Tithing

Our stewardship focus this year is tithing.  Tithing is the Biblical concept of giving the first 10 percent (or a tithe) of your income to God. 

Elaine and I have been giving 10% or more of our income for a long time now but this was not always the case, at least not for me. 

Elaine gave a tithe of her income right from the start of our marriage.  This was the norm in her family, the family of a Methodist pastor.  On the other hand, I was not even close to tithing my income and when Elaine gave up her job to raise our children, she became concerned about our giving as a family.

Elaine:  Lee, I think that we should consider tithing our income.

Lee:  Uh... that's a lot of money and we have a lot of bills to pay.  After all, we want to build a house.  And besides, by the time pay day rolls around, we've spent all our money so where could we possibly find the extra money?

Elaine:  We don't have to get there immediately, why not increase our giving a little bit every year until we reach the goal of a tithe.

Lee:  Well... I think we could handle that...  OK

That's exactly what we did, and the amazing thing was, that it really didn't hurt.  One of the things we started doing and still do is to put God first.  That simply means on payday, we write the checks for the Church first.  This way, if we come up short, some non-essential spending gets deferred or forgotten.

Here's how we prioritized our spending.  By following this approach, when we ran out of money, it was no big deal.  By using the tithing approach to all our finances we found it easy to live within our means.

I have heard it said that you should tithe because, God will, in turn, make you very wealthy.  I don't accept this philosophy even though our financial needs have always been met.  Personal wealth has two parts, Income and Expenditures.  All it takes for us to feel wealthy is for our income to equal or exceed our expenditures

I would like to address three questions I have heard concerning tithing:

 "Are United Methodists required to tithe?"  The answer is, "Absolutely not."  Church members are expected to give of their free will, however, the tithe is held up as the ideal level of giving.

 "Should I tithe based on income before or after taxes?"  My feeling is that it really doesn't matter, do what feels right to you.

 "Should I give my entire tithe to the church?  What about other charitable causes?"  Elaine and I consider our tithe as giving to all charitable needs including organizations such as the Rescue Mission, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Literacy International and the Carter Foundation.  Our church, however, does receive the lion's share of our tithe.

What would be the result if a large percentage of our members adopted a tithing life style?

First, I believe that these members would receive many blessings in their life and have far less financial challenge.

Second, we, the church, would be able to meet all our financial obligations and have additional resources to fulfill our mission of growing faithfully.

There is another aspect of tithing that has long been a factor in our life and that is Time and Talent.  I've found a great deal of satisfaction volunteering at church.  This has included leading and serving on committees, helping with maintenance projects, working on the turkey dinner, Adopt A Highway, serving at the Rescue Mission, teaching Sunday school and many other activities.  One of the nice things about volunteering at church is the great people you work with. 

Since I retired a few years ago, I volunteered to serve as church treasurer.  This work has kept my mind active and since then, I've never lost an orange squeezing contest.

Please be sure to look carefully over your commitment card and check all the ministries you might want to take part in.