Tithing vs generosity

LEAD BALLOON #1

My minister Andy Chung was doing the right thing last night and talking briefly to our congregation about the biblical basis for giving. At one point Andy said,

In the Old Testament, the people of God were required to tithe, that is, give a tenth of their earnings to God. In the New Testament, people are not commanded to tithe but instead to be generous. But tithing is a helpful guide as Christian's think about giving.

Andy is generally more pastorally sensitive than me. (In discussing how to change the culture of everyone sitting in the same seat every week; Andy's solution: gently encourage the elders to take the initiative and sit elsewhere. My solution: Turn the pews ninety degrees and create a series of semi-circles so everyone had to move.) We balance each other out well. But Andy's words on giving were certainly Biblical and like his nature, gentle. Yet I would probably go further. Call me ignorant, but I can't see how somehow the command to tithe being replaced by generosity could somehow mean giving less than ten percent. Surely we in Australia are the rich. Some people explain the price of housing in their area means they couldn't possibly even tithe, because they are being gospel-minded and reaching Vaucluse for Christ. I see fewer people willing to reach Penrith for Christ. 

I'm not advocating moving away from giving a percentage of our earnings. It's a great way to give regularly and remain accountable. But even giving a percentage should not limit our generosity. I feel the mention of tithing as a helpful guide may in effect put a limit in people's mind on their giving. But as in most things, Andy's pastoral leaning is generally more effective than my 'create a stir and hope the dust settles in a better place than it began' mindset.

I have been considering a sub-headline for IzaacTA and one possibility is "Shamelessly plundering the ideas of the wise." I am all for stealing someone's thoughts if they have better ones than my own. One such example is a friend of mine in ministry who was telling me how he thinks about giving with his small children. They each get $2 pocket money each week. $1 goes into savings, 60 cents to spend and 40 cents goes to church. This was to encourage them to be financially responsible as well as training their mindset away from tithing towards generosity.

Perhaps I am moving too much away from freedom into law. We must remember that God loves a cheerful giver not one who gives under compulsion, regardless of how much. But I still wonder how generosity could somehow be less than a tenth.