TITHES AND OFFERINGS: WHERE AND WHEN

To most of us, the Bible appears to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about what we should give back to God. It begins with Cain and Abel and their respective sacrifices, is present throughout the Pentateuch in the myriad of regulations regarding offerings, continues with the rants of the prophets against those who rob God, Jesus' teachings on the proper use of money, the early church giving practices found in the Book of Acts, admonitions on the subject located in the epistles, and concludes with the eventual downfall of human economic systems in the Book of Revelation.

Despite the biblical emphasis on our proper use of resources, most pastors and Bible teachers today are understandably reluctant to tackle the subject before their audiences. But since I don't have to look any of you in the face, I will try wrestling with the wealth (no pun intended) of information available in the Bible regarding tithes and offerings from the perspective of the usual questions such as what, why, when, where, and how (much). One excellent resource on this whole subject, including the spiritual danger that possessions pose, is Jacques Ellul's book Money & Power.

In many Christian congregations, the question of where and when to bring our money to God is definitively answered in one single passage: I Corinthians 16:1-2 where Paul asks the church members to lay aside their offerings each Sunday. At least that is certainly what I was told in our church while growing up. And that teaching is still present in more conservative churches today: “Giving should be a systematic, weekly practice on Sunday when the church meets together.” (Lowery)

The problems with that particular interpretation have been pointed out many times:

    The collection for the saints in Jerusalem is to be put aside by the members of the congregation and saved on their own so that it is ready when Paul comes. The main point is that such offerings “should be regular and systematic.” (Marsh) Note that the money is (a) to be kept at home and not given to the church and (b) the passage does not speak about any regular tithes and offerings, only a particular special offering.

    As to why the money was to be set aside on Sunday, it probably has nothing to do with Sunday worship services. “Jews were forbidden to handle money on the Sabbath, so perhaps the arrangement to lay aside money on the first day of the week was a convenience to avoid offense. There is no mention of a worship service in this instance.” (Orr and Walther)

    “There is very little linguistic warrant for such a suggestion” that each person is to bring their money to the assembly. (Fee)

And the Old Testament regulations on giving provide little guidance either regarding when the various required offerings were to be given. The answer is either not addressed except for certain feast day offerings or depends entirely on the particular situation that necessitates a special offering such as purification offerings or the offering of first fruits. But one thing does seem to be clear, and that is the offerings should come to the temple (see Deuteronomy 12:5-19; Malachi 3:10).

Because of that precedent and the fact that offerings for the poor in early NT church practice appear to have been administered by the local church leaders (Acts 4:32-37; 6:1-7), there are pastors today who will insist that the biblical pattern is for all tithes and offerings to be given through official church channels. These types of congregations usually belong to some sort of larger denominational body which handles all money given to missions. And the money given to the church is then either earmarked for special mission offerings by the giver, or alternatively, all money is given into the church treasury and it is then distributed according to the church budget. In this sort of arrangement, parishioners may often be actively discouraged from giving any tithes or offerings to any outside ministry or charitable organization.

Then, I have attended churches in which only a nominal amount of the church budget was allotted to the mission fund, but members of the congregation were actively encouraged to support missionaries of their own choosing. There are pros and cons to both methods of supporting missions outside the local church. An organized collection method administered by the church or larger church body may be the most efficient way to disperse and monitor those funds. But on the other hand, there is certainly something to be said for the more personal involvement that comes from developing a close relationship with missionaries on one's own.

As biblical indications that not all tithes and offerings need to be funneled through the church, there are two additional passages to point out. The first is found in Deuteronomy 14:22-27 and repeated in Deuteronomy 26:12-15. It states that although the annual tithe on produce is to be given to the temple, every third year it is to be kept in special storehouses in each town for the direct support of the Levites, the alien residents, the orphans and the widows. We see hints of that principle in the NT in the various individuals who appear to support Paul directly with their resources.

My wife and I allot our tithes and offerings to both our local congregation and a variety of individual missionaries and non-profit parachurch organizations, and can see advantages to both means of supporting God's work.

Turning back to the question of when to give our tithes and offerings, again there is no hard and fast biblical model provided for us. The prophet in Amos 4:4-5 alludes to the practice of the people bringing morning offerings to the temple as well as their tithe every three days. This frequency, however, may be due to the fact that workers were generally paid on a daily basis. But even more likely is the fact that Amos is undoubtedly being sarcastic in these verses. He is in effect saying, “No matter how frequently you give your money, even every one to three days, it will do you no good as long as you continue to oppress the needy.”

In practice, I have seen two extremes followed. One friend of ours got paid on a monthly basis, but divided his monthly offerings up so that each week he could put some money into the offering place during Sunday service. He felt that in that manner he could more fully take part in each week's worship. On the other hand, a Mormon acquaintance of mine felt that although he was compelled to tithe, he was not about to let the church have the use of that money until the very last day of the year. In that way, he could invest all of it in the stock market throughout the year and keep the accrued profits for himself. That procedure speaks more to the heart issue of why we give than any other aspect, and that will be the subject of another post.