Ir-rev-rend by Greg Surratt

Author:Greg Surratt [SURRATT, GREG]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781455504893
Publisher: FaithWords

“So how much of our hard-earned tithe…?”

We recently did a series of messages at Seacoast called “I have a question.” The premise was: We all have questions about God, the church, and life in general. Why not get them out in the open and deal with them together on the weekend?

Sounded like a great idea, until the questions started coming in. They were tough.

I sent out an email a few weeks before the series, soliciting the congregation’s biggest concerns. We also set up a system so they could text their questions to us live during the services and then everyone could see what was being asked. We had some “screeners” making sure that no obscene or inappropriate stuff made it to the big screens.

After a couple of weeks, I asked the screeners if there was anything interesting that they were not allowing to be shown. One of the “not ready for prime time” questions that was actually asked on two successive weekends was this:

“What portion of our hard-earned tithes goes to pay Greg’s mortgage payments?”

Fair enough, I thought to myself, and to the horror of the message planning staff, I decided to tackle it.

Here’s what I know about questions:

There are questions—and then there are questions with attitude. This one had attitude.

Every question has context. You don’t ask it in a vacuum. This guy (I’m assuming it was a guy; girls are usually nicer and more polite, at least in the South) has had trust issues with the church. Not unlike Randy, he’s convinced that what we have here is another megachurch pastor ripping the people off for personal gain.

Questions are good. They make you think more deeply about issues and oftentimes force you to look at things from another perspective. God’s not afraid of questions, and for the most part, neither am I. (I say “for the most part” because there is just a little bit of a coward still residing in me. Just being real…)

Let’s tackle the “How much…?” question by first taking a look at biblical precedent; then we’ll get down and dirty into the “How much is too much?” part after that.

What does the Bible say?

In the Old Testament, God set up a system of support for those whose job it was to work in the temple or synagogue. Nehemiah (13:5) talks about a large room in the temple “used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes of grain, new wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.” Looks like the priests, as well as the band and security guards, got paid from a “percentage of the hard-earned tithe” that the people brought to the place of worship, in response to the good things that God was doing in their lives.

There is no reason to assume that this practice didn’t continue as the early church was formed and pastors began to work full-time in the daily work of the church.

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