Ecclesiology 19 - The New Church: Tithes and Other Legal Matters

     This is the one in which we discuss money, and I want to start by making one thing perfectly clear:  I don't have a dog in this hunt.  I post these diatribes on blogspot.com because it's free.  I am a pensioned retiree, so the time spent on this is my own to use as I wish.  I don't even know how to set up a gofundme account, and my readership is way too low for any advertisers to offer any sort of corporate sponsorship.  I am so not an influencer!  I have never asked anyone for a dime from this blog, nor do I see any reason why I might do so in the future (although if someone is inclined to send along a dozen ginger snaps, they'll almost certainly get gratefully consumed ☺).  The ideas expressed are for the reader to use or not as he/she chooses.  With that said, let us move on.

        Much has been said in these posts about how the church should spend its money, or more specifically how it shouldn't.  By not throwing the greatest portions of our budgets into massive buildings, expensive professional clergy, and superfluous trappings, much more can be invested in our missions to the poor and underprivileged.  Of course, there will still be other expenses and legal requirements to be considered, and these cannot be overlooked.

    When the first century church faced a community expense, it was common to simply take up a collection from among the congregation and pay the tab.  If the expense was too great for a single congregation to cover, the call was sent out for other communities of believers to pitch in.  Most of the Pauline epistles refer in passing or detail to a large collection taken up over the course of several years from among the Gentile churches to be given to the church in Jerusalem during the great famine that occurred during the reign of Claudius.  By modern standards, the entire process was fairly simple, reasonably cut-and-dried.  This would be difficult to duplicate today; tax and banking laws now in force would make the bookkeeping of such a mammoth undertaking very complex indeed, to say nothing of the complications that would be involved in moving such large amounts of money over international borders.

    As soon as we start collecting amounts of money in excess of a certain dollar - the actual amount varies from state to state - we become legally bound to report our donations and fiscal activities to the state.  In most cases, this involves filing some sort of papers of incorporation with both the state and Federal governments and filing (at least) annual reports of our accounting to them.  There are a great number of statutes regarding the process, and failure to correctly abide by any of them can create difficulties for our church and our individual members.  When we reach this point, then, one of our earliest expenses will be to hire one or more lawyers and accountants to file this paperwork (and the accompanying fees) so that we conduct ourselves in a legal manner.  This means that, in spite of our efforts to maintain ourselves on a higher spiritual level that transcends the world, in this regard at least we must conduct ourselves like a business.  I submit that, since we must behave fiscally like a business, we shall do so with the highest standard of ethics possible.  There is nothing wrong with asking a church member who happens to be a licensed plumber to take a look at the facility toilet, but, if one isn't available, we should pay a professional a reasonable wage.  Our books should be kept in accordance with generally accepted accounting practices (including the occasional outside audit) and we should happily make them available to anyone interested in reviewing them.  There shall be no "secret funds" or "secret societies" in the church.  If we must pay a salary to any one person, it should be to our church bookkeeper.

    So, exactly how should we spend this money we're tracking so closely?  I cannot possibly say.  As we've examined in some detail, the exact mission - and the exact expense for it - can only be determined by the local church and the needs of its immediate community.  Some mission works will cost more than others (and let us not forget the fluidity of our missions; if, at some point, we actually solve a community problem with our mission work, then we must move on to the next one).  In a very general sense, I think we can safely say that each community congregation should invest approximately 50% of its tithes to its local mission and evangelism efforts, commit about 25% to its bishops for the global missions of the church and retain roughly 25% for its own expenses.  Time and tide will tell if these numbers need adjusting, but I must repeat the warning that a church needing more than 25% of its tithes for its own internal expenses almost certainly needs to meet in conference and reprioritize its expenditures.  We've almost assuredly created some para-church structures that need to be done away with.

    Bishops must behave the same with the monies donated regionally as elders do on the local level.  As little as possible must be invested in "overhead."  The lion's share must go to those mission programs established by a majority vote of the local congregations, with a certain percentage going into a "rainy day" fund to be reinvested in the community in times of crisis (natural and man made disasters, wartime and political upheaval, etc.).  Again, actual percentages must be determined on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration such points as local economics, industry and weather patterns.

