As you can tell, the last few posts have been openly questioning the paradigm of American Evangelicalism. Does the Gospel need buildings? Does the Gospel need money? And today I want to ask if the Gospel requires a tithe of cash.
Let’s state the obvious right up front. Kristen and I tithe. We aren’t staunch legalists so I can’t say we give exactly 10% of our income away. To our local church we give a set weekly amount. We also support some missionaries monthly. And we do other things, as needed, on top of that. As someone who earned 100% of his living from local churches for the last several years, I’m a big fan of giving to the local church. If you don’t give and you can, please do. This post isn’t asking people not to give. It’s asking what we should do when people can’t give.
We are entering a season in America in which our people will simply have to wrestle with money in ways they may never have. For most adults they probably have not wrestled with money this much since college. With inflation in every area of the economy people are having to chose between paying their mortgage/rent and buying gas for their car to get to work. In the same way, they are having to chose between giving to their church and buying groceries. To me, this creates a crisis for the church. And I wonder how ministers will speak truth into the lives of their people.
I use the word crisis intentionally. This goes back to my fundamental belief that every crisis is an opportunity. And every crisis will create vast success for those who innovate solutions.
On the one hand, we love people whether they give financially or not. At least we say we do. But we know, definitively, that giving to God is not tied to God’s benevelent love. And it would be completely sick if people were punished because they once gave and now cannot. (I know a couple people who would argue that their inability to give somehow disqualifies a person to hold a leadership position.)
On the other hand, I wonder if the tithe has to be cash. Are we prepared to tell our people, “I know you can’t give because you got laid off. Would you be willing to tithe your talents? Would you be willing to tithe your time?”
I am openly questioning if paid people in ministry are so worried that giving will shrink to the point that they will lose their paychecks that they not comforting the suddenly poor. I am worried that church leaders will be so desperate for income that they will skew what the Bible says for their own gain. And I’m openly wondering if the church is willing to think of a new way to make an offering to God. Will you still love Joe the Plumber when he becomes Joe the Gas Station Attendant?
The more I think about this the more I am convinced that we, as Evangelicals, are missing something. I think we’ve so engrained ourselves into the lie of the American dream that we have warped the Gospel to being a game of bigger and better. If God is blessing a church, it’ll get bigger. Offerings will go up. We can hire more staff and build bigger buildings. What if God blessed the church by making it smaller?
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