apostle's feet" so that people's basic needs were taken care of:

Acts 4:34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

The emphasis to me is that we are all bringing what we have and who we are - ALL OF IT! And trusting the leaders in our body of Christ, or trusting those we choose to walk with and learn from spiritually, to help us understand how to use it to serve the Kingdom of God.

Number 2: Somewhere along the line we are to use the resources for everyone to partake in the "ministry of the word" to the world in which they live and are sent by Jesus.

I Timothy 5:17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.

My problem with the "standard american protestant church" is that the tithe, a large percentage of it, is to support programs, buildings, material things, and what not, that have nothing to do with what the church (the people in the church) should be doing.

The money should be going to people who are living in the Kingdom, want to live in the Kingdom, and are using their gifts to live in the Kingdom. Not to things that get in the way of that.

And I do think we pay far too much for "stuff" in the American church, just like we do in our homes. Our churches often reflect the culture, sometimes to reach the culture, but sometimes we end up assimilating too much to the culture, even in how we spend our money.

A LONG POST, WAY TOO LONG, BUT I'M TIRED OF IT SITTING IN MY QUEUE, SO I'M JUST POSTING IT...FOR NOW...EDIT LATER....MAYBE....