MONEY MANAGERS
- Dec 10, 2016
- 5 min read
To be completely honest, I don't know where all of this started. I don't know why it became such a staple at a young age. Giving 10% of my hard earned, $5.15/hr Rally's Hamburger money away to a church?!?! Might I add this was not the ultimate church of choice. It was my mom's church where you get the death stare for chewing gum. Not to mention, don't you dare walk in one millisecond late or every member in the congregation will turn around as soon as the door creaks open (I'm being dramatic, but I'm sure know what I'm talking about lol). Despite all of that, I gave that 10% away pleasantly and willingly.
Yep! I'm talking about TITHING.......
This is one of the most controversial and silent issues in the church community. People, including myself, DO NOT play about their money. The statistics surrounding this issue are a direct reflection of that simple statement. Tithing is presented to the Christian community as very important and is something that I truly believe. If you have ever experienced a true blessing, you can appreciate the WANT to give your first fruits back to God. If God is blessing you with a crop, giving 10% back honestly isn't that bad. However, ONLY do this if it will be done cheerfully. Give what you can, if 10% seems to be impossible for you. In Genesis 28 it says:
"20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over meon this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord[a] will be my God 22 and[b] this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
See a few statistics below from an article at healthresearchfunding.org and an infographic from sharefaith.com:
Statistics
1. Only 3-5% of Americans who give to their local church do so through regular tithing.
2. When surveyed, 17% of Americans state that they regularly tithe.
3. For Christian families making less than $20k per year, 8% of them gave at least 10% in tithing. For families making a minimum of $75k or more, the figure drops to just 1%.
4. The average donation by adults who attend U.S. Protestant churches is about $17 a week.
5. 37% of people who attend church every week and identify themselves as Evangelical don’t give any money to their church.
6. 7 out of 10 tithers do so based on their gross income and not their net income.
7. People who tithe regularly typically have less debt than other demographics – 8 out of 10 have zero credit card debt and 28% of them are completely debt free, including not having a mortgage.
8. People are more likely to practice tithing when they begin the practice in their teens or early twenties.
Infographic
What I quickly noticed from the image above is:
1. People are more likely to practice tithing when they begin the practice in their teens...."
2. People approach tithing as "How will this affect me?" versus "How can I change the life of someone else".
This is where my story about tithing begins. I'll keep it brief as you all will learn more about me as the blog continues.
I tithe(d) 10% on every penny I receive through work, side-business, scholarship check, annual bonus, income tax return, etc. I count every amount of income and every person in my life a blessing from God. I have to credit a large portion of my many blessings to earnestly tithing to my local church.
Here is a short testimony and some of the reasons I continue to practice tithing today:
At the age of 16, I saved enough of my Rally's Hamburger's earnings to buy a junk car, a Pontiac Sunfire. It was so bad that I had to attach a cable to the battery in order to start my car. With those small details, it is easy to assume that my car eventually quit on me. During this time, I was also visiting a company, Robins & Morton (R&M), daily for an internship and weekly for a mentoring program. While there, I was blessed to build relationships that evolved into family bonds, which continue today. After learning that my car was in bad condition, someone from R&M requested a refund from the seller of my Pontiac. Following this, $5500 was secretly gathered at R&M for the purchase of a working car, my 1999 Honda Civic. This was the first big financial blessing that I experienced. From there, more things began to happen:
I finished high school with two full scholarships to any school in the US. I made that decision pretty easy because I only applied to one school, Auburn University. After being awarded early admission, more scholarships were awarded. This resulted in $8,000-$10,000 scholarship checks every semester. Although I had never received a lump sum of money similar to this, I remained disciplined and continued to tithe $800-$1000 in checks to my current church home. (Jasmine, my girlfriend at the time, thought I was insane btw, lol) She's going to kill me for saying that lol. She now understands the huge importance of tithing and is 100% on board.
During an internship in Indiana I destroyed my Honda due to poor maintenance. I had a GMC Yukon 2 weeks later with no payment as a blessing from family.
During my last semester of college, I interviewed with 3 companies. One company had a very big impact on me so I prayed to receive an offer from them. Surprisingly, that company provided me with the ONLY offer I received.
After my 2005 Yukon got up to 190k miles, my family blessed my wife and I. We were able to trade in my Yukon and get my current 2014 vehichle with no payments.
This is not a boasting moment, but a testimony that only God could orchestrate. I don't believe in luck, but I do believe favor follows cheerful giving as it is asked of us in the Bible. God will place money in your life that you would have never imagined. He will place people in your life that will become family and flip your world upside down. No matter what your situation is, God has blessed us all with relational and financial increase to manage for his kingdom's growth. We are all money managers for God's financial blessings to us, allowing us to keep food on our plate, a roof above our heads, a way to save for our future, and to give cheerfully to help others.
As I improve my giving and money management skills for the kingdom I hope you can join me. #TripleM #MalachiMoneyManagers
Malachi 3:10
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
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