Did you give your 10% this weekend?

As a team we have done a little bit of thinking on how we approach the question of finance and giving and what we will do with the money once we get it.

We arrived at the point of saying that right now we will not take an offering as such, but we will simply give to people / projects / needs as God leads us. We will not have any central fund or any structure beyond our own budgeting.

The intent is to free ourselves from feeling like we have to ‘tithe’ (I do not believe the tithe is an NT concept) but also to try and ‘live generously’ rather than feeling like we have ‘done our bit’ when the money’s in the bag.

Its a big decision – and one that could actually backfire. We could finish up less generous than previously – we could never regain our footing with giving… But its part of the re-imagining process.

For me non-tithing is a decision that flows out of a fairly significant theological re-think I had a few years back. Most influential in that process was English Baptist theologian and church planter, Stuart Murray’s book Beyond Tithing. (out of print)

That said I am all too aware of the danger of greed and the ease with which I can become self focused. So we (Danelle and I) have decided that what we will do is budget an amount to set aside each week which will be our primary giving funds as well as being free to give spontaneously.

Why set aside a regular amount? Because I have a very strong hunch that if we don’t we will actually finish up less generous. It seems there is always something to spend money on and I am concerned that will never be ‘enough’ money in the bank to give away.

We are committed to growing in generosity and stretching ourselves in the ara of giving so that is the plan for this year.

I’d be interested to hear what other do in this regard.watch trippin in divx