The Church Series (The Cost to Maintain) Pt. 29 (WARNING) Rated FG-7

The real problem is not the amount of money a church brings in, but that it has become heavily institutionalized, with a cursing investment of maintenance. It has the characteristics of the dinosaur and the battleship. It is saddled with a plant and a program beyond its means, so that it is absorbed in problems of supply and preoccupied with survival.

2 Corinthians 2:17 (NIV)
Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.

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, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Malachi 3:8-10 (NIV)

This passage seems to be many Christian leaders’ favorite Bible text, especially when giving is at low tide. If you have spent any time in the contemporary church, you have heard this passage read from the pulpit on numerous occasions. Consider some of the rhetoric that goes with it.

“God has commanded you to faithfully give your tithes. If you do not tithe, you are robbing God Almighty, and you put yourself under a curse.”

“Your tithes and offerings are necessary if God’s work will go on!” (“God’s work,” of course, includes paying the pastoral staff and footing the monthly electric bill to keep the building afloat.)

What is the result of this sort of pressure? God’s people are persuaded to give one-tenth of their incomes every week. When they do, they feel they have made God happy. And they expect Him to bless them financially. (Let’s be real.) When they fail, they feel they are being disobedient, and worry that a financial curse looms over them.

But let’s take a few steps backward and ask the penetrating question: “Does that Bible teach us to tithe? And …. are we spiritually obligated to fund the pastor and his staff?”

The answer to these two questions may shock you. (Stay Tuned!)