Week Two Essay

Response to Drury Article: What Evangelicals Believe About Tithing

 

    I thought that this article by Drury raised many good points about how "Church people" feel about tithing. I was also surprised about some of the statistics that Drury mentioned in the article such as if everyone in a congregation tithed 10% then most Church's income would at least double if not triple or quadruple. The first thing that this tells me is that the evangelical Church has a problem when it comes to tithing. I think that this problem with tithing could stem from the greed of the people of the Church or from pastors and Churches doing a poor job teaching, preaching and challenging members of the congregation to tithe. It is probably a little bit of both.

    The second paragraph of this article I found particularly interesting. The idea that most evangelicals think that tithing is not Biblical is foreign to me. I thought that Drury made a interesting point how many evangelicals view tithing much like the Sabbath command and if they set apart part of the Sabbath day then they are okay. I think Drury might be right that many evangelicals view tithing that same way and think that if they give something then they are okay.

    The third paragraph of this article made me angry about how many evangelicals view what the Church is and how they justify their giving to the Church by giving to a kayak trip. The last sentence of that paragraph makes the point that many evangelicals have wandered off from ecclesiology orthodoxy. I think that this is a huge problem in the Church and something that needs to be addressed so that people do not continue to justify giving to "the Church" when they are in fact not giving to the Church at all. I think that it is important and necessary for the people of the Church to give 10% to the local Church. I also think that the people of the Church need to give their tithe without concern if their tithe is going to pay the electric bill, pastor's salary, or to the children's ministry. As long as the money is being used as it should within the Church people should be worrying about what their tithe is specifically being used for, it is all going to help the Church and to support the ministries and people of that Church.

    I think that it would be good to thank the people of the Church that give tithes and/or offerings to the Church. But there are some problems with this. First of all there are few pastors that know what the people of the Church are tithing and giving. How can the pastor be expected to write thank you letters to everyone in the Church if they do not know what is being given? If it is a larger Church, even if there were 100 regular givers in your Church that is a lot of writing, time and energy into writing individual think you letters every year. I see no problem with sending out a photocopied thank you letter from the Church instead of a hand written letter to each giver in the Church.

    I believe that tithing should be done by all in the Church who have jobs and receive income. Ten percent should be given to the local Church and then anything else given to other ministries or organizations. In Luke 11:42 Jesus tells that Pharisees "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone." I know that Jesus is not coming out and saying specifically to give a tenth of everything you earn to God in this passage, but he is instructing the Pharisees that they are right in giving a tenth to God. I understand that there are hard times that people go through and they need to make the decision with much prayer and meditation if they can give their tithe or not. But I believe that tithing should be done at all times, even if that means taking a leap of faith.