If
you feel so led and if you feel better having read my writings, I will humbly accept your donation. I prefer paypal but money orders work okay also. I am not set up for Visa at this time.
Above is a photo of the boat I intend to buy with the proceeds from this ministry.
Sorry about no artsy-fartsy post today. My scanning salon is under construction so I had to dig up a file that we already had on the hard-drive. Signed prints are available for $325.
8 comments:
The checks in the mail.
What if I offered you 2%?
As for tithing...you can argue from silence in the I Cor 16 passage that the church had been giving support money of some sort all along and this was a special offering that needed special instructions--the gift to the poor of Jerusalem.
I'd rather go to the passages in II Cor. 8 and 9 which argue for a more-than-tithe generosity as a respose to the more than grudging tithe of Jesus' offer of new life. If he is our model for kingdom living, then I'd better be overflowing with generosity for anything (not everything, of course, because no one can give to everything) that he has put in our lives to support--our churches, certain other missionaries and charitable organizations. What's a measley 10%? When pastors speak of tithes, I would guess that they are using the term symbolically. If you are only prompted to 2%, I'd be looking more closely at why I feel/think that to be the case.
Wrapped up in the word tithing is the notion of "you must do it or you are robbing God". I believe that is what I am attacking. The mass of guilt that gets piled on the church is unbelieveable. I never really thought that if a believer walked out of church with guilt, that things were operating as designed.
Add to that the well known fact that where this money goes is straight to the bank account of the guy preaching this line.
If I started a house church where I got a bunch of old ladies to sit around while I spewed the ideas that come into my head - OK call it preaching - and added that they would be robbing God if they refused to give me, the preacher, or my church ten percent of all their cash flow, (before taxes) how could such a practice be justified from the Bible? I don't think it could and I don't think any Apostle ever did it. But that is exactly what the modern tithing teaching entails.
I may go back and re-read your comment and pick up some new ideas for how to squeeze even more than ten percent from the little old ladies. What is a measley 10%. I like that line.
Ouch. This comment obviously comes out of some experience I know nothing of. No one is talking about starting a house church or a tv ministry or anything else and telling people they are robbing God if they refuse to give. To say that this scenarios is inherent in the word tithe is to argue against a strawman. To be sure, tithing is a law-based concept, and we are living under grace--that was my point. What that mythical preacher you are talking about is not tithing NOR is it grace. It's scam. That's not what II Cor. 8 and 9 is talking about either. It is talking about living generous lives in respose to God's generosity in Jesus. I don't know about yours, but my pastor gets a pretty small salary for an awful lot of work and anguish; he hasn't gotten much of any raise in five years even though his insurance costs have skyrocketed. "A laborer is worthy of his hire" and we hired him to pastor an obstreperous bunch of folk. I just wish we (collective) could be more gracious to him.
He should be non-denominational and then he can scrape off as much as he wants off the top. He should clear 200K easy.
I am a practical/computer program kinda guy. What is the why is the house church preacher not entitled to pry 10% out of his folk if tithing is not a New Covenant practice. It seems to me he is.
Stay tuned for, hopefully, some new stuff that hopefully will stimulate some thought on the part of the readers, however few they may be.
I think a model where the preacher man gets to scrape off all surplus over operating costs as salary is an example of bad stewardship due to lack of accountability.
In the Presbyterian/Congregational model, the pastor/teaching elder (and all full-time church employees) are dependent on the session/ruling elders, congregation, and/or trustees to set their salary. The whole church also has the responsibility to allocate any surplus to charities/missions, and set a balance between need for operating costs and charity (is $$ for Sunday fellowship snacks a legit operating cost?)
In the hierarchical/anglican/catholic model, the hierarchy sets the salaries.
I guess the point is that the Church as small business model is unscriptural. There needs to be accountability for how donations (if you don't want to call them tithes) are used.
Glad you picked up on the not-so-subtle idea that "donations" or giving is a fine idea. Tithing carries a lot of not optional baggage with it, which I think is completely out of place in the NT age.
I never really thought that if a believer walked out of church with guilt, that things were operating as designed.
You can't really mean this!! I know you don't believe that the church should choose don't hurt anybody's feelings over facilitate Holy Spirit conviction of guilt for sin! Perhaps you mean that if things are "operating as designed", people will be convicted of sin during the service, and will have repented before they leave?
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