and how much of your income?? I'm having a debate with my husband..He seems to think we need to "build the new church" with the amount he gives monthly/yearly..I obviously want to contribute less..I'm already a major couponer who spends little in general except on necessities..I would love to have the amount he gives to the church...

At my church you are supposed to give 10%. That is usually what we give.

We give the normal 10%, and when our church has a building fund, we also gave above the 10%. Honestly with most churches, that 10% covers the costs for the church if they owe money on it, utilities, staff pays, which is usually alot of money, I think thats why churches need the extra money to build, because MOST can't afford it after the normal 10%. I say give above and you'll be blessed in the long run.

I try to give 10% but my DH would like to give less. In the 10% I include all money that I give towards christian "things" ie. camp, missionarys etc. Some times I will include the time I spend serving at the church.

We give about 15%.

Could I use it at home? Sure, but I've got faith that it's all the Lord's money, anyway, and he's just allowed it to work its way into my life for me to use, and so it's not really "mine" to begin with.

It's not about what the church "needs". God doesn't really *need* any of the money in our account to accomplish anything if he's truly God. It's about our faithful willingness to say, "We trust that you'[ll take care of our needs, and would rather sacrifice some of our wants as an act of conviction than have more "stuff" but give up the confidence in God we've learned by relinquishing control over some money we had."

We used to give a much smaller percentage because we really felt we *needed* every penny just to get by. It's funny to me now, because I just happened across a checkbook register from the early days of our marriage when we had that mindset. Somehow, our strapped selves managed to write some checks to the movie theater, plenty to a nice restaurant downtown, and I can't imagine all those checks to WalMart were strictly for toilet paper and shampoo.

Several years ago, we decided it meant more for us to give freely than to have more stuff, and I have to say, more money has come our way since that time. Perhaps it's because we're more in tune with the opportunities with which God has blessed us than it is that things are truly *different* from a "blessings" perspective. I don't know. But Suze Orman has said that you have to open your fist and release the pennies you're gripping so tightly in order to have your palm open to receive the dollars that are meant to come to you. I think there is some truth in that.

When I attended church I gave 10% of my "increase".
I did not give 10% of my income. I gave 10% of the monies that I did not need for necessities.
If I spent $100 on food for the family, but then went out to eat "just because", I tithed on that amount.
If my mortgage was $1000, but I spent $1000 on new drapes, I would hate tithed on the money I spent on drapes. I hope that makes sense.

While God does want you to tithe, he does not want you to do without the basic necessities of life. He wants you to be a good steward of all your assets.

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Jesus love me--you he only tolerates!

We tithe 10% of our gross pay. I also tithe the 10% from yard sales, rebates and money that I earn from selling my stockpile at hubby's work. He tithes 10% out of his eBay auctions, too.

I've been tithing on the money I earn for quite awhile. We just started tithing on our gross. We had been doing it on our take home pay.

We budget it in just like our car payment, mortgage, etc.

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Amy
Mom to Lauren, Eryn, Naysa
and announcing......
Gavin Michael Chase, 9 lbs 10 ozs
and 21 3/4 inches long on 10/13/09!

I give the church a few dollars each week. Mostly $3.00 a week.
It is a lot less than our 10% but its what I choose to give.

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★♥Caroline★♥

We tithe 10% of our gross income. DH gets paid every other week so it ends up being about $500 a paycheck. We do incorporate that into our budget just as we do for savings and although it ends up being about $1000 a month, we really don't miss it.

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I've had a Foreman Grill for about six years. I've done about 85% of my cooking on it, but I've never burnt myself. Probably because I don't use it as a pillow.

I think the original question is kind of funny, because the actual defination of "tithe" is "one-tenth"... So if you tithe, you give one-tenth of your income. If you are not, then you are not giving tithing, you are giving charity to your church. My husband and I do give tithing to our church.

I always wonder about this so thanks for posting I only give 10.00 a week and now I think I should give more I really dont have more to give I wonder who opens those envolpes anyhoooo

the way I view it is that God gives the increase and He lets me keep 90% I choose to tithe not tip God!

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Always be a first rate version of your self instead of a second rate version of someone else.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.

Squeak, I like that. I choose to tithe, not tip God.

No I don't.

Me neither.

We tithe 10% every paycheck.

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Kristie
mom to Tyler (11/94) & Joycie (3/99)
www.thegrandskofour.shutterfly.com

That's exactly what we believe.

God has blessed us tremendously so I give "cheerfully"

Kind of OT, but, weren't you due to have a baby any day....about a month ago??? Hope all went well

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

No, I don't.

for those do tithe, do you also claim it on your taxes as a charitable deduction?

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Yep, she's here and all went well. Thanks for thinking of me.

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I've had a Foreman Grill for about six years. I've done about 85% of my cooking on it, but I've never burnt myself. Probably because I don't use it as a pillow.

We don't tithe.

congratulations!!!!

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

I could but I don't

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Always be a first rate version of your self instead of a second rate version of someone else.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.

We don't claim it on our taxes. I know some people do, but for me it doesn't feel right.

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Amy
Mom to Lauren, Eryn, Naysa
and announcing......
Gavin Michael Chase, 9 lbs 10 ozs
and 21 3/4 inches long on 10/13/09!

Alright, not claiming the deduction is something that I really don't understand. Claiming it on your taxes just means Uncle Sam gets less (and its legal). You could always give the tax savings to the church and thereby you are not benefiting from it and your conscience is clear.

cj/

Yeah I understand that, but it doesn't FEEL right for me to do it, so we don't.

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Amy
Mom to Lauren, Eryn, Naysa
and announcing......
Gavin Michael Chase, 9 lbs 10 ozs
and 21 3/4 inches long on 10/13/09!

Ah - OK! So it is not a logical decision, but a faith-based or emotiinal one....got it!

cj/

You know just because YOU don't think it's a logical decision doesn't mean it's not for US. Obviously, you aren't convicted in the same way we are since you don't tithe to begin with. That's totally up to you just like us NOT claiming our tithe on our taxes is up to us.


I KNEW when I posted that we don't claim our tithe on our taxes that someone would say something like you did.

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Amy
Mom to Lauren, Eryn, Naysa
and announcing......
Gavin Michael Chase, 9 lbs 10 ozs
and 21 3/4 inches long on 10/13/09!

You said it doesn't "feel" right to claim it on your taxes; that is an emotional response. Had you said you'd run the numbers and it didn't make sense to claim it on your taxes, that would have been a "logical" response. Saying it's an "emotional" response does not mean it is irrational or anything like that.

Thanks, that's exactly what I meant. Feel = emotions.

cj/

I've never "run the numbers" including our tithe, we've only been tithing for about 18 months, and just recently on our gross. Anyway, we don't take any deductions. Any medical we have is only drs visits and RX's, which I am bad at keeping receipts and our interest on our house is not very much. So, we don't do any. When we got ours done at H & R Block they always told us we needed to have $6,000 total, and we were ALWAYS just under that. I've been doing them myself the past few years and just never take them since we've never had enough in the past.

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Amy
Mom to Lauren, Eryn, Naysa
and announcing......
Gavin Michael Chase, 9 lbs 10 ozs
and 21 3/4 inches long on 10/13/09!

We always include our tithing in our taxes as a charitable donation. I feel completely fine in doing this, because my church does an amazing amount of charitable work, and I'm contributing to it by tithing. Also, our leaders at church are voluntary, they are not paid for their work in the church, so more of my money is going to charitable things and not someone's salary.

No we don't thithe.

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Freedom Stands...Because HEROS Serve

Mary