Tithing

From the time I was born to the time I entered high school, my church was a baptist church that followed baptist beliefs. My pastor was an aging old man who liked to preach about things such as tithing so I heard a lot. I forget the exact words he always said but basically he strongly preached that tithing was to be 10%...no more, no less.

After the church moved on into a huge transition of pastor and denomination change, the preaching became different. The new pastor introduced the idea that we are to give not by a number, but by how we feel the Lord blesses us to give. For some families this may be 10%, for others it may be 8%, and for some it may be 25%. He suggested we stop getting caught up in the percent that we give and that we get caught up in the idea that everything we have comes from God. We are just temporarily in charge of holding it for him. For us to hold what rightfully belongs to God is not only selfish, but sinful. During one of the new pastors sermons, he encouraged engaged and married couples to get together with their spouse and re-evaluate how much they were giving. To really sit together and meditate and pray over their money and come up with a plan on how they as a couple were going to give.

I think my idea of tithing now is very simple: give as you feel led, always present your gift to God with joy and happiness, and never get caught up in a number.