If you are a member of a church, are you required to tithe? (give 10% of gross income). What i f you don't or can't give? Do they kick you out?

Tithing isn't a requirement of any church. If you go to one and they say it is, RUN!! I've never known of any church to require/force you to give, whether it's 10% or an offering, so I would say they can't kick you out if you don't. Lots and lots of churches would be empty if that were the case. Tithing isn't even a requirement for the new testament church, it's from the old testament and part of the law they were under. We're in the age of grace now. Paul writes that each person should decide what they want to give and give cheerfully.

I think giving cheerfully is what the Lord wants us to do.I also believe that if we give with a cheerful heart it comes back to us in wonderful ways.After becoming disabled and losing a 50,000 a year job we still gave ,definately not as much but we gave it without thinking"oh we need this for ...) Needless to say we have never missed not one cent of it and the Lord has blessed us in all kinds of ways.

I am Catholic and whatever religion you are it should be up tp you tp offer whatever you feel is ok. Perosnally we give 5.00 every Sunday. Peace Catherine

I am Baptist, they dont require you to tithe, the Lord says to tithe in the Bible and to give 10%. However if you dont tithe they dont kick you out. There is one Baptist church in my area that is way holier then thou and if they find out you are not tithing they will send you a letter. I will not step foot in that church, that is not normal!!. Also like in our church you can put money in and they wont know who put it in, unless you wrote a check or put your name on an envelop and put the money in it. So really the church doesnt know who is tithing or not unless you put your name on it.

steph

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While tithing 10 % is not "required" now, we do use it as guidline for ourselves. Just a personal decision. And as far as not being able to give, we have found that no matter what, we can give something, after all, it's not ours in the first place. I don't think it is the place of any church to tell me how much to give, or punish me if I don't. It's completely between us and God.

Melissa

Our church (Methodist) doesn't ask you to tithe. I went to a Presbyterian one once on Steward Sunday and was appalled to hear a long talk about how the guy tithed and got a raise, cut back and got fired, then tithed and found a better job. I don't believe God works like that and the hard sell was offensive. I'd never been a church like that before, and I know it's not Presbyterianism, because I was raised in that church and we didn't get that stuff.

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Reading is Fundamental.

Our church teaches to tithe 10% but does not require it. Every JAn our pastor does a month long series on money. Here he teaches not only how to tithe but how to budget, save and pay things off. It really is informational. He gives budget worksheets and everything. Our pastor believes you can't just tell someone to give 10$ without showing them how to budget it.

As far as us personally, we don't tithe 10%. We give when we can but do not stress it. I give a lot of my time to our children's program. I sing on the worship team and put in at least 4 hours of rehearsal and prep at home plus 9 hours on the weekend I serve. I draw motions to every new song we sing and keep everything organized for other teams as well.

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Calling a illegal alien an "undocumented immigrant" is like calling a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist."

Unfortunately, tithing is MANDATORY in some churches/religions, and yes, they can and do ex-communicate you if you do not tithe accordingly.

The religion I was raised in advocates tithing 10% of your increase, which simply means that after you have paid for the necessity's of life, you would tithe 10% of what you have left over. But it is not mandatory to remain a member in good standing.

I believe that the Lord would want you to give willingly, but I also believe that the Lord understands that there are certain obligations that do come first....Just my take on it.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

In my research of the Mormon religion, I have come across this on several sights. I am appalled by that, honestly. I understand giving to the church, they have to pay bills and get money for their programs somehow, but, to guilt someone in to giving money that maybe they can't afford to give is just heinous.

It has always been our practice to give what we can, no set amount.

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

tithing is 10% off the top, no my church doesn't require it, but I do and it hasn't hurt my budget at all. My church does advocate getting your finances in order first and then tithing

Especially since there is a Multi Million dollar shopping center being built on Church property in Salt Lake City. The church sends young people out in the world as missionaries two by two for two years all over the world but the church doesn't pay for it, their parents do....450.00 per month per missionary. They take up fast offerings once a month to put in the chapels budget for welfare for local people who are down on their luck. Where do the tithes go? I know of many people who tithe at least 10,000 per year plus send a missionary out as well as provide regular fast food offerings (you fast for one day once a month and donate the amount you would spend on food for that day to your ward) (a ward is a local congregation).

I have also read that they do NOT disclose to their congregation what their finances are.

