5 Reasons to Tithe

5 Reasons Why Christians Should Tithe

The practice of Tithing has been the subject of much controversy in recent times.There are Christians who do not Tithe and for various reasons. Some do not understand the practice. Some understand but disagree with it. Some understand, agree but lack the discipline. Still others understand, agree, but make a lot of excuses not to give to the church.

So why then should Christians today maintain this practice?

The sole reason for the Church’s existence is fulfilling the Mission of God. There is no other reason why we are brought together. Congregations in various places use a variety of methods, which we call ministries, to give expression to their understanding of God’s Mission. In most cases these ministries require some kind of financial support for them to be implemented. The purpose of every ministry should be toward the transformation of lives and community.

It is on this that I premise the need for the continued financial support of the mission of God. Christian giving comes out of an understanding that all of our financial resources like everything else that we have, comes from God. It is a gift, not for hoarding, but for continued use in building up the Kingdom of God. When viewed like this, giving is not seen as a burden. You will give joyously because you know you are only managing what God has entrusted you with.

So here are the 5 Reasons I believe Christians should Tithe.

1. To advance, through financial support, the Mission of God. The church needs financial resources to fund its mission. We who are members of the church must give this support, to the best of our ability.

2. To foster fellowship this is not readily obvious. But the church that has a lot of members giving financially and the burden isn’t only on a smaller group, enjoys much better fellowship. It is the freedom people experience when they know they are part of something. There is no guilt for not giving, or resentment for carrying all the weight.

3. To respond in obedience to God that you will give back to God (which is what you do when you contribute in church, contribute to various ministries, make donations to various organizations, help those who are in need and so on) what God has

4. Develop the discipline of self-denial and rise above selfishness, greed and sheer meanness or lack of generosity. The world has grown heavily skewed toward selfishness. Christians should struggle against becoming like this. When you give, you are becoming more and more unlike the world.

5. To experience personal blessings. Don’t get hung up on this but it does give a heady feeling to know that what you have given has made a lasting difference in the life of someone else. So much so that that person whose life was touched is moved to glorify God (not you, God). It gives immeasurable satisfaction.

There is no rocket science in it, you don’t even need to read ‘the secret’ to get it. Just try it and you will see the profound difference it makes in your life to open your heart, purse or wallet and start giving to your church and its ministries.

Do share your stories with us on this controversial subject.

Make a change,
Marvia

10 Ways to Make Tithing Easy

Tithing generally refers to taking the first 10 percent of your income – the first fruits or cream of the crop, so to speak – and donating it to your church or the charity or charities of your choice.

If you’re like me, you’ve always wanted to tithe your income, but sometimes it seems so hard! But it doesn’t have to be. Here are 10 tips to make tithing easy.

1. Have your employer take it off the top. Most employers offer various payroll deduction plans. Talk with your employer to see if you can have 10 percent of your gross income automatically deducted from your paycheck and forwarded to the charity of your choice. For example, many employers do payroll deductions in conjunction with the local United Way campaign. They might also accommodate your request for the charity you choose.

2. Put it in a special account. Set up a special account just for your tithing funds. Many employers are linked with credit unions and will accommodate your request to take a specific amount or percentage from your paycheck each pay period and deposit it into a specific account. This could be a separate savings account or even a Christmas Club account – the proceeds of which you can donate to the charity of your choice when you receive the check each fall.

3. Write your charitable checks first. Good intentions can fade fast when it comes to bill-paying time. You might be tempted to give “what’s left” instead of your first fruits. This kind of defeats the purpose of tithing and can lead to guilty feelings instead of the positive feelings you want to get from the act of tithing. Before you sit down to pay your bills, write the check for 10 percent of your gross income out to your church or charity and mail it out.

4. Sign up for your bank’s automatic debit service. Most banks and businesses are happy to use automated debit services that withdraw certain funds from your savings or checking account on a particular date each month. You don’t even have to write a check. You sign an authorization and the money just comes out automatically. Our bank gives us a lower interest rate for using this service to make our car payment and pay our mortgage each month. Our life, health, and disability insurance automatically come out of our checking account on the same date each month, as well. Many utilities and phone companies encourage this option now, and recently, our church suggested it. Simply designate the specific amount to withdraw on a specific date each month and the money will automatically be transferred to the church or charity’s bank account and deducted from the balance in your account.

5. Tithe your time instead of your money. If you’re like me, cash is sometimes hard to come by. (I’m also really short on time, but sometimes that’s in more plentiful supply than money!) Take a look at your working hours. Assuming you work a 40-hour week, 10 percent of your working time would come out to 4 hours. Consider volunteering 4 hours each week to your church or the charity of your choice. Perhaps that means reading to kids at the library on Saturday mornings or walking dogs at the local animal shelter. Whatever charity you support, this may be the easy answer for you!

6. Tithe your talents instead of your money. Similar to tithing your time, look at your individual skills and talents. Is there something you can offer your church or charity – some talent or skill you possess that equates to monetary value? Perhaps your church needs a bookkeeper. Normally, they would hire someone for $60 per month to keep the books. Donate your talent in lieu of your cash and do the bookkeeping for your church at no charge!

7. Donate a possession of value. You’ve been meaning to tithe all year. Now you look back and you haven’t given nearly what you had planned. Take a look at your income. Compute 10 percent of gross – the standard amount of tithing. Now look around your home. Do you have something you no longer need – something of value that your church or charity might use or sell to generate income – of that same approximate value? Perhaps it is a used car you no longer need or one you were planning to trade in. Why not donate it instead? Maybe it’s some furniture or an appliance you really don’t use? Whatever the item, if it honestly has value, your donation/contribution could become your tithe.

