Many church plants are relying solely upon the tithes of the attendees and members to sustain the ministry. Most churches pray that their members will give in order to keep the church rolling along. We have heard often the statement, ‘You can’t out give God’. I believe that statement. When I stepped out to plant the church in New Jersey, I had just had a revival of sorts in my own heart. That revival came in the form of a mission’s vision that blasted across my heart by the Holy Spirit. I was given some books on missiology and found that there were 1.4 billion people who were still considered unreached (without a self propagating congregation that was engaging the culture directly). I was shocked and horrified. Here I was, with a library full of great books and access to thousands of solid Bible teachings via the Internet and mp3, and there were people in the world that couldn’t even read John chapter 3 in their own language. I learned that most of these unreached people lived in an area called the 10/40 window, which exists between 10 degrees and 40 degrees latitude. This area covers Northern Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Asia. 1.4 billion people! That is nearly five times the population of the United States. Then I learned that out of all the missions spending of the Western Church, less than 1% of that money is devoted to work amongst this 1.4 billion people. At that point, I knew that the Lord wanted something to change.
As I began to pray about this whole situation, the Lord ministered to me that we should tithe on the tithe. Just as we hoped that people would give 10% to the work of the ministry, we figured that we would lead by example. From the first day of now two church plants, we have tithed on the tithe. Tithing on our tithe has been one of the greatest blessings that I have known as a pastor. Now I’m not saying that ‘legalistically’ speaking, everyone should do this. I am only offering it up as something to seek the Lord about. Imagine your congregation with an annual budget of $100,000 putting $10,000 into the Lord’s global cause. Imagine your congregation with an annual budget of $1,000,000 putting $100,000 into the 10/40 window. I will be giving you some of the fruit that has come from this spiritual discipline.
1. It furthers along the Lord’s plan as outlined in Matthew 28:18-20.
This is a simple yet profound fruit. Jesus told His disciples to go and make disciples. That costs money (especially in our day and age where hospitality is not a strength). Money is an outlet of spiritual power. When someone goes into another country, oftentimes it is illegal for him or her to get a job there. So there support must come from the outside. Paul was often supported by local congregations, as well as by his own tent making. In order to see Saudi Arabian’s won for the kingdom, it is going to take money. The Great Commission is clear. We are told to make disciples (the only imperative verb in the Greek) and we do that by going, teaching and baptizing. When a local church tithes on their tithe, they are actively involved in seeing the unreached peoples of world won for the kingdom of God.
2. It helps the church have a Global Vision and Impact.
Oftentimes people say, ‘But there are so many unsaved people in my area.’ No doubt this is the truth. There are unsaved people everywhere. The needs are great. But stereotypically speaking, most churches devote the bulk of their budget, not to evangelism and outreach for the lost, but simply to maintain all their things. The apostle Paul, all throughout the epistles, was encouraging believers to have a global vision and impact. These small churches were funding his missionary endeavors. To the church in Philippi he encouraged them that in their giving, Paul was excited about the fruit that was to be attributed to their account. Just as Jesus told His disciples to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth, that should be our vision. Jerusalem is the communities that we live in. Judea is maybe our county or region. Samaria is maybe our state of nation. The uttermost parts of the earth is, well, the uttermost parts of the earth. Are we seeking to have an impact beyond our Jerusalem? Now don’t get me wrong, we are called to devote our very lives to our own Jerusalems, but let us not neglect to have the Lord’s heart for the other parts of this vast globe.
3. It will cast vision for the young missionaries in your congregation.
In every seat of every congregation, there is a vital part of the body of Christ. Part of the function of meeting together corporately is for the identification, nurturing, and expression of God’s gracious giftings. Before a person is called and set apart for missionary service, they are a person sitting in a pew, being ministered to by the Lord. When a church has God’s heart for the globe and it is discussed, it will be the catalyst for those who God is calling to missionary service to identify and nurture their calling. In New Jersey, we would talk about missions all the time. I would purposefully find examples of the concepts that I was teaching on in the lives of missionaries. This would give me an opportunity to tell the congregation about their stories. Oftentimes after the service, folks would come up and ask about these people and I would point them to missionary biographies. We would often share emails and letters that we received from our missionaries that we supported on the field. People would weep and pray for these folks. Before I knew it, we had a number of young people praying about going on the mission field. As we entered our third year as a church, we send three recent college graduates onto the mission field!
