Tithing and Church

Tithing and church are two totally different things.  I've often heard, and truthfully have said myself, "I don't really put all my tithe into our home church, I give to a couple of different groups and some to my church because I don't really think they are great stewards of all of my tithe."

Let's break that down.  The first thing is, it's usually a lie.  Unlike Mark Zukerburg, our giving is not a billion dollars in 2013 and is not published.  But I bet if you did publish it, almost nobody who uttered the above sentence gave an actual tithe of 10%, in total, anywhere.  Secondly, if you are spreading it around it's not a tithe, a tithe by definition is giving money to church.

However, and it's a big however, the statement itself is usually true.  Most churches are not great stewards of money.  Let's think about an average church.  Most are extremely building heavy and personal heavy.  They are usually paying fairly ineffective people and a giant unused building.  Sorry all of my church friends, this is certainly not the case for all but it tends to be more the average than it should be.

Next let's talk about what churches should be getting in tithes.  I will use round numbers to make it simple.  Let's say there are two hundred members, or one hundred households.  If they are all median incomes earners, lets say 51k per household from 2013 numbers, then the tithe would be $5k per family.  That's half a million dollars for an average church.  My church has over 1000 people and a budget of 1.5 million, or $1,500 per person.  This is right in line with the average 3% giving that goes for healthy in the United States of.

To get back on track, if small local churches had an income of 500k a year and a larger but not big church had a budget of $5,000,000, that would be great right?  I'm not so sure.  I've heard a LOT of sermons about being faithful givers, and I've heard a much smaller number of sermons about a church being wise stewards.  Those latter sermons usually come with the somber admittance that tithing is down and the church will have to right size it's staff.

The sermon I have never heard is: If you guys (the congregation) actually gave what you should give, this is what church would look like.  Imagine a sermon speaking to how much more a church SHOULD be doing.  The problem is, when tithing is up a church just expands or, at best, pays down debt.  Not to degrade paying down debt, but what should a church really be doing?

If I'm average, and I am, and I actually tithe 5k of my 50k income, that 5k is the second largest line item on my annual budget.  Housing is number one, I own two cars free and clear so that is probably a normal second but health insurance, food and tithing are all about a tie.

Think about that, Health insurance is a rip off, and then food!  Is my church as impact-full on my life as food...

Let's think about this in a different way.  In his seminal article, 1,000 true fans, Kevin Kelly discusses that any artist should be able to support themselves with a 1,000 true fans that give them 1 days wages a year, or in his calculation roughly $100 per year.  That would give a church of a 1000 true tithers the ability to house fifty artists. 50.

Five full time authors.

Five full time musicians.

Five full maintenance technicians to fix peoples homes and cars.

Five full time preachers.

Five full time children's ministry pastors.

Ten part time children's ministry helpers. 

Five full cooks to feed the needy.

Five full time financial advisors for the church and it's members.

Saving $500,000 every year.

Building with a $41,000 monthly mortgage. 

I know this is too simple.  And I know that people don't really tithe.  And I know, I know, I know.  But why haven't I heard this preached to me.  I'm almost 31, church every Sunday and a lot in between when I was younger.  That's over 1500 messages.  I haven't heard this preached.  I haven't heard this even discussed in Christian circles.

What should be expected when you pay any organization between $3000 - $9000 each and every year if you are the vast majority of Americans.

People should tithe 10% to a church and if they are generous give more money to other organizations.  Church's should be the most amazing thing in a person's life.  Both are under performing, but it seems the dialog is really only focused on one side.

I for one, if anybody is reading this, would love to preach this to any congregation.