I hate tithing

All my life I grew up being taught that I had to give 10% of every dollar I earned into the church offering. Every dime I received as a kid saw a penny plunked down into the plate as it went by me in Children’s Church. That practice carried on through college and all the way through my 10 years as a Youth Pastor in Ohio. Even as I began my first Senior Pastorate ministry in Indiana, I faithfully gave 10% of all of my income every Sunday in the offering. Now before you bestow upon me the “life-time achievement in tithing” award, let me make a confession. I hated it! I mean it. I hated it! I couldn’t stand giving 10% of my money every week in the offering. It grinded me to have to do this week in and week out. The longer I practiced this principle the more I hated it. To me, tithing was a huge “chain and ball” wrapped around my spiritual ankle.

Then our church in Indiana began to hit some had times financially and the Elder Board suggested I preach a series on giving. To me, this couldn’t be too hard. I would do to my church what had always been done to me. I will laden them with a guilt-filled message on why they must give 10% of all of their income in the church offering in order to be considered spiritual. So, off I went to search the Bible and find that all-inclusive New Testament verse that clearly and neatly outlined the 10% principle of tithing. The only problem was that I couldn’t find it.

The more I searched the New Testament, the more intrigued I became. When my study was done, I had come to a new conclusion than I had never known. The pattern of giving in the New Testament wasn’t a 10% “chain and ball” like I had thought it was all those years, even ministry years. The New Testament pattern of giving seemed to simply be this . . . give your best. Suddenly I felt a freedom in giving that I never knew existed. The 10% “chain and ball” was taken off my spiritual ankle and I felt like I could spiritually run for the first time in my life when it came to stewardship. So I had to ask myself a question. I knew I was giving 10%, but was I giving my best?

My wife and I talked about this principle. I couldn’t believe what our conclusion was. Yes, we were faithfully (yet reluctantly) giving 10% every Sunday but we could not honestly say that were giving our best. We could give more. Oh, it would mean some sacrifice, but can we really say that we are giving our best if there is no sacrifice involved? From that time forward we have always given more than 10%. Not because we have to . . . but because we want to. The amazing thing is this. When I gave 10% I hated it, but when I started giving my best which was more than 10%, I loved it. It became my favorite check to write each week. I found myself looking for other ways to give. Suddenly the very thing that had felt like a “chain and ball” in the past now had become one of my spiritual joys. And with this joy came spiritual growth in many other areas of my life as well.

Paul was right when he wrote in II Cor 9:7, “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”