God Cancels Church Again – what about tithes & offerings?

By Joe Bonham,

This is the second week in a row that my church had to be cancelled due to weekend snow and ice. Through much teeth gnashing I am inclined to ask God, “why do you treat Sunday’s so?” God’s answer is probably something like, “Why did you build the church on a hill?”  Snow is never good on Sundays, especially in Oregon where there is a severe lack of salt and plowing. Even in other more rigorous states churches have to pay extra unbudgeted funds to clear their parking lots while offerings simultaneously take a big hit.

Not everyone tithes.  Whether or not tithing to a local church is a scriptural requirement is controversial. It is good medicine to remember some of the monetary requirements of the ancient Israelites. Most are so focused on the 10% figure that it is forgotten that scriptural requirements upon ancient Israelites were closer to 25% when each individual tax is added up (Alfred Edersheim’s The Temple 1998, 305). One of the main reasons Chronicles was written during the temple reconstruction is to show that God judged the nation of Israel by the kings oscillating devotion to the temple. In the Christian New Testament, the example of giving in Acts was selling all one’s possessions and giving the money to the apostles to give to the poor.

Churches are outposts of the kingdom of God on earth that deserve our attention and care. It would be well for financial administrators of churches to heed the advice of Joseph in Genesis by saving during the warm winters so that the accounts are full in the cold ones.


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