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

True, true. With the exception of in Europe, I think where by law, they have to. You can google that info and see how much they take in and how much is spent on charity items. It is not a great amount comparably speaking there. I don't know what is spent in the US on charitable items but I am always hearing how much they do for the homeless and such but they seem to take up extra fast offerings on one sunday per month for their wefare program, they have members donate things for Katrina victims and for the soldiers in Iraq. Now they are asking for donations of time and money to defeat the gay marraige proposal in CA this fall. They read a statement from the pulpit asking members to donate money and time to defeat it at the polls. I would think a church would lose its tax status for something like that....

It is (or was 25 years ago) mandatory in Germany for catholics. When I "stepped out" (quit) of the church, I had to sign a letter stating that I was aware that I was going to hell after I die. Well, They'll show me for not wanting to give them 10% of my income .

i know of one church here that requires you to give and at the first of the yr, they give out papers that you have to fill out and sign that you are going to give each sunday and how much. This place is HUGE!!!! I had a client that ended up bedbound a few yrs before she died and they sent someone to her home the first of each month( when she got her ss ck) to collect her tithes for the month. no one ever came to just ck on her and see if she needed anything but you could bet your butt they were there for "their" money when she got her ck. funny thing, I didnt see any of them at her funeral either. lots of folks around here refer to this church as the christian warehouse.

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WOW !

I "quit" going to catechism in the 5th grade for this very reason. (mandatory tithing)

We were given a BOX of envelopes with our names on them to return every class PLUS envelopes for our sunday offering too!


I was over it and haven't been back... with the exception of weddings, first communions for family, etc.
At the last communion I went to they passed the baskets 4 times!

They always have their hand (basket) out but never once have I seen anyone help my family/friends in time of need.

Your post made my stomach hurt. I hope you know you're not going to hell because you quit the Catholic church or because you don't tithe. (Which I'm sure you do.) I am so sorry that happened to you.

The church we attend doesn't require it at all. The plate is passed and people anonymously put in money. Other than the person who makes the deposits and sees the checks people write, nobody has a clue who gives what.

I do understand why places have people make commitments at the beginning or end of the year. If a church wants to support a missionary, hire a counselor or a youth minister or needs to do some renovations on their building, it's helpful to know what people intend to give.

Though I'm thankful that ours leaves that between the individual and God, the cold hard fact is that for the Jews, God required 10% off the top. Not 10% after a family paid their bills, but the firstfruits - the BEST that they had. If they had ten cattle they had to pick out the best one and sacrifice it. If they had 1,000, they had to sacrifice the best 100. He didn't want their last, their leftovers - he wanted them to give in faith that they were only returning to God that which was already his in the first place, trusting that he would bless them in their faithfulness and not leave them in need after having such a high level of comittment to him.

When the Israelites plundered a city they had overtaken and gave to God a portion of the loot they had taken (after he forbade them to take ANY of the riches that were there) the LORD was furious with them because they gave from something that wasn't really *theirs* in the first place and wanted to count that as their 10%. Because it was not a sacrifice for them to give of those things since they didn't earn them in the first place, well... it didn't go so well for them!

ETA: I find this very interesting. There really isn't a command for Christians to tithe. If you look at the few verses from the New Testament that contain the word 'tithe' they are referencing Jews, not Christians. There are mentionings of Pharisees who tithed to be seen by men so they could brag about it, there are mentionings of Levites and the fact that they received the tithes from the Jews, etc.... but nothing saying Christians are bound to tithe.
BibleGateway.com - Keyword Search: tithe


ETA Again: This verse does reference Christian giving. Paul is instructing those at the church in Corinth to give according to how much they have prospered, but doesn't assign a commanded percentage:

1 Corinthians 16
1Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. 2Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.

ETA one more time... ... The Israelites 10% was based on their increase from the prior year. In other words, essentially based on what they earned, not on what they owned.

Oh - don't be sorry, I'm not. I saw it as the joke it is. The way they tried to intimidate me was terrific!
I am very secure in my believe and there is no organized church involved. I live in the south and I have to keep my mouth shut a lot .

Did you actually sign the letter?

Wow, I had no idea this was going on in this day and age. We have always just gone to places that passed around the plate. We did attend one church for a while. It seemed like all they talked about was $$. DH was unemployed at the time, and was on the prayer list. Thankfully, he got another job pretty fast, but it seemed like that pastor was on the doorstep every payday looking for something. We didn't stay there very long.

Heck, yes! I know it doesn't matter. I know a lot of people have these visions of signing it with blood, a thunder clap and the signature disappears but it just wasn't a big deal. Most of my friends did the same thing.