4. It will keep the church from getting to insulated in its thinking.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, it keeps the church from getting too insulated in its thinking. The body of Christ is gloriously huge and diverse. Oftentimes, people forget this because we are so focused on the needs and situations within the church walls that we forget that there are believers everywhere. We are part of the body of Christ and she is multi ethnic, multi linguistic and vaster than we can fathom. Jesus wants us to have His view of His church. As a local church tithes on its tithe, we help the congregation see that it is a very special part of the body, which is infinitely greater.
Fellow laborer for the glory of God, won’t you consider to tithe on your tithe? Won’t you consider allowing the church that you have been given stewardship of to have a global impact? Let us join to together and ask the Lord for His heart for the unreached peoples of the earth. And let us link of hands with Him in seeing those people
4 responses so far ↓
danny foote // October 16, 2007 at 11:30 am
I first heard of this idea from a church that supports us and something about it struck me as strange.
I think the underlying concept (make giving to world missions such a priority that 10% of your budget is dedicated to it) is a great concept. The four reasons you gave were all solid reasons, but they seemed more like solid reasons to have a missions mindset than reasons to give 10% to missions.
My thinking is that we should never get stuck in thinking that if we fill a percentage then we are doing things right. 10% is a great thing but it should never be our goal.
Would we teach the church that giving 10% of our income to the church was enough? Shouldn’t we be teaching giving as a life style not as a percentage?
Giving should be part of how we live not a percentage of what we have. If we teach the church from the beginning that we are to give as a lifestyle then we are on the right track. If we use “10% to missions” as a tool for that then great, but if it is just something we do then I think we miss the point of giving and of tithing.
Daniel Fusco // October 16, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Danny,
I agree with you.
But the Bible speaks clearly of a 10th. So, yes, we should teach a life style of giving, but should we neglect the clear ‘tithe’ of Scripture?
You’d be surprised how many churches won’t even consider what I am speaking of.
I also don’t like the idea of a ‘missions mindset’. We either have Jesus’ mindset, which is always outreaching, or we have some other mindset.
Much love
D
danny foote // October 18, 2007 at 2:56 am
Daniel -
I wasn’t advocating neglecting the tithe, rather I was trying to say that we not be content with a tithe. The lifestyle of giving should start with a tithe but never end there.
I know that lots of churches don’t think they need to be giving to world missions (that is what I mean by “missions mindset” by the way. I don’t like the term usually and I really don’t like the term “heart for missions”
but I just don’t see biblically a foundation for giving 10% of church tithe to missions. It is a great idea to get a church on the track of giving and seeing their place in taking the gospel to every nation, but only insofar as it is a starting place and not the final goal.
I would like to see churches giving way more than 10% of their budgets to world missions, but sadly most give less. Thanks for bringing up this topic because I think every church planter needs to be thinking about more than just getting a church to grow - they need to be thinking about that church’s place in God’s plan for the spreading of the gospel throughout the world.
Ethan Larson // October 25, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Hey Daniel, I bumped in to your blog after ricocheting off numerous blogs, webpages etc that finally landed me on your personal webpage looking at your 6 points post from August. Whoa, lots to say about that, all good I think. You asked if anyone is out there, well I just found you and the discussion looks stimulating so far!
This post/topic was on the front and cought my eye especially when I saw Danny Foote responding (Danny is a friend from my days in Ukraine, Nice to run into you here Danny!!) Your blog also kicked me over the edge to launching my own blog where my first post was on tithing! Check it out if you are intersted… I am just getting it going so it’s simple and rough. Thanks for the stimulation.
I think the terminology, percentages, legalism, and obligiatory vibe that usually surround tithing are a bummer to say the least. Most of all because it hides the real issue tithing reminds us of, which is: “whose money is it anyway?” And what is it for? If you don’t ask those questons you quickly loose a biblical, eternal perspective on money. I believe that is true, essental, beneficial personally, as well as corporately as a church.
