Rules of Giving

I was reading one of the blogs I follow the other day. It had a thread that asked if tithing was a Biblical requirement for Christians. The debate was spirited with both sides scoring points. As I read, I had a couple of wierd thoughts, which is normal for me.

First, we love requirements. And the tithe is just so easy to figure. Just give us some rules to follow and we know where we stand. I can look at my charitable giving at the end of the year and if I'm over 10% I'm good.

Second, we love money. Even while we preach against the love of money, we love it. We trust it. We know what we can do with it. Take faith to the grocery store and see how many Pop tarts you can buy with it. Tell the electric company you are praying for them instead of sending them a check and see how long they leave the lights on.

Besides, giving money is easy. We can give some and make more. It is much easier to give money than to give time. It is also easier to teach people to give money than to convince them to give time. People understand the concept of paying for good service, so if a pastor gives good service, people will pay. Many in church will never be able to join a country club, but they can attend a church and give regularly and expect to be attended to. Many would prefer to give toward hiring a janitor than to empty wastebaskets and clean toilets. After all, they have to do that sort of thing at home. They want to come to the church and be served.

And we as preachers propagate that thinking. If we attempt to teach servanthood, that is all well and good. But if we attempt to have our people practice servanthood, we are in for a battle. So we preach on the guaranteed blessings of giving in the hopes that bigger offerings will produce some leftover that we can use to fund people who are actually serving. We keep everyone comfortable and happy and maintain their country club. And as a result, we are powerless because we are operating from our budget instead of operating from our faith. We protect our jobs and rationalize it by hoping that eventually we can nudge our people in the right direction, but until then, we can support some worthy projects. We know that it is less than God's best, but it acknowledges the realities of pastoring in North America in the 21st century.

This post is not as hopeful as my normal posts. It acknowledges the situation in which we find ourselves, but as yet I do not know how to change this culture. The Jesus of the Gospels wasn't really as concerned with us having fulfillment and happy marriages as he was with us dying to self and being ready to divest ourselves of anything that hindered our relationship with him. He modeled homelessness. He had no possessions. He said that unless we were ready to forsake even our closest family members we couldn't be his disciples. But we are not preaching those things. Those topics won't "grow a church". We as church leaders have, in most instances, taken the easy way out by giving our people what they want to hear instead of what Jesus actually taught. And as long as we reward and recognize pastors for the number of people they attract instead of the quality of discipleship they provide we will have this. But it will be hard to change. I am not without sympathy. Pastors can really put their careers in danger by changing their message from "come and dine" to "come and die". But the ultimate freedom is in serving Christ without reservation. That means giving 10% is a nice start, but it isn't a rule. A life that is wholly committed to following Christ is a life of leaving everything behind. Nothing reserved. Nothing held back. Only Christ. I'm not there yet. I'm still sorting things out. But the small moves I have made in that direction have opened new vistas in my relationship with God. I suspect that the more I am willing to give, the better I'm gonna like it.