A Tale of Two Tithers

Is 10 percent really enough?

Phil is rich--philthy rich according to some. His contracting business provides more than enough money for him, his wife and his two children. In fact, he just bought a second home in the Florida Keys, along with a jet ski and his and her Jeeps. Phil is also a tither--and then some. Last year he was pushing 12 percent when tax time came around. Phil's happy, his pastor's happy and--lucky for Phil--there's plenty left over for the finer things in life.

Beth's not so lucky. A single mother, she's made some poor choices in life, and she's been the victim of poor choices on the part of others. After rededicating her life to Christ, she was recently introduced to the practice of tithing. Sometimes, before taking the offering, her pastor has one of the board members give a testimony of how God has blessed him and his family for tithing. She was particularly impressed when he recounted how he recently nailed a great deal on a beach house in the Keys. But for Beth, five percent is about all she can squeeze out of her budget for a tithe. She's been told that a tithe is 10 percent and that, "if she would just trust God," he would make the other 90 percent stretch. Maybe someday she'll be in better financial straits. In the meantime, she finds herself frequently asking God's forgiveness for "robbing Him." She hopes He understands.

The story may seem farfetched to some, but it reveals a question many of us would rather not discuss: In the context of materialistic American life, is 10 percent enough? Or, is it even a number that should be used as a standard in a church in which welfare recipients mingle with financiers. For some, the tithe gives the implicit right to spend 90 percent of one's money however one sees fit--as long as God gets His due. While the Old Testament is clear in its expectation that God's people give merely a tenth of their firstfruits, the New Testament's expectations seem far greater: Jesus castigates those who are conscientious about tithing but neglect the "weightier" things of the law, He suggests that His followers consider the prospect of complete asset liquidation and the Acts church practices radical communalism.

Perhaps it's time to consider a "graduated tithe", such as Ron Sider describes in his book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. With a graduated tithe, a family tithes 10 percent of its base needed income (usually the poverty level). For any income above that base, a family would give a gradually higher percentage. Some, like Rick Warren, may eventually find themselves blessed to the extent that they are "reverse tithing"--giving 90 percent and keeping 10.

Of course, church leaders should avoid presenting these stewardship strategies as a legalistic command for those whom God has blessed financially. But maybe it's time we considered the possibility that God might be just as concerned with how we spend the 90 percent He lets us keep as He is with what we do with the 10 percent He requires as a tithe.

by Matt Green
from The Ministry Report
June 15, 2006