I’m drinking a Diet Mountain Dew and eating Milk Duds while watching television. What are you all up to on this sunny afternoon?
Yesterday I felt inspired, but today I’m back to being lazy. So here’s this:
Thou shalt not be required to financially support your church – but you should anyway.
That’s the upshot of a new informal survey of evangelical leaders finding that less than half believe that the Bible requires church members to tithe, the practice of giving at least 10 percent of one’s income to the church.
The survey, conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) among its 100-member board of directors, found that 42% of evangelical leaders believe the Bible requires tithing, while 58% do not.
Read the entire article at Beliefnet. Tithing is almost as a touchy a subject as hell, so I’m interested to see what kind of a response this survey gets among the churched. I sincerely hope that if/when we embrace the freedom from the law that Christ offers, we Christians will be more generous, not less. For inspiration, read Acts 4:32-34.
Strange Figures 
I have always thought that you should give what you can, when you are inspired to do so. Another important thing to donate is your time and talents. Sometimes giving your time can be more painful than opening your wallet.
Churches really do vary on the money scale. I have known pastors that work jobs outside the church to make ends meet. As a banker, I met a few that were living pretty comfortably. I’ve always thought that a minister was supposed to be sort of sacrificing luxury to do “God’s work.”
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As you said, there’s a lot of variation on this subject. I tend to think that ALL Christians should sacrifice luxury to do God’s work. In other words, I’m very skeptical of rich Christians. But I may be more judgmental about that than is necessary. I’ve been chastised about that a few times.
And yeah, as for tithing, I’d rather follow the model of the early church, which viewed everything they had as belonging to God and they shared it freely, rather than rigidly following a 10% rule.
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hahahahaha…Love you!!! You are awesome….just wanted you to know that today…
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Well, gosh, thanks! I love you, too!
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