"It’s not that giving to your local church isn’t important—it is, leaders told the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).
But 76 percent say it’s fine if you want to give part of your tithe to a different ministry.
“Many evangelical leaders do not believe there’s a biblical requirement to give exactly 10 percent to the local church,” NAE president Leith Anderson said. “Giving generously out of what God has done for us is the main message.”"
rest of the article here
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ne...e-doesnt-have-to-go-to-church-ministries.html
Is it okay to give your tithe to other organizations outside of the church you attend? Do you believe in tithing? Is it an outdated concept or does it apply to New Testament believers?
I think the concept of tithing (in the sense of giving specifically 10%) is not only outdated but one of the things prone to particular abuse.
Firstly the tithe related to produce rather than cash, and was introduced in the time of the 12 tribes, when the Levites were the priests and not permitted to work. If you're not permitted to work you still have to eat, so the concept of 11 tribes each giving 10% of their crop/harvest/whatever to the 12th works. It means that 11 tribes get 90% of a crop and one gets an effective 110%, which is enough to meet their needs with some surplus to distribute to anyone else who had a partcular need.
Today there's nothing to prevent a church minister from also holding down a secular job so the tithe ceases to be relevant, at least in the form described in the OT. That doesn't mean there's no need to give - if people want to meet in a church building someone has to pay for it to be heated, maintained etc, and if people want the pastor to regard the ministry as a full-time job then s/he needs to be able to put food on the table etc so will need some form of salary/stipend.
There are a few reasons I take issue with the idea of a strict 10%.
Firstly it places an undue burden on those with the lowest incomes (it's far less of a sacrifice to give 10% if you're making $500k than if you're making $15k) while those with the highest incomes get off relatively lightly. This is only exacerbated by some of the greedier church leaders who demand that members give 10% of their pre-tax income, and even go as far as monitoring what people give and challenging them if someone in leadership believes they are giving less than 10% of their income (I've heard of this happening, and to be honest it's the sort of thing that would result in me dropping my giving to the church to zero)
Secondly it can create a sense of entitlement within the church leadership, particularly if the church is in a wealthy area and, to pick up on your original point, if the church assumes it is entitled to 10% of the earnings of its entire membership. It's fair to say that if people want the church to do certain things they need to be willing to provide the means (financial and other) to make it happen. At the same time it's not good if the church leadership figures that the new couple who started attending look pretty well-to-do, probably making $150k or more, and therefore expect an extra $15k in the collection plate every year.
Thirdly it rather flies in the face of what Paul said about "let each give as he purposes in his heart" and "God loves a cheerful giver". Jesus told the disciples how the widow who put in next to nothing would be rewarded more greatly than those who put in a lot, simply because she gave everything she had while the others essentially fiddled with their spare change and threw some in. This overlaps with the first point - the person making $1m a year could almost certainly write a check for $10k and barely notice the money had gone, while the person making $15k who gave $2k would have to dig much deeper into their resources to make it happen.
Fourthly there's so much more to Christian giving than simply handing over money, and the sense of a tithe can create a sense that all we need to do is write a check each week or each month and that meets our obligations. It makes the process of giving too easy, it shifts the burden onto someone else, if all we need to do is remember to put a check in the collection plate each week and from there we don't need to worry about anything else.
So to answer the original question, I think the tithe is an outdated concept but that we should give, and that giving should be directed partly to our church and partly to whatever other ventures appeal to us. That might mean supporting specific charities (Christian or otherwise) and might mean giving directly to people if we see a need.