In my experience precious few churches have a Kingdom perspective on their own finances. Thought they encourage their parishoners to have one. I am not saying that sarcasticly but gently as a question of perspective. If our own personal finances reveal the affections/treasures of our hearts, is this not also true of a church? For most churches the term building the kingdom of God and building our church are equivalent terms. At best this is myopia, but as we sadly know, it runs the spectrum to sinful exclusivity and an arrogant “I have no need of you” isolationism.
For most churches, outreach is synonymous with recruitment for my church. This is a little different objective than reaching out to the lost to see them reconciled to Christ and brought into his kingdom. Again I am not trying to be caustic, I just think the perspective on and identity in the Kingdom is missing. This perspective and identitiy has become pretty twisted in some of the new “models” of church growth and planting where the term outreach seems to have been co-opted to mean an exercise in niche marketing and branding strategy to “reach” the churches target group, subculture, or similar subset of the population/market. Reach = recruitment, and that selectively. There is not a lot of “out” in it.
As a church I think it is important to ask the question; when was the last time we did something with our money corporately not to build our church but to contribute to the building of the Church. That’s why I appreciated the post. It is a needful, if seldom considered church planting issue.
I sat on an elderboard where our pastor basicly constructed the budget to send 30% of the money outside the church to people and places that could not possibly give back, benenfit, or build our own local church. The majority went to overseas missions and this was not hyped publicized or even talked about. It was simply conviction, as well as a wise discipline of forcing himself to put his money outside and into the larger kingdom. A very practical expression of where your treasure is there your heart will be also. This conviction started at the start of the church in the twenty years of smallthings. Because of that, that perspective prevailed even as we went through an explosive growth and a multi-million dollar building program. (When we decided to build a new church for ourselves the first thing he told us, as an elderboard was that we would need to build an orphanage in India before he would even start our project. After a lifetime in church I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.) If that perspective hadn’t had been there at the start it certainly wouldn’t have had a chance to appear latter, the momentum of ministry takes off along with the needs and things that are not prioritized first won’t have the space to appear later.
It really affected me and has become a personal perspective as well. That is why i think tithing is so essential. Not just personally but corporately and why I think this is such a great topic in this forum and context of church planting.
The terminology, the percentages are not important (and are confusing/leagalistic as you both discussed. I know you said you don’t like the term “missions mindset” I agree it is over used, I like “kingdom perspective” myself… semantics as long as the heart truly there)
But the perspective of the mission of the Church, my/our place in it and the Goals of the Master are perspectives that easily get lost if not regularly maintained. Tithing is one, though certainly not the only, discipline that can help maintain that perspective. The ledger always has our attention. Lets use that for good, to help maintain our attention on what matters. Sending a cut off the top and out the door (not some kind of boomerang giving) I think helps clarify our priorities and keep a lot of things clean and clear in a church. When I see my church and myself in the context of the Kingdom it contextualizes all my subsequen financial decisions. The “Need” to spend on our local church is kept in perspective. And if something does need to be purchased/spent on our local church then this kind of perspective help connect that purchase to the larger Kingdom purpose.
If you wait until you have enough money in the budget for outreach…you won’t have either. But if true OUTreach is deliberately planted in the purpose of the church up front (by connecting our wallet to it) I think it becomes part of the character of the group and true kingdom oriented outreach will be a natural part of the perspective and therefore the life of the church.
A central attitude of Christ was to empty himself and serve others. Paul poured himself out. For me tithing is a discipline that helps me pour myself out instead of spending it on my own selfish desires. I think it is a good and practical discipline for the church as well. Maybe the “you ask and don’t receive because…” thing in James 4 applies to churches as well as it does to individuals?? Something to soberly and seriously consider in the light of all the financial coercion “tools” marketed to church planters today…whoa that’s headin off to a big place…
Anyway there is more rolling in my head on this issue than can be contianed in a comment section I am way too long already so I will have to continue some of this in my own heart/mind and Lord willing on my own blog. Thanks for the stimulation and conversation.
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