nakedpastor | David Hayward: grafitti artist on the walls of religion.

cartoon: church money

November 27, 2006 by David Hayward

16 Comments

November 27, 2006

breakfast byte: settle down

November 27, 2006 original song: a long time

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Frank Emanuel

It is interesting how utilitarian the Church has actually become. It is frustrating because there is so much excellent theological critique out there but it is just bypassed because of a sense that what we have works – when the fact is it might produce some of the markers we are looking for while at the same time being horribly unpleasant in other ways. Kinda like capitalism. As always a biting commentary. I appreciate it.
nakedpastor

thanks frank… treat the bite quickly or infection could set in
Fred

Is the practise of tithing based on fear and greed?
John

Hmmm Dave…..Fear and guilt? We wouldnt want something biblical to work would we!?
Jacquelyn

Re. Fred’s question – maybe it depends on how religious we are.
nakedpastor

i LOVE it when someone else answers a question… keep it going!!!
Slim14

Is tithing (10%) biblical?
Jacquelyn

Why do we live in fear or with greed anyway?
John

Its funny how money brings up so much controversy……maybe we have more hang ups with it than we admit!
Jacquelyn

Hang ups? I will freely tell you – I have a ton of them!!! lol Have you ever met anyone without any?
nakedpastor

my suggestion is that we don’t allow our hangups to morph into law-making
John

Thank God my “morphing” is out of relationship – not religious duty!!!
John

“Suggestion” or is it a religious expression?

I find it somewhat funny that this continues to be a topic of confusion. When one believes in “tithing”; which I do, it is automatically considered “religious law” or being “morphed” into a form of deception. All I know is that I hold to the belief that it is biblical – and it works for me.

For me it a fom of “Christian discipline”. We are quick to speak of discipine in many other spiritual matters – why is operating a discipline with money considered religious?

This one yanked my proverbial chain – but lets be careful to nail this one down as “religious morphing”!
Fred

It’s interesting (and you hear it all the time) that it is about tithing that God says, “Test me in this.”

So I guess it’s not so much what people are telling you what you should do (fear and guilt)–people have the option to experiment and try it for themselves.
nakedpastor

fred: that’s getting close to something… “option” “choice” “cheerful” “not under compulsion”… thanks
James Hakim

It seems to me that living sacrifices ought to be giving a whole lot more than 10%, and that a church full of ’em will use it for something other than pot lucks and nice carpet.

Here’s a paraphrase of Paul’s command to how to respond to the gospel, narrowly applied to the topic of money:

Since God has completely by His own initiative, through His own power, which is His righteousness in His Son given to you through faith, SAVED YOU FROM HELL; by that same mercy, now give as much of your money as you possibly can to His work without being irresponsible to your family. (Rom1:1-12:1, qualifier from 1Ti5:8)

Yeah, I know that’s a pretty significant qualifier on the end, and we can bicker all day about what that would entail, but how you think about it will reveal to you whether you a cheerful giver or view worshiping the Savior with your wallet as a form of tax code in which you are glad to find a loophole.

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cartoon: church money