    I will say this, though, regarding the church's stewardship of our flock's finances: the church should absolutely never incur debt.  No matter how noble our plans, we should never take out a loan to pay for anything.  I firmly believe that any idea that cannot be paid for "in cash" can be seen as one that God clearly does not want us engaging in.  I cannot bring myself to believe that the movement of the Holy Spirit can be stopped by something as trivial as insufficient funding.

    And where does all this money come from in the first place?  Well, tithes obviously, but how much money should any given member be expected to give?  Again, I don't know the answer.  The Bible provides no specific guide here.  [Growing up in the Southern Baptist church, I was taught that each person should give 10% of their income based on the fact that the King James Bible uses the word "tithe," derived from the Old English (probably Anglican) word "teogothian," which means "tenth."  In fact, the original "tithe" collected by churches in feudal Europe were taxes imposed by the manorial lords and subsequently passed on by those churches to their parishioners. (Marc Bloch Feudal Society, c. 1930).  These were to be paid above and beyond any freewill giving of alms.  Neither the word "tithe" nor the concept of 10% appears in any Scripture prior to the KJV in 1611.]  Whenever Jesus addressed this question - which he did with some frequency - he always suggested that we should give everything we have to the church.  Even I, who have more than once been accused of being overly generous with my monetary donations, believe this should be interpreted more spiritually than literally.  I believe it has less to do with actual dollar amounts and more to do with our relationships to our money.

    Absolutely every person alive has some personal issue which they find difficult to commit to God.  For some it may be our appetites for food, drink, sex and the like.  For many, its our money.  And the amazing lengths to which we'll go to justify our hoarding!  Many years ago, I knew a man for whom Christianity was mostly lip service, not to put too fine a point on it.  Whenever the topic of conversation turned to tithing (and he frequently turned it so himself) his comment was always the same.  "I don't give money to the church because I don't know what they'll do with it.  Instead, I put my tithe into a bank account, and anytime someone comes to my door needing a pair of shoes, I go out and buy them."

    I heard him say this so often that I eventually grew weary of it.  At some point when I had had enough, I said, "You know, Bill (not his real name), that's commendable of you, but it's also very easily said by a man living in a small town of a few hundred that is not only near no other cities but not even near any highways going to or from any other cities.  The only way in and out of your little slice of Heaven is a two-lane pig trail that doesn't even appear on many maps.  How often does someone come to your door needing shoes?  Look, if you're seriously interested in buying shoes for the poor, I live in one of the poorest neighborhoods in a major urban center.  How about, on one Saturday per month, you go by the bank, withdraw all those monies you've been setting aside for shoes, and drive to my house.  I'll help you find any number of people needing new shoes!"  I knew the man for about ten years after that conversation took place.  He never did knock on my door with shoe money.

    That is, by the way, a completely true story.  I hope the point is obvious.  We cannot hope to determine how much an appropriate tithe should be until we first deal with the issue of how we relate to our money.  In the West, we are encouraged from an very young age to have what is, by any decent moral standard, an appallingly intimate relationship with our money, and I fear that many of us have learned our lesson well.  But please remember that everything about Western ideology is wrong.  How can we possibly say that we have committed our all to the Holy Spirit if we haven't even committed our wallets?  We are, in essence, asking "What is the least amount I can give and still honor the Lord?"  When I started dating the young lady who was to become my wife, I was informed that, upon marriage, I must relinquish two things: my water bed and my motorcycle.  I didn't really care about the bed.  I didn't actually like it anyway.  I just thought it was cool to have one.  The bike, on the other hand, was a source of pride and joy.  Still, I sold them both.  I learned later that I was going to be committing far more of myself to the union than a mere bed or motor vehicle.  In the intervening forty years, I've not once regretted leaving either behind.

    Marriage may make a good metaphor for the point I'm trying to make, but I think parenthood is a better one.  All parents are familiar with the sacrifices they must make for their children, financial and otherwise.  Parenthood, seen properly, is the very essence of sacrificial love.  You bring a baby into the house and your nights of closing down bars are over.  Vacation budgets go to pediatricians.  Restaurant dinners turn into wholesale cases of disposable diapers.  Evenings with friends become evenings in a rocking chair with a colicky infant.  Eight hour sleep cycles become luxuries one can only hope for.

    At the end of the day, maybe this is the best way to determine how much money any given parishioner should plan to tithe.  As C.S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity, "I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.  If our giving habits do not pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small.  There ought to be things we want to do but cannot do because our giving expenditures exclude them."  That may be as plainly as it can be said.

Pax