Our pastor touched a bit on this last Sunday (we are studying I Corinthians) and stated that you can tithe in 3 ways: your money, your time, and your service. Quite honestly, money is extremely tight for me and my wife right now, but we try to do everything we can to help with the Church.
You capitalized the "C" in
Church, so I must ask how you define your use of that term?
Considering that you stated the above in reference to what an institutional
pastor said, it seems reasonable to assume you're referring to the institution itself, and its needs.
If I may, where do you see such an example or command anywhere in the NT?
I'm curious because I've been struggling with the concept of meeting the needs of my
church organization BEFORE I meet the genuine needs of fellow believers and the needy in my local community BEFORE I meet the needs of such luxuries as a facility, real estate, associated bills, staffing, programs, etc.
If I support, first and foremost, something from which I personally reap direct benefit, whether it's money, time, talent, or anything else we can think up, and the needs of fellow believers and the needy in our local communities take a secondary back seat, what treasure have I stored up in Heaven?
Some have argued by pointing at the outreaches of the organization itself, but that assumes the organizations are modeled after what we can see in the NT and their giving.
Folks, that's an apples to oranges comparison from what I'm seeing when I read the pages of the NT for what they actually say.
Several people once argued:
A
church organization can do more with the collective giving they are given than any one individual.
That got the ol' rusty gears grinding into motion, which led to me marveling at how mathematically challenged so many people are these days....
Do the math behind the false arguments infavor of institutionalism:
Given some actual thought, one can begin to see that 10 families handing over, say $100 each, as their monthly giving to meet actual needs of, for example, families in the neighborhood suffering from layoffs, versus a church organization in that same neighborhood handing out only $5 to $10 left over from that same $100 each of those ten families handed over to that church organization. You don't need a Ph.D to see the problem in that flimsy argument.
Folks, you don't have to be a math whiz to see the desparity in the feeble arguments in favor of institutional
church organizations receiving the primary, largest portion of your weekly, bi-weekly or monthly giving.
Those same people, once they saw how wrong they were, demanded that giving to their
church organization is giving to God, and that the Lord always provides for those in need.
As I recall, Jesus didn't order that the coins in the group purse be handed over to the Levites, the priests, or any official tied to the temple. He ordered that it be given to the poor. At that time, the temple was still the focal point of God's presence on earth within the Holy of Holies, for the veil had not yet been ripped from top to bottom.
When I handed over the largest and primary portion of my giving to my church organization, from which I reaped direct benefit, how was I storing up treasure in Heaven?
How, then, can anyone demand, with a clear conscience, that handing over the largest, primary portion of ones giving to something from which one reaps direct benefit is therefore "...giving to God?"
Are all those buildings and the money poured into them representative of God? Does a steeple pointing at the sky make a difference?
The temple veil was literally ripped wide open. The fulfillment of what that temple represented had been completed in Christ Jesus, for His spirit, from that point onward, dwels in us. How, then, do I justify sewing up that veil, and continuing pretending that support of those things is support of the Lord and His Kingdom. Doesn't His Kingdom reside within us?
I'm not saying that nobody should support something that blesses them and others, but support of such things should be
secondary to our primary responsibility toward one another and the needy in our local communities.
Each and every one of us is therefore directly responsible for where our giving ends up. That portion used in support of something from which I reap benefit stores nothing in Heaven.
For example: I reap no Heavenly reward when I pay my monthly rent, mortgage, car payment, or anything else from which I reap direct benefit, so why should I expect reward for supporting any other luxuries I enjoy.
When I TRULY GIVE to the needy, they hand nothing back to me from which I directly benefit.
An HONEST comparison should lead any one of us to an answer that clearly defies the usual drone of rhetoric we hear from behind pulpits.
But, then, not everyone is concerned with the importance of pursuing TRUTH at all costs....even at the cost to their own, or someone else's, eisegetical interpretations of scripture.
BTW
