More tithing
Submitted by Wayne on Sun, 2008-04-06 11:25.
Among the first things from our pastor's mouth this morning was another attempt to guilt "tithes" from congregants. He started with jokes about the price of fuel and used them as a segue into "tithing" (i.e., just because gas is expensive, don't short your "tithe"). It was all the more disgusting--perversion of the Word aside--coming from the man who "earns" his living by those largely guilt-given "tithes". Shameless.
Prosperity doctrine is also taught there, though fortunately not as frequently as at many other churches. Money is a frequent topic of our pastor's, though. He often alludes to his personal expenses, how he's suffering but still gladly "tithes". 
Pray for today's sad church leaders who don't know the Word or how to discern right from wrong. Forgiveness and restoration are certainly available should these teachers repent of these heresies and begin teaching Truth. Pray for this!
No church?
Submitted by Wayne on Mon, 2008-04-07 08:31.
What would happen to the Church (Body of Christ) if the church (corporation) were dismantled? First, we should ask just what the purpose of the church is supposed to be. These come to mind:
1. disciple and mentor to spiritual maturity
2. pooling resources for meeting needs otherwise too big for individuals
3. association with fellow believers
4. corporate worship
Can anyone find more Biblically based purposes to the church?
Number one is a one-on-one or one-on-few endeavor, wholly unsuited to larger groups. At best, a larger group can hear the Word read aloud and expounded upon in a relatively superficial manner. Number two requires no gathering or corporation, to be sure. Number three is closely related to number one, and is best done in smaller groups. Number four can be expressed in a group of most any size. All together, these purposes can be better met by a small housechurch than by any corporation that owns property and pays a staff.
Were the incorporated church to be dismantled, housechurches would again rise up, just as the first-century church was realized. At first, it may be challenging to avoid the modern pattern of the incorporated church; temptations to buy property and expand rather than spawn would need to be resisted. However, I see no reason why the modern structure of incorporated churches needs to exist as it does at all. Worst case, those who aren't real followers of the Lord may fall away, missing their religiosity. Good riddance. They should indeed be treated as unbelievers--and ministered to accordingly. Seems to me, what's left over will blossom as the true Church (the [unincorporated] Body of Christ).
Be honest
If church leaders stopped abusing the term "tithe" to mean contributions (as opposed to the Biblical definition), it would at least be mostly doctrinally sound. But then there's the dishonesty in the wording. When churches ask for money, they rarely say it's to meet their own expenses; they speak of this money being given to God. However, God receives none of this money, and rarely does His work. Church leaders love to conflate their church's work with God's work. These are not one and the same, and often, they don't even overlap at all.
The modern church looks very little like the church the Holy Spirit started through the Apostles. The synagogue is rejected. The Old Testament is all but rejected; "Jewish" holidays are largely ignored (they're not "Jewish" but Biblical, given to God's people--that's believers, too, folks--in perpetuity). No longer do we gather in each other homes, but we spend millions on needless facilities. No longer to church leaders have day jobs to earn their keep, but beg for their salaries from the pulpit. In most churches, you're lucky if even 10% of the money churches take from the people goes to any kind of direct ministry (e.g., food and clothing for the poor, meeting medical needs, tell the Good News to the lost, etc.). When the vast majority of the church's income is for itself, it can hardly be described as God's work.
God's work is not done by committee or corporation. It's not done by an annual evangelism program. It's done one-on-one by every single believer. It's God's witnesses telling their stories of redemption to those who seek relief from sin. It's one-on-few, personal discipleship into spiritual maturity. There are so few mature believers in churches today, they're unequipped to disciple at all. I've learned the hard way, sad to say, that one-on-one and one-on-few relationships (e.g., mentoring, discipleship) cannot be institutionalized into a church program. Such formalization robs the effort of the Spirit. However, the answer given by all churches, by their very nature, is to create another program. The very nature of the spread of the church (word-of-mouth, personal, invested) is impossible within the framework of the modern church. As such, very little of a church's efforts can be characterized as God's work.
The Scriptures make it clear: "to the Jew first." So few churches make any effort to tell the Good News to God's chosen people. These otherwise lost souls are our brethren, our ancestors, the root of our faith. How silly it would be to read a story about how Abraham inspired the worship of the One, True God in a group of Gentiles who then cast Abraham out of the assembly, so to speak. Salvation is through the Jews, yet much of the church is content with their condemnation. How can a church justify foreign missions if Israel is not among its efforts? How can such a church claim to be doing God's work, then?
At the very least, be honest with "tithers" [sic]. Pastors, tell them you're begging for their money to pay for an enormous mortgage and a large staff of people who just don't want to get jobs where performance counts. (Might a government job be more honest than a church one? I wonder.) Tell them this is not a Biblical tithe by any stretch of the imagination. Tell them their money is not going to the Lord's work but to growing that church. If they wish to worship the church instead of the Lord, so be it (much to their eternal chagrin). At least everything will be on the up-and-up.
On the other hand, if a former "tither" wishes to truly give to the Lord's work without obligation, consider the myriad other ministries who more directly carry out God's commands. Consider those ministries who spread the Gospel to the unchurched, especially the Jews. Better yet, commit your time in addition to your money to spreading the Gospel yourself. Study the Word and grow in spiritual maturity. Be mentored. When mature enough, mentor and disciple others. Meet in each others' homes to celebrate the risen Lord, but do your ministry in the fallen world. All of us are called to full-time ministry, yet none of us needs to be begging our neighbors for handouts to pay for our efforts. Get a job, and minister there. Use your gifts in service to others in the Lord's name. In these ways, you can give far more than a paltry 10% of your time, talent, and treasure to the Lord's work, yet do so gladly--with no expectation of worldly return (a la prosperity doctrine), with no waste on otherwise able employees, without isolating oneself within the church and neglecting the lost in the surrounding world, without erroneously meeting some perverted doctrine of tithing merely out of guilt or obligation.
Once again, I say, restoration is available to all. Repent of this perversion of the Scriptural tithe. Be honest about the function of today's so-called churches. Discern the difference between church work and the Lord's work. Respond not to guilt or obligation but to the joy the Lord has offered us believers in a relationship with Him. Such efforts do indeed have rewards in heaven. If you've been guilty of perverting the tithe, either as a receiver of it or a giver, forgiveness is yours when you repent. All can be restored to the Father, including the whole of the church, when we turn to Him and Him alone.