Robbing God
Quote of the day: “The church should not suffer financially for sake of a parachurch organization.”
Wow. I am perfectly willing to have a conversation about this, because I could be wrong. But I read this and think, “Isn’t the parachurch still the Church” (capital c)? Does the Church suffer when people are generous? Even if that generosity does not go into the local church budget?
The conversation I heard was regarding the “command” to tithe only to the local church, the storehouse. Malachi 3 is often the quoted in this discussion:
6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.
Obviously, this text supports the idea of tithing to a local congregation. But is that the exclusive application? Are there other storehouses other than the modern local church? Could your parachurch be a storehouse worthy of bringing a tithe? Could the oppressed widow and the fatherless be helped by means other than the local church?
I guess what frustrates me so much is not the issue of tithing or generosity, but the issue of arrogance in interpretation. The arrogance that causes us to divide over minute aspects of theology. That allows us to place ourselves above others for one reason or another. And I’m guilty of it as much as anyone else.
7 Comments to “Robbing God”
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The defining characteristic of a parachurch is that it stands outside of the organizational structure of well-established religious bodies. The autonomy of the parachurch from established religious bodies allows a much greater degree of flexibility for innovation than is possible within an established organizational hierachary. Parachurches are often the creation of an entrepreneaur or a small cadre of people who seek to achieve specific goals.
from: http://religiousbroadcasting.lib.virginia.edu/parachurch.html
And who can’t trust religiousbroacasting.lib.virginia.edu? I mean, really.
Hey, S.H.E. is on this site too!
And what the heck is “parachurch”? Can someone strictly define it for me?
Sorry, got in on this one a little late…
Because Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world,” don’t we have to read Malachi like we read the rest of the law — with the knowledge that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law? He bought and paid for us, so we are each “a living sacrifice.” The veil of the temple was torn, and the Spirit of the Lord now lives in those that are His. We are each, therefore, the temple (“not made with hands”) of God. So what does He mean, when He speaks to believers, by “storehouse?” How do living sacrifices behave? I think, pretty much, they behave like you, Nick and Holly, and like Jarrett and Emily when you each give according to where and how the Spirit directs you; like Ben, when he does something that he feels (maybe, at times) as though really has wounded his heart, just because the Lord says to do it, and like Zack, in his burning desire to know more and more, because he knows, somehow, that everything he learns gives him a better vision of the Lord. The Lord says that His sheep know His voice. The proof (in the vernacular) is in the pudding. It seems, sometimes, as though we are all stumbling around and groping like blind people, but we really aren’t. He says that “we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,” but, as we’ve never been this way before, we do stumble a bit; yet, He WILL present us “spotless before the throne,” just like He says. It’s a pleasure and a blessing to know you all.
II Cor. 9:7 says it all to me, man. I agree.
So is it ever fair to say that someone is disobedient or rebelious if they “decide in their heart” what they should give… and maybe even where it should be given? I’m really having a hard time hearing those words. It just sounds like we’re going back to life under law.
Galatians 3:10-13 — But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all these commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.” Consequently, it is clear that no one can ever be right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” How different from this way of faith is the way of law, which says, “If you wish to find life by obeying the law, you must obey all of its commands.” But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Through the work of Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, and we Christians receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.
I’ve also heard the transaction of 10% given from Abram to Melchizedek in Gen. 14 is proof that we are commanded to tithe even before there was law. Therefore, we are to see that as apart from the OT law, not something we are “freed from” (in the way we have been freed from the law). Man that seems like a stretch to me. However, Abraham’s reason for giving the 10% wasn’t to follow a command of God, but to honor an oath he made with God that he would not allow himself to become rich by the gifting of men, only by the gifts of God. “But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’”
In my opinion, the story of Abram giving 10% to a priest is MUCH different than a command to give to the local church exclusively.
I have often wondered the same thing about the division between Church and non-Sunday-worship-service church. Especially given all the things that churches do support (is Sunday School, a Wednesday night meal, or Vacation Bible School more important than a worship service during the week that has a chance to draw unbelievers?), why do we feel the need to define so narrowly what the book of Acts seems to describe fairly broadly. Feeding orphans and widows is just as much the Church as singing “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” at 8 AM in a sanctuary (and I’m not disparaging “A Mighty Fortress”).
As for tithing, I have always gotten riled up when told that ten percent is what we have to give. My argument is from Paul’s words (II Cor. 9:7–”Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver”). Curiously, I have felt for several years that the tithe, a literal ten percent, is what God has asked of me personally.
Practically speaking, I believe that if someone gives a check to the church and tags the memo line with the name of the parachurch offshoot with which the church is attached, then the church can’t legally use the money for anything else. I am in hopes that the last comment is perceived of as shrewd, rather than devious (Lk 16:8b–”For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.”)
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