Comments on: How Shall We Finance the Work of the Church? – Bob Terry http://claypeck.com Thoughts from Clay Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:51:45 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: clay http://claypeck.com/articles/how-shall-we-finance-the-work-of-the-church-bob-terry/comment-page-1/#comment-30 clay Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:21:03 +0000 http://claypeck.com/?page_id=39#comment-30 Hi John, An undue emphasis on money is never a good thing, but I don’t think seekers are as worried about hearing about it as we some times think (as long as it is presented correctly). They know it takes money to run a church and would be probably be surprised if we never talked about it. As far as tithe and whether or not it is a new covenant principle, there is plenty of evidence in the early story in Acts that some people gave everything to the work of God—even cashing out properties. Others kept their homes and offered them as gathering places for the church. They were motivated by gratitude and asked how much they could give, not how much they could keep. I do find it hard to image that grace would lead us to do less for God than law. Ten percent works well as a time honored benchmark for responsible giving, to be exceeded as we may prosper or be led by the Lord, but not a legalistic law. God doesn’t need our money, but he does want us to learn to let go of it because he wants our heart and he realizes that our heart tends to follow our treasure. Jesus said that where we put our treasure our heart will be also (Matt. 6:21). It is interesting that he didn’t say that the other way which is also true (where your heart is, your treasure will follow). Hi John,

An undue emphasis on money is never a good thing, but I don’t think seekers are as worried about hearing about it as we some times think (as long as it is presented correctly). They know it takes money to run a church and would be probably be surprised if we never talked about it.

As far as tithe and whether or not it is a new covenant principle, there is plenty of evidence in the early story in Acts that some people gave everything to the work of God—even cashing out properties. Others kept their homes and offered them as gathering places for the church. They were motivated by gratitude and asked how much they could give, not how much they could keep. I do find it hard to image that grace would lead us to do less for God than law. Ten percent works well as a time honored benchmark for responsible giving, to be exceeded as we may prosper or be led by the Lord, but not a legalistic law.

God doesn’t need our money, but he does want us to learn to let go of it because he wants our heart and he realizes that our heart tends to follow our treasure. Jesus said that where we put our treasure our heart will be also (Matt. 6:21). It is interesting that he didn’t say that the other way which is also true (where your heart is, your treasure will follow).

]]> By: johnh http://claypeck.com/articles/how-shall-we-finance-the-work-of-the-church-bob-terry/comment-page-1/#comment-28 johnh Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:08:27 +0000 http://claypeck.com/?page_id=39#comment-28 This is a good article. I know there is a lot of controversy about tithing. I personally would like the word to be used as little as possible in the church. My reasoning stems mostly from the response of seekers. I think one of the main objections from seekers is the sense that the church just wants your money. It certainly is reinforced from TV preachers. I think using Old Testament scriptures to validate the principle of tithing can be confusing to new christians. I had a nephew attend church with me somewhat recently. This was the first time for him. When the offering was being taken up, he whispered to me that he didn't have any cash. I whispered back, "God doesn't want your money, He wants your heart". The pastor of the church I belonged to before moving to Colorado was being interviewed on the radio. the discussion touched on the area of church finance and tithing in particular. He gave a very graceful answer. He said that somehow tithing was being used as a litmus test to determine who was functioning as "good christians". He said he doesn't like that because Jesus clearly taught that God wants everything. He doesn't preach about tithing, yet when three year commitments for a new sanctuary were solicited from the church during a 5 week period, they ended up with over $12 million! They needed just 10 million! Now obviously, this wouldn't always happen in most churches, but I think his approach was right-on. I even heard him say during a sermon that he knew many people were struggling to make ends meet and that some of the congregation should be taking money out of the offerings to help meet their needs. I thought this was refreshing. I guess my point is that percentages shouldn't be presented as boundary markers in the christian church. I think we should be encouraging people to honor God from the heart and that each person should give ( in many different areas, time, talents, money) as God puts it upon their hearts. The story of the young rich ruler comes to mind. He kept going down the road of "performance" and finally Jesus, as he always did, got to the center of the man's life. "Sell all you have and give to the poor!" The point is that Jesus wants all. If we draw boundaries, we end up echoing the law. God wants our hearts, He doesn't need out money. When He has our hearts, then we respond with more and more of ourselves. Then 5%, 10%, 20% may be just the next step in deeper understanding of picking up our cross and following him. This is a good article. I know there is a lot of controversy about tithing. I personally would like the word to be used as little as possible in the church. My reasoning stems mostly from the response of seekers. I think one of the main objections from seekers is the sense that the church just wants your money. It certainly is reinforced from TV preachers. I think using Old Testament scriptures to validate the principle of tithing can be confusing to new christians. I had a nephew attend church with me somewhat recently. This was the first time for him. When the offering was being taken up, he whispered to me that he didn’t have any cash. I whispered back, “God doesn’t want your money, He wants your heart”. The pastor of the church I belonged to before moving to Colorado was being interviewed on the radio. the discussion touched on the area of church finance and tithing in particular. He gave a very graceful answer. He said that somehow tithing was being used as a litmus
test to determine who was functioning as “good christians”. He said he doesn’t like that because Jesus clearly taught that God wants everything. He doesn’t preach about tithing, yet when three year commitments for a new sanctuary were solicited from the church during a 5 week period, they ended up with over $12 million! They needed just 10 million! Now obviously, this wouldn’t always happen in most churches, but I think his approach was right-on. I even heard him say during a sermon that he knew many people were struggling to make ends meet and that some of the congregation should be taking money out of the offerings to help meet their needs. I thought this was refreshing.
I guess my point is that percentages shouldn’t be presented as boundary markers in the christian church. I think we should be encouraging people to honor God from the heart and that each person should give ( in many different areas, time, talents, money) as God puts it upon their hearts. The story of the young rich ruler comes to mind. He kept going down the road of “performance” and finally Jesus, as he always did, got to the center of the man’s life. “Sell all you have and give to the poor!” The point is that Jesus wants all.
If we draw boundaries, we end up echoing the law. God wants our hearts, He doesn’t need out money. When He has our hearts, then we respond with more and more of ourselves. Then 5%, 10%, 20% may be just the next step in deeper understanding of picking up our cross and following him.

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