TITHING
I remember an “All-Tithe Sunday” back in college. The pastor said, “If everyone tithed, we would never need a separate missions commitment. We would never need a separate building commitment. We would almost never need special offerings, except for freewill offerings from the heart.”
I do not know how that math works out, because I don’t know the salaries of our people, but if the Pareto Principle holds true, then 20% of the people cover 80% of the bills. For us, that’s probably not accurate, because I believe we have a great variety of givers, but what Bro. Si said last week was right: “A tithe is a tenth. When I was giving less than a tenth, I was lying about what I was giving when I called it a tithe!”
My daughters are learning fractions and decimals and percents, and a tenth is easy… move the decimal over one place. When Bro. Cole earned $17.00, he moved that decimal over one place and tithed $1.70. Pretty simple.
Bro. Russo sent me a sermon from Bro. David Gibbs, who said, “There are three types of givers: Polite givers (you give to be nice), Calculated givers (you’re gonna figure out what you can do), and Faith givers (you give to please God.)”
He continued, “There are three reasons to give: you give because you’re commanded to. You give because you love Jesus. And you give because you love people.”
Those are good Bible reasons to be a part of God’s plan for His money in your pocket. Let’s be faithful in the little so we can be faithful in much.
–Pastor Ryan