8. If money is really tight, consider getting a part-time job entirely for the purpose of “giving something back.” Maybe you could work at a gas station one evening a week or work part-time for your local library, nursing home, or other facility and dedicate that specific income to your local charity. Because it’s “extra” income aside from your regular job, it won’t impact your “normal” finances.

9. Combine cash, time, and talent to arrive at your tithe. Maybe money is in short supply, but you can give a little bit. Give what you can and make up the difference between what you can donate in cash and what you want to give in time and talent as suggested in numbers 5 and 6 above. Who says it has to be all one way or the other. Mix it up!

10. Contribute through organizations that offer a gift-matching program. For example, some organizations will match your gift of up to $50 or $100 per family member to the charity of your choice or specific charities you may regularly support. You can write a separate check for each member of your family and essentially double your gift or the impact of your gift. Now that’s an offer that’s too good to refuse! Talk about making tithing easy!

Tithing off Gross or Net

Contributed from http://churchtithesandofferings.com

I’ve heard this question too often: Should i tithe on the gross or net? Here’s the conventional answer: Do you want God to bless you on the gross or net? I’m sorry, but i’m not a conventional type of person, so i’m not going to give you that answer. I have something else in store.

Do we find ourselves asking this type of question when you seek other ways to worship God? Do you calculate how much time you should spend with God once you’ve subtracted time for work, sleeping, and eating? Does it seem a little strange to you that we are legalistic about giving on the gross or net when we aren’t this legalistic about any other area of our service toward God? Seriously, what kind of standards do you have about praying? Come on, i would think we should have some sort of time minimum with praying, right? Ok, well, what about reading the bible? That’s like God’s letter directly written for you. I would think we should have some sort of calculation to help us figure out how much to read. No? Ok, well, what about serving? If no one serves, who will do what needs to be done for church? Shouldn’t we need some sort of minimum standard for how much you should serve in church?

We are beings that have been born again in his Spirit, so naturally, we should be led and instructed by the Holy Spirit on how to give. We should not let petty percentages dictate how our love is worked out. I am a married man, and if i gave to my wife the way most people give to God, then our marriage would be dead. Our God is alive and he speaks to us. It’s about time we start acting like it with Spirit-led, sacrificial giving instead of this monotonous, mechanical, automated, impersonal, habitual, routine we call tithing.

I’m sorry . . . did i offend some of you? Were you looking for some answer to whether or not you should tithe on the gross or net? Well, you aren’t going to get it here. Gimme a break, has our worship towards God become so religious that we cannot see how mechanical our relationship with God has become? We give like a bunch of pagans. Hold on, maybe i’m not clear as to what i’m saying . . . . TITHING IS PAGANISM. Go ahead, whip out Malachi 3, Leviticus 27, and Matthew 23.

What would you do if you heard of a group of people sacrificing sheep in the woods today? First thing that would come to your mind is some sort of witch cult. Yet, this very practice is completely biblical. As a matter of fact, Abraham sacrificed sheep. So why is tithing paganism? Well, for starters, all religions or cults give no differently to their own gods than we give to ours. Second, tithing was an old testament ritual just like animal sacrifices. Third, tithing was practiced by pagan cultures, such as the Egyptians and Babylonians prior to Abraham.

A huge difference between Buddha and Yahweh is that our God is not made of metal or wood. Our God is alive, and yet, we are satisfied with giving to our God as if he has nothing to say. Imagine if i gave my wife the same thoughtless gift every year and never asked her what she wanted. Don’t you think my wife wants me to ask her, and also has her own wishes? What makes you think that God is satisfied with this impersonal type of giving as well? God didn’t tear the veil so that we can continue old testament practices that permit us to ignore the direct channel we have to the holy room of God.

When you drive by a graveyard, you will see hundreds of flowers sitting on top of everyone’s grave. Do you see jewelry, clothes, a watch, shoes, vacation tickets, or a pedicure coupon? No. Because giving flowers, just like everyone else, is the only way we know how to express love to a dead person. We don’t know what they want, nor have we been in touch with them to even instinctively understand what they desire. This is because they are dead! Our relationship with a dead person is all one sided. We can talk to them, but they don’t talk back. This sounds a lot like how Christians want their God to be. We want him to hear when we need something; other than that we hope He stays dormant.

When i see the plate passed around in church it is much like watching people visiting their loved ones in the graveyard. They all come with the same gift in hand because tithing seems to be the universally accepted gift for someone who’s been dead to us all week.

If you don’t agree with what i’m saying about tithing, just look at how most tithers give offerings above and beyond. Because of my past experience, i would venture to say some of you give a couple extra percentage points above the tithe into the offering plate. If you were like me, you gave 11% to make sure that extra percent covers any oversight in calculating your tithe, and to provide you the opportunity to give that cheerful offering above the tithe.

Although we define offerings as Spirit led giving, there is no philosophical difference between tithing and offerings because we still mimic the same mechanical procedure we had with tithing. Technically, the only difference we see between Spirit led giving and tithing is what is typed on a calculator or planned in our budget. For those of you who don’t calculate your offering above the tithe, don’t think you are off the hook, because i would venture to guess that your offering above the tithe is much like throwing darts blindfolded.

Some of us even think giving is like throwing gifts into the center of a volcano in hopes to appease the angry god from spewing out his wrath on our little village.

In the end, instead of acting like children worshiping a living God; tithing has taught us nothing but to be good little disciplined pagans. Sorry for those who thought they were getting an answer about tithing on the gross or net.

What Happens When You Tithe- Video

Watch as Creflo Dollar Explains what happens when you tithe.