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Finances and the Tithe

We don't want to hide it in any way. The largest reason the Collaborative Church was started was to enable Churches to use their funds in a different manner. Church spend 50 - 85% of their funds on maintaining their building. The remaining 50-20% generally goes toward the pastoral staff; very little goes to anything outside the walls of the church such as missions, our biblical mandate to take care of the least , last, and lost or to the widows, orphans, and aliens among us.

Churches who use our distributed leadership model will find that they don't need as many people on staff (and maybe even none at all!) because the duties and responsibilities of the group are spread over many people. As the old adage goes: "many hands make light work."

In addition to growing the gifts and callings of their members, distrusted leadership means that a church will be able to substantially lower their ongoing costs and free up a much larger portion of their funds to go where Jesus intended it to go.

Where did Jesus intend for it to go? Let's start with what you were meant to give.

History of the tithe

You, as a Christian, were never meant to tithe 10%. However tithing is in the bible, so let's begin by explaining what it was there for and what the bible has to say about our finances.

If you have been in church any significant amount of time, you have heard this verse:

"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me!" But you ask "How do we rob you?" "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour down a blessing that you will not have room enough in it."

Malachi 3:8-10

There were three tithes in the Jewish system:

1. A tenth of the produce was to go to the Levites, i

2. A tenth of the produce was to go towards the national festivals ii

3. Every third year, a tenth of the produce was to go to the Levite's additional needs, the orphans, the widows, the aliens, and the fatherless iii

Thus the tithe was 23.3 percent of the Israeli's income. 20% a year split among two different purposes, and 10% once every three years (3.3 per year when averaged).

Along with the tithe there were three economic equalizers that God commanded:

1. Every fiftieth year, appropiratly called "the Year of Jubilee," all assets were to be returned to their original owners so that no economic gains or losses would be permanent. iv

 

This was primarily put in place so that in the common scenario (because of war and conflict) where a father become disabled or dies, his children do not forever suffer the loss of their family estate. Incidentally, it also protected children from fathers who were drunkards or lazy or who were physically or mentally handicaped or simply had a lack of ability.

 

2. No one was allowed to clear the edges of their fields nor farm it on the seventh year. This allowed those children whose father had temporarily lost their lands to be assured that they could, with a little hard work, provide for themselves until the year of Jubilee came. v

 

Notice that this law does not guarentee handouts, but rather guarentees that poor people have the means to aquire basic necesities by simply apply themselves

 

3. Isrealites were unable to charge interest to other Isrealites and all debts were to be forgiven ever 7 years vi

 

There are three things you should take note of from this economic system:

1. First, you should be able to quickly see you have generally only been told about one part of the tithe: the ten percent to the Levites since this supposedly now belongs to the church and the pastor.

 

2. 23.3% should strike you as very large percentage. (The national average for Christian giving is around 3%.)

 

3. Even while claiming to be biblical the system of 10% to God it still leaves out the economic equalizers, national festivals, and the additional 10% every three years that was meant to go to the needy.

Let me stop and include a very pertinent detail: Levites were not priests. Although they did have some religious duties, the job of the Levite was primarily political in nature. To say that a Levite and a pastor are synonymous because of a few minor religious duties would be similar to saying that all politicians are pastors because Congress opens session with a prayer. It just doesn't fit the facts. The view that churches and pastors deserve the tithe once dedicated to the Levites conveniently leaves out the command from God that forbid the ownership of private property for the Levites. (It is after all the ownership of property that necessitates the tithe...)

So, let me state the obvious: the tithe was a political instrument instituted by God for the political survival of the Jewish nation. It is structured more closely to the income tax than a religious gift. Furthermore, Malachi 3:8-10 although perhaps including all forms, only specificaly mentions the tithe that was meant to take care of the Levite's additional needs, the orphans, the widows, the aliens, and the fatherless.

You don't see a single Christian tithe in the new testament. Just like you don't see a single Christian sacrifice an animal on an alter: the usefulness for such practices had passed away! Nevertheless, Jesus talks about money more than any other topic and the New Testament Church gave far more than it predicessor, the Jewish nation, had ever conceived. To that we now turn.

Giving and the New Testament Church

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. ... 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 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need." (Acts 4:32, 34-35)

 

Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.... They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. (Acts 2:45-46)

 

I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality. As it is written, "He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack." (2 Cor. 8:13-15)

 

Acts 24 shows us that Paul died not because of his commitment to evangelism, but beacuse of his commitment to taking care of the widow, the orphan, and the alien.

 

"Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea" (Acts 11:29)

 

"They walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them, and they love one another. They despise not the widow, and grieve not the orphan. He that has, distributes liberally to he that does not. If they see a stranger, they bring him under their roof, and rejoice over him, as if it were their own brother: for they call themselves brethren, not after the flesh, but after the spirit and in God; but when one of their poor passes away from the world, and any of them see him, then he provides for his burial according to his ability; and if they hear that any of their number is imprisoned or oppressed for the name of their Messiah, all of them provide for his needs, and if possible that he may be delivered, they deliver him. And if any among them is poor and needy, and they have an abundance of necessities, they fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with their necessary food." - Aristedes in 125AD

 

"The god-less Galileans [Christians] feed not only their poor but ours as well." -Julian the Apostate, circa 361-364 AD

By AD 250, the church in Rome was supporting 1,500 needy persons.

Giving and Racial reconciliation

Acts 6 gives a striking example of how the new system worked. Apparently the Jerusalem church included a significant minority of Hellenists (Greek-speaking Jews, or perhaps even Greeks who had converted to Judaism) Somehow the Jewish speaking majority had overlooked the needs of the Hellenist widows. When this injustice was pointed out, the church's response was startling. The seven men chosen to look after the matter were all from the minority group! Every one of their names is Greek. The church turned over its funds for needy widows to the minority group that had been discriminated against. What was the result of this new kind of financial fellowship? "And the word of God increased; and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jursalem (Acts 6:7)."

-Ronald Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger

Outside the walls

• Beyond the building

• Every day 30,000 people die of preventable illnesses and hunger. Many of them are our Christian brothers and sisters.

Taking Care of the Widow, Orphan, and the Alien

• Economic Sharing and the story of the Third world
• Malichi 3:8-10 is about the tithe to the widows orphans and aliens

It's not wrong to pay your pastor

this is a stub

i. Leviticus 27:30-33, Numbers 18:21-31

ii. Dueteronomy 14:22-27

iii. Dueteronomy 14:28-29, 26:12-13

iv. Leviticus 25, Dueteronomy 15

v. Leviticus 19:10, Exodus 23:10-11

vi. Exodus 22:25, Dueteronomy 23:19-20, Leviticus 25:35-38, Dueteronomy 15:1-10