Money, Money, Money

Whenever the church leadership addresses the subject of money, a certain uneasiness arises. 

It seems almost illegitimate. 

We worship the God who owns everything, and with whom there is no lack.  So when the church, the body of Christ, asks for money, it seems a bit ironic. 

It is God’s church, and he owns everything, so it seems if it “needs” resourcing, he certainly has the ability to meet that need.  

But what is amazing is that God, who has no lack, has chosen to fund his work in the world by having people give to it. 

Whether you agree or disagree about the requirement of tithing in the New Testament, it is clear in the Old Testament that 10% of an individual’s increase was to be handed back to God.  

He even went so far as to say that, no matter what we may think, when we increase by, let’s say $100, we really only increased by $90, because $10 is the Creator’s money.

It is so clearly explained in the Old Testament. 

If you keep the $10 of the $100 increase, then you are guilty of stealing from God. 

It seems a little arbitrary and harsh. 

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he has advice about storing up treasure, an inescapable principle.

He says,

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:19-21

You may have never followed a stock price, but if you buy shares in a company, all of a sudden your interest in that stock price draws your attention. 

I think the whole concept of the tithe and offerings thing is to direct our attention to the place where God has his attention.  

Attention is foundational and just about all we have to give. 

Jesus is teaching us that our attention naturally follows our investment, and where we are invested gets our attention.

When we hold and hoard God’s resources for our self interest—in other words, when we steal God’s money and use it or invest it for our use, our self-interested, self-focused use, we will block our ability to focus adequately on God’s agenda. 

If our agenda for ourselves is getting nearly 100% of our attention, it will likely demand most of our economic resources, and where we spend the bulk of our resources will garner most of our attention. 

There’s simply not much left to put somewhere else.

The purpose of these words is not to try and guilt anyone into giving.

But they are words to call us all to honest accountability.  

It is inconsistent for us to talk Kingdom of God, church, and spiritual growth as if it were a high priority but then live lives that are penurious towards God and those things that grab his attention.

If we are going to choose not to honor God with our money, let’s be brave enough to at least say to ourselves that we aren’t going to be faithful in our giving, that we simply don’t choose to take God seriously on this one. 

We may take him seriously on, let’s say, the seventh day as the Sabbath, but we choose to believe he wasn’t as serious about the money stuff.

There’s huge room for improvement in mission alignment within religious organizations, resource allocation, and utilization.  However, even more important is the necessity for us to cultivate a desire to focus on the things God wishes to receive our attention.

So while God owns everything, and while he lets us manage some of his resources, he knows that the experience of giving away a portion—10% that’s not ours as well as some offering from the 90% he says we can hold onto and manage—will help turn our minds away from self and focus our attention on what’s important to our Creator.  

Andy McDonald