It seems to me that the first principal of (especially) christian churches, is how do we get money. American churches are following the precedent set by the catholic church with “tithing”. Where in the bible (or any other relic) does it demand a percentage of wages?

Access to any god is free. If you want to make a group production, support yourself first.

If you believe in a god then you understand that there is no reason for a church at all. But if you wish to have like-minded souls join with you then fine.

All this talk of churches:

What is the purpose of a church?
What can a church deliver that a single person cannot?

If you wish to do good in the world, DO IT.

I can’t agree enuf about reason #3. “too embarrassed” I think this reason may answer a lot of “why can’t we Christians…”.

As a newbie christian, I am so overjoyed and exploding to embrace the faith that i want complete transparency when it comes to my faith in Jesus Christ.

In my mid 40′s I see Tithing as one of the fundamental ways in which the Bible lays out how we must live. As you clearly state if we start to think why we cannot afford to tithe then maybe we will question our own financial statis.

thank you

dru

The reality is for us as believers, the Lord will judge how we handle the resources he entrusted us with and it is time to get serious about it.

We have a group of folks examining this and on a journey together to see how all of this works. In my own life, it started a couple of years ago with an honest look at my finances.

It’s taken time but I am now giving more than I have ever before and I’m looking for ways to give more.

It the church got serious about this, we would see huge changes. It’s not that God needs our money, but he wants our hearts and the scripture tells us where our treasure is there are heart is also.

I don’t know if you would be interested. But we are having a conference and roundtable to discuss ane explore a gospel poverty lifestyle in July.

Gospel Poverty isn’t taking a vow to be poor… It’s a lifestyle of loving and obeying Jesus and living simply to free up time in resources to advance the Kingdom of God through serving the poor and the outcast.

If you are interested there is more information available at

http://www.gospelpoverty.com
http://www.squidoo.com/gospelpoverty

Thanks for a good job of stating the issue and laying out some of the causes and obstacles.

related to #2:

I used to work for a church who called itself a “dollar-for-dollar church”, which meant something like it spent a dollar on the outside on the “church” for every dollar it spent on “itself.” I quickly learned what that meant- like when a weekly planning meeting took place and we ordered dinner for 6 people and so we ordered high-end mexican for $130–for 6 people. They charged it to the “mission” account because we were meeting to talk about a program that would involved non-members of our church- if they came. And they always ate and charged the mission account- always. It was, in a worth, filthy. I often wonder if that crew really understood the holiness of their opportunity and what was being wasted.

But they did spent a lot of time patting themselves on their backs for their commitment to mission and being so generous. Pride. It was, at its core, pride.

related to #4:

We shop Target End Caps. We waste money on crap. And I mean, C.R.A.P. All the while those fab deals still cost more than malaria nets and medicine and food and average worldly daily income.

related to #5:

We actually believe in the status quo. La-hame. As in, doesn’t walk. We follow the author of genius and we believe in the status quo? Lame. We have GOT to do better.

Also, I wonder if maybe we get paralyzed thinking that our money should go to “evangelism” and “is meeting physical needs really evangelism or are we wasting our money and is social justice really the right thing or should we evangelize (or is there a link?!), and there’s so much conversation on this and big people arguing about it and i don’t know which is which, so I don’t give in the meantime.” And so the money sits, or is spent on Target end caps.

Lastly, I don’t think we believe our money has the power it does. I wonder if we really understand how much we can do with the little some of us have. And we feel overwhelmed and give up. But done intelligently, our little villages can pile together some sweet cash to help our fellow humans around the world.