I know of a church in town that fired staff members for not tithing to the church. Now many of these members tithed just to other organizations. Shouldn't we share the wealth?
Now what about the manpower? Why can't churches have their employees and their lay people volunteer at community organizations, even other churches? Imagine if churches that could afford it hired staff for churches that couldn't! Imagine if churches held their services then went to another church in town to help staff its service. Imagine if once a month or once a quarter churches cancelled services to go and clean a local lake or river. Imagine if we stopped sucking up all the volunteers and volunteer hours we can and instead gave them away.
Many churches give away a percentage of their income, but what about a percentage of their volunteers? Why can't we tithe more than money? Why can't we tithe volunteering?
3 comments:
I guess this is how I understand it.
Tithing is giving to God what God asks of us. It is the minimum amount. Should the church 'fire' someone for not tithing? NOPE. I think that is heinous and weird.
As for tithing volunteers/time. I can only speak for myself. I serve where God asks me to. I serve / volunteer to further the kingdom of God as an act of discipleship. Of gratefulness of God in my life. To connect with others. To follow in Jesus' footsteps of service. This is not a tithe.
But shouldn't we want to connect to others outside of our own fellowship? What about the staff of the church, why can't they serve another church once in awhile, it might be a welcomed break.
Didn't they tithe more than money in the Bible? I personally think the idea of tithing was thrown out in the New Testament. Its not about just giving a certain percent, its about giving it all to God. But in giving it all can we give it in places we usually don't give it in? Why can't churches network volunteers? I know of many churches that have an overabundance in one certain area, instead of turning people away why not see if these people would be willing to serve that ministry team in another local church? Just a thought.
um, isn't church about christ and spiritual salvation through him. Perhaps the church people could do it outside of the church, but we gather for the gospel. The bible has no precedent for this in the context you give, but does give us instructions about not sinning and living in grace through christ. do you clean lakes? do you build for habitat for humanity? If you do, I doubt it's because church has sucked up your time. Tell you what, skip a blog session, clean a lake, then re post this blog in the shadow of the gospel.
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