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Why do I need to give an offering or support the Church I mean, can’t He just make supplies appear?
Yes, He can.
But do you have the faith for it?
Tithing is a sign of faith, that you trust God and you financially belong to Him. But there is more to this story. Paying your tithes is the first step to making you financially whole. Another thing one must do is to give in offering, give love offerings to the pastor, and pay your taxes.
We’ve already touched on paying your taxes. It’s similar to paying your tithes. You live in a country, you have to pay to keep the protections your country can afford its citizens. If you don’t like the tax levels, that’s what prayer is for.
Now lets move over to giving in offerings and love offerings to the pastor. You might be thinking, that is too much! But that is not what the Bible says.
First of all, God is a Great King, and you never go to see a king or any royalty without a gift. Your gift often reflects your respect, sincerity, and esteem for the king, it is to honor him and it is something you plan out. Something you have deemed in your heart to give to the King. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t mean anything to other people, what matters is that it means something to you.
1 Cor 16: 1-4 details how Paul was giving a command to take up an offering before he got to the Church in Corinth. This offering was to be used to support Believers elsewhere, which is our moral duty as Believers. We are the family of God. Many people in the Church need help, and the Church is where they should be getting it.
Every Church has light bills, gas bills, property taxes, heating and cooling costs, rent, mortgage, etc. If you don’t give, and no one else gives, how long do you think the Church will last?
We also have to remember that the building itself as well as those who work in full-time ministry need to live as well. Or do you think someone who became a master guitarist, pianist, drummer, light technician, sound technician, videographer, social media manager, singer, the finance managers, the day care workers or God forbid a preacher, should work for free?
Speaking of Pastors/Preachers, the Bible expressly states that they should be paid in 1 Tim 5:18 among other places. It’s only fair. Your pastor spends countless hours reading and studying the Bible, crying out to God and praying for your souls. She or he is responsible to God for you.
Many people go around giving ‘self-help’ talks and inspirational messages and get paid for giving you a 12-step solution that was loosely based on Bible principles. Some of these inspirational speakers get paid thousands of dollars an hour per engagement, but for whatever reason it is socially unacceptable for Christian pastors to be anything but bone poor.
But God didn’t make any Believer to be poor. In fact, it is the enemy that comes to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10). As Believers we have a responsibility to God to manage the funds He gives us well. Like the parable Jesus told in Matt 25, we have to do well with what God gives us, and we can do that by budgeting.
In the last episode of ‘Have You Heard? With Pastor Cyndi’ Pastor Cyndi lead us to scripture that pay our tithes and put first things first. This week, Pastor discussed setting our expenses into categories and setting goals with our savings.
The Bible says in Luke 14:28, that there isn’t anyone who builds a tower without counting up the cost first. This scripture helps to reinforce the fact that we need to identify what we’re going to do with our money and decide if we can actually do what we are planning so we don’t get stuck in the middle of a plan unable to complete it.
The way we do this is by setting our expenses into three categories: essential, or priorities, non-essential or non-priorities, and savings. Within those categories we can also sort expenses further by determining if they are fixed (meaning the same amount will be charged to us each time) or variable (meaning the amount could change each month).
Some examples of fixed priority expenses are tithes, rent/mortgage and car insurance. Some examples of variable priority expenses are offerings and blessing the pastor and electric, water or grocery bills. On the other hand non-essential fixed expenses could be your monthly spa or gym membership or streaming subscriptions. Examples of non-essential variable expenses are fast food, dining out, or opera tickets.
Prov 21:20 says that ‘there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; But a foolish man spendeth it up’. From this scripture we understand how important it is to save money. Every non-essential expense should be something that we save for, especially those big ones like taking a trip or going Christmas shopping.
Splitting up your income like this helps us to see what we can actually afford, and leads us to make better choices with the money God gives us.
This week, be sure to check out the resources page to get your free resource for making a budget!
