Why I Want to be Part of a Tithing Church

For over 15 years back in the late 1980’s through the early 2000’s, I had the chance to oversee and speak at national conferences geared to Pastors and Church Leaders.  Most of those events were hosted here in Phoenix, but we also traveled to other parts of the country and even around the world.  I met hundreds of Church leaders and prayed with hundreds of them as well. 

Research says that Pastors are the most beat up professionals in our country.  My time with these leaders over the years confirmed that.  I prayed with pastors, pastor’s spouses, church staff members, lay people…one after another pouring out heartache over how dysfunctional and hurtful the church had been to them.  Tragic stuff.

I have been a pastor for over 30 years and I can honestly say that every day and every year has been a joy.  I’ve served in two dynamic congregations where I’ve been able to be a part of something transformational…because the members had/have a passion for living out their faith.

My last 11 years at Grace have been the icing on the cake, so far.  To be a part of a congregation willing to step into big, reckless God-moments has been an energizing blessing for me personally.

We started with nothing 11 years ago except God’s call to start a new church.  From our first day of ministry we had to be financially self-sufficient.  And to make things even more exciting, God called us to build a 6+million dollar campus smack dab in the middle of the worst and longest recession in our history.  The fact that he provided free land certainly gave us the confidence to take the plunge.  But in the end, moved by God’s reckless call, we did the unthinkable and built this campus.

While finances have at times been tight, we’ve always paid our bills on time!

More significant than the campus, is what we’ve been able to do in bringing grace to the world—from inspiring worship to Bible studies to music events to rites of passage programs to supporting our partner church in Rwanda to helping to build a medical clinic in Rwanda to our support of Prodigals Home for 6 years to our work at the Lake Pleasant Mobile Home Park Estates. 

None of that happens without generous giving.

As I look toward the end-game in my personal ministry in 7-10 years (I can’t be a pastor forever!) I’m still passionately excited about our future as a congregation.  We’re just getting started.

Of all the dreams and plans that still lay ahead of us…this is the one I’m most passionate about:

That Community of Grace becomes a Tithing Congregation.

A “Tithing Congregation” is a church in which over 51% of its members give at least 10% of its income to the church.

Why this goal?  Several reasons:

1)   The bottom line is that it takes money to do mission.  While Grace has done extra-ordinary things in its short history, we have left a lot of mission on the cutting room floor.  Last summer we ran an informal “what’s possible” scenario and discovered that Grace has the potential of at least a $50,000 per week offering.  We average around $25,000.  Imagine what we could do if we were giving to our potential?  That’s the kind of church I want to be a part of (and the legacy I’d like to leave to the next generation of leadership).

2)   I have seen what God can do through our giving.  Our congregation gives away 10% of its income to various missions around the world.  Since we started in 2005 we have given away over $1.7 million!  That’s a lot of lives impacted with grace.  Again, imagine what we can do if we gave to our potential!

3)   Tithers are people of bold, reckless faith. They live against the tide and give first rather than fend for themselves first.  To build a great church we need people of that kind of reckless faith.

4)   The more the merrier. The more people discovering and living into tithing, the more cheerful and contagious our congregation becomes…and the more impactful. God says tithing is good for us.  The more people who discover that the better for the world.

While the goal of becoming a “Tithing Congregation” may, on the surface, seem to be about money, it’s really about you.  It’s about your call to follow Jesus.  It’s about your congregation and its call to follow Jesus.  It’s about living real life—a life defined by significance, not stuff.  It’s about the joy of watching God use you—and us together—to bring grace to the world.

I’ve seen what God can do through moments of generosity.  I can also see what God can do in you, through you, and through us if we take him at his word and entrust the first 10% of our finances to him. 

Our second decade is about God building faith capacity in us.  Tithing is one of his gifts to do just that, for the sake of the world.

Are you ready?