Don’t ask me why I get stuck on stats. I just do.  The stat that bugs me the most: how many people profess their faith in Jesus, but do not profess Him through their checkbook. Statistics show that approximately 20% of church members support 80% of the church budget. That’s just wrong. That means 80% of professing believers either don’t tithe or they tithe less than ten percent, rationalizing that they are giving in other ways. Yet God has called us to bring the “whole tithe into the storehouse,” which is the church (Mal 3:10). Instead of railing about it, which never solves anything, I have a possible solution. In fact, those of you who tithe faithfully are integral to it. First, some background to help you understand my approach. 

   In December of 1995 I moved from Iola, Kansas, to Hutchinson to establish a counseling ministry through Westbrook Baptist Church, and to join their staff as a part time Minister of Missions and Outreach. I needed introductions to the community pastors in order to get referrals and build my practice, which I knew would take time. I lived on a part time salary while the Lord slowly began to send clients my way. My parents were sweet during this transition, regularly checking up on me. I occasionally expressed that finances were tight, but I never asked for money. After all, I trusted the Lord to provide it. 

   One day I went to get my mail, and I noticed an envelope from my parents. When I opened it, I discovered a $10,000 check with a post-it note. “Please deposit this if or when you need it,” it read. “Love, Mother.”  All I could do was sit on the couch and cry. I was so overwhelmed by my parents’ generosity. I stashed the check in a kitchen drawer for safekeeping. 

   Have you heard the true story of children in an orphanage, who couldn’t go to sleep at night because they were afraid of waking up and not having food to eat? The orphans were well fed at dinner, but they went to bed anxious that there would be no food the next day. The caregivers figured out that if they put a piece of bread in each child’s hand when they tucked them into bed, they slept soundly. By the next morning, not one child had eaten their bread. The anxiety was eliminated knowing that if they got hungry, they had bread in their possession. They slept well! 

   I know how they felt. I slept soundly knowing there was a $10,000 check in the drawer that I could deposit at any time.  

   As my counseling practice grew in Hutchinson, so did my income. And as my income grew, the need to deposit my parents’ check waned. I never used it, but I also never forgot the love and generosity my parents modeled. Years later I was able to pay it forward. 

   A dear friend, a devout Christian who had gone through a divorce, was struggling with her finances as a newly single mother. She asked me if I would help her with her budget. I did so gladly. When we were putting together the spreadsheet, I noticed she wasn’t consistently tithing. Sometimes she didn’t give at all, and at other times she gave some, but not at ten percent, which is considered the minimum tithe. When I gingerly asked about this, she fought back tears because she knew she wasn’t giving her ten percent to the Lord. But she desired to be faithful to Him and to place her trust in the Lord for her finances. She wanted to begin again with a full tithe regardless of how tight her finances were. 

   The budget spreadsheet I built for her had a formula to multiply gross salary by ten percent. Since some Christians tithe on their take home amount, I decided to explain why I believed she should tithe on gross. I explained to my friend that when a company hires her for an agreed upon salary with benefits, they are simply taking part of her gross salary to pay for her health insurance, group life insurance, retirement funding, etc. I then  shared a hypothetical scenario. What if an employer decided that they didn’t want the administrative headache of paying the insurance bills for their employees each month? They would pass the task to her and give her the address where she can send the check. They would still pay her the gross salary, but then she would be responsible for paying her own premiums, or funding her own retirement nest egg. So whether the company is paying her insurance bills for her or whether she is doing it herself, it is still coming from her gross salary. She understood this explanation, and embraced my suggestion to tithe off of her gross salary. 

   I took one more step with her. Since she shared her income with me, I knew what her tithe check should be. I wrote a check payable to her for one month’s tithe and asked her to leave it in her wallet. I told her she had my blessing to deposit the check if she ever ran short of cash due to her decision to tithe ten percent on her gross salary.  

   Can you predict the outcome? I bet you can. My friend faithfully began tithing ten percent on gross. It was always the first “thank you” note she wrote when she was paid, and she never had a deficit in her budget going forward. God continued to bless her. 

   I heard from my friend about a year later. 

   “Guess what I found in my wallet?” she asked. 

   “Let’s see. I bet there’s a check with lots of whiskers on it!” I suggested playfully. 

   “Yep,” she laughed. “Do you want me to shred it?”  

   “Yes, please,” I said, and I asked her what she learned from the experience. 

   She told me that it was scary at first to tithe from gross, but she learned that God honored her trust in Him. I told her that writing a check for her to put in the wallet was easy for me because I knew the Lord wouldn’t fail her. I never felt the risk of her depositing the check. The Lord honors those who step in obedience with Him and show trust in Him.  

   So here is a possible solution that I think churches and/or small groups should consider to increase tithing. I think there are believers like my dear friend who are sitting in a pew or in a small group who desire to tithe, but need someone to mentor them and encourage them. Some may feel shame or embarrassment and need to know they are not alone. People genuinely worry that if they tithe ten percent that they will run out of money to pay their bills or debts. What if you as a small group member offered to help someone in your group succeed at tithing? Maybe your gift is helping others build a budget. Maybe you are the person who would love to write the check to have stored in a wallet. If we are standing on God’s word, I can’t see how any check would be deposited! In the meantime, followers of Christ would be growing in their giving, and more importantly, growing in their trust in God to provide for them.  

   This solution combines modeling generosity, demonstrating trust in the Lord, and mentoring others to help believers grow spiritually through giving. When believers start tithing with the safety net of a check in their wallet, they receive the gift of sleep at night while learning to trust God more. It’s like learning to ride a bike. Our parents put training wheels on the bike to help us get comfortable with riding before they let us ride on two wheels. If we intentionally mentored others in the area of giving, I think the stats on tithing would start to improve.  

   What do you think? Does this idea have merit? How would you tweak it?

Blessings,

Lee Ann