A theology of giving...
"What is the Biblical basis for tithing?"
The notion of giving back to God what is rightfully His to begin with is built into the Jewish-Christian story right from the start.
Exodus 25 contains a significant portion of the Mt. Sinai narrative where God is forming the Covenant relationship between Himself and his Jewish ‘People'. As part of the giving of the Law God asks Moses to speak to the people that they bring Him an offering ‘willingly' and ‘from the heart'. Significantly, these offerings were to be used to begin the ministry of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was the locus of the Jewish people's spiritual life. Today, all these many years later, your local Church abides as a spiritual Tabernacle of sorts for you.
Malachi 3 is the most famous chapter on tithing. Verses 8-12 are the specific ones that deal with tithing. The set-up is in verses 6-7 where God lays out His requirement of worship, and service from His people to Himself.
Here it is:
6 "For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?' 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?' In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts..."
-Mal 3:6-12 (ESV)
Significantly vs6 starts with God reminding us that He never changes. We do well to remember that our Christian experience is embedded in the long history of the Christian Church and the longer history of the Jewish people. Throughout both these histories tithing has been one of the keynote distinctives of God's people.
When God calls his people to return to Him (Mal 3:7) the people ask ‘how' and God gives a clear answer. ‘Stop robbing Me in tithes and offerings.' He commands them to ‘bring all the tithes into the storehouse' so that ‘there may be food in My house.' The first point here is this; we naturally shirk our responsibility to give back to God what is His. It's hard to live on less than all we earn and we tend to think of the tithe as optional. It was not so for God and his Jewish people. The tithe was expected. It was needed ‘that there may be food in My house'. Again, the provision for the Temple, the locus of the Jewish people's spiritual life was made through the people's tithe.
A couple of principles from this:
Ministry is not free. Unlike other businesses, Churches don't charge for their services. The ministries of even a small Church like THE WELL cost money to implement. Skilled workers have to be hired, compensated, and managed, locations have to be secured for events, member ministries need to be funded, equipment has to be purchased, insurance, rent, bank fees, hydro, phone and internet service must be paid for, miscellaneous funds for pastoral meetings with members, paper, pens, professional development, all these and more must be paid for somehow.
The Jews tithed as testimony. It was one of the clear reminders of their covenant status as God's special people. I believe this principle holds true today. In an age when ‘belief' is cheap, those who put their money where their mouth is demonstrate conviction to their peers.
"And try Me now in this...(and see)...if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessings that there will not be room enough to receive it." (Mal 3:11)
Tithing is one of the key ways we demonstrate active dependency on God for our provision. In a culture of opulence such as ours it is not easy to feel needy. Giving 10% of all you earn as first-fruits to God in the context of your local Church, forces many of us to depend on God to make up the difference. By times, this top-up on God's part is miraculous; surprise money showing up, an unexpected contract, bonus, or raise, ‘magic groceries' appearing on your porch.
Other times His provision here works its way through in your lifestyle. The discipline of tithing helps you become disciplined in bill-paying, debt-management and reduction, and in appropriate (reduced) spending on non-necessities. It helps put things in perspective. If we believe in God's active work in our local Church, and we believe that as members of that local body God has called us to partner with Him, and we know that Church costs money, we should have no difficulty taking the leap to becoming financial partners with God in our local church context.
At THE WELL, as we begin inviting people into covenant partnership with us, we will agree together that that partnership entails giving to the work of God at THE WELL with the OT 10% imperative as a GUIDELINE, not a legalistic requirement. It is VERY IMPORTANT to note that this unified agreement is not intended to be legalistic or onerous. The New Testament is very clear that giving is to be done with a joyful heart, and that-in Jesus-the Old Testament is fulfilled, or completed. We must hold in tension a God who never changes (ie: His expectation of a tithe stands, in a way similar to how His injunction against ‘murder' in the 10 Commandments still stands, our ‘freedom in Christ' doesn't allow us to start murdering nor does it free us up to stop giving generously to the work of God through the context of our local assembly or church) with God-the-Son (Jesus Christ) who came that we might be free indeed. The Christian Church has struggled for centuries with interpreting and applying the intermeshing of the OT and NT Covenants. Yes, we gentiles are not bound by Jewish dietary laws or circumcision rites while at the same time believing that murder still runs contrary to God's Law. See, it's not as easy as "Well tithing was an OT ordinance so we don't have to abide by it as NT Christians." Of course, we still hold adultery as sin, idolatry as sin, covetousness as sin, but we transgress the Jewish Sabbath. Weird huh?
All that to say this; yes there is debate as to what Churches should do about tithing. There is debate about all sorts of doctrinal and dogmatic issues in the worldwide Christian Church.
As members together at THE WELL it is our hope that you will join us in agreeing that we will abide in the SPIRIT of God's command to His people to tithe. We hope to agree in this way with hundreds of years of Church History and to set our guideline or goal for giving at 10% of all we earn.
This means:
It is our hope that, as God leads you to partner with us at THE WELL, you will give 10% or more of all you earn to support the practicalities of His work in our midst. THE WELL itself, as a Church, will be following this same spirit as it dedicates full 30% of all its income to supporting God's ongoing work in our area (and Worldwide) through social justice, church planting and cultural outreach/missions.
"What happens if I don't tithe?"
Ultimately, your faith will suffer, and it's been our anecdotal experience that money may end up ruling you instead of the other way around.
If you are feeling called to a position of leadership at THE WELL (Deacon, Elder) you should know that one of the first things we'll do when considering whether to admit you into the leadership development process is to pull your giving records. It's our hope that those records will demonstrate that ‘where your treasure is, there is your heart..." has shown itself true in you and that you have been a faithful supporter of God's work through THE WELL during your time with us. If those same records show no record (or a very meager one) of giving, we will have reason to question your actual commitment to THE WELL.
Nobody's going to hunt you down or call you to task on this unless you aspire to a leadership position at THE WELL. However, unless each of us respond to the call of God to give back to Him from what He has so graciously given us, you can be sure that THE WELL won't grow, won't have any impact in our culture and will make no difference for the Kingdom in Burlington or beyond.
It is our privilege and responsibility to joyfully partner in God's work at THE WELL through giving of our time, of our talent and of our treasure to see this church built, through and in the work and mercy of Jesus Christ who gave Himself so generously for us.
The discipline of tithing is one we have embraced as a Community, and we hope you continue to fuel our collective passion by your participation with us.
As always, we thank you for your faithfulness and pray God's Blessings on you.
With love in the truth and respect,
Todd Cantelon
Founding/Preaching Pastor
THE WELL
