What is the STOREHOUSE?
You have heard it said: “The tithe belongs in the storehouse.” Ok, so where is that from? It is from 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 you will not have room enough for it.” Usually, we hear that sermon once or twice a year when offerings are low at our fellowship and the leadership, or key leader, feels it necessary to remind everyone to put the money in the bank on behalf of building and staff needs. We don’t want to be cynical, but this predictable sermon has become fodder for cynicism over time and the hardest part is that we are not sure why it makes us feel the way we do. It makes us feel manipulated, but why? It makes the presenter of the argument feel as those he is selling a used car, but why? If the storehouse is equivalent to the bank account of each local fellowship, then why does this sermon make our conscience wrinkle?
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What is the TITHE?
Words really do mean something. The way we use them and the way we understand them when they are being used has great impact all around us. When someone tries to soften a disagreement by saying, “Oh, we are just using different words for the same thing,” it is a terrible excuse for a real conversation, and it leads to the diminishment of our ability to communicate about anything. If we use different words we most likely do mean different things, and if we use the same word we should learn to mean the same thing. This is called language. I propose that it is worth it, then, to know exactly what we mean when we use a word and decide if that meaning is legitimate for everyone we plan to communicate with. I also propose that it is the fundamental job of any teacher to make sure their students understand how to use a word properly, and to avoid any suggestion that word usages are subjective unless, of course, when they speak they don’t mean anything at all.
The word tithe is an important word. I want to define it so that we can use it. I want to take the time to define it clearly because so many people have been using it incorrectly and it has led to some terrible conclusions. Simultaneously, I will define the word tax. These are two different words which mean different things. Why don’t we start with tax.
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Introduction to Financing the Ministry
My last post on finances and God’s provision was a simple encouragement to be on the lookout for any and all ways that the Father might want to provide for you. Overcoming prejudice in the area of provision, that is, breaking judgments against any form of provision, seems an important first step for all of us. Now, I would like to dive right into finance for the work of the ministry...
Many mistakes are made, by well intending people, around the issues of money and ministry because of the traditions of men leaking into our understanding. We will try to touch some of the most common deviations from Scriptural thought in this series of posts, but first, let's just underline out commitment to try and find our answers in Scripture. Where the Old Testament lays foundation ideas, the New Testament may unveil the higher purpose for each one. I do not ascribe to the idea, even in the midst of all the paradigm changing, modern Church-rethink, that we are released from the Scriptural directives for understanding the basic principle on which we are to build. Notice this passage from Hebrews 8:5-9
5 They [Hebrew priests] serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.
7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.
This phrase: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain," really sticks out to me. We must due our work to discover the patterns. I think these patterns can be seen in the arena of finances and stewardship. Of course, we should look to the Holy Spirit to teach us in these things, and we should reflect on the previous Covenant for the basic pattern that he will certainly have something to teach us from. In other words, we shouldn't expect the “Old” instruction to be forgotten or discarded; as Jesus said, “I have not come to abolish them [Law and Prophets], but to fulfill them.” Sometimes we refer to these earliest foundational ideas as a “copy” or “shadow”--just like in the Hebrews passage--because it helps us understand that what we are really looking for is the kingdom.
When we pray "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is heaven," we are praying, "Father, show us how you have already established giving, receiving, sowing, reaping, tithing and honor in the kingdom eternal so that we can apply that truth right here on the earth around us." Let's work together to uncover and illuminate the patterns he has established in the kingdom so we can enjoy the adventure of receiving our provision and walking with the authority of sons in our finances!
Here is a list of questions I would like to cover with you over the next season of posts here at www.benpasley.com:
- What is “Ministry”?
- What is the “Church”?
- What is God building?
- What is my “Calling”?
- How is my calling related to what God is building?
- What is the “Tithe”?
- Who is the “Tithe” for?
- How is the Church built on Christ?
- How is the Church built also on the Apostles and Prophets?
- What does the leadership of the family of God look like?
- How do we “Honor” our leaders?
- How do we finance the work of the ministry at home?
- How do we finance the work of the ministry to new places?
- What is the “Storehouse”?
- What ministry roles did the “Levites” fulfill?
- Who are modern-day Levites?
- What is the Apostolic ministry?
- What is the “Five-Fold” ministry and how do they connect? How do we know them?
Get your notepads and Bibles out and get ready for some new engagement on this absolutely foundational topic.
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Podcast: Finances, A Hundred Ways to Do It Right
This podcast is a first in a series discussing some basics in understanding and receiving God's provision for us. This is especially pointed toward those who are working in ministry. Find the writings, posts, and essays of Ben Pasley at www.benpasley.com.
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Finances: A Hundred Ways to Do It Right
(Reposted on Sep 21, 2011 to make sure new subscribers received it!)
Dear friends, I have had on my heart for quite a while to write to you my thoughts on the economy of the kingdom of God. I have quite a number of thoughts, actually, and like a homeless beaver staring at a new forest I new I had to get started but I didn’t know where to begin. To resolve that freezing tension I have decided to throw my usual obsession with being linear out the window. Instead, I will walk around the room of my mind, sitting in different chairs, and looking out of different windows and simply tell you what I see, and, oh yeah, the room is called finances for the work of the kingdom.
This morning I am thinking of how there are no rules for how God will make provision for his people, and to spend much time building exacting formulas seems wasteful. In seasons and times and places there have been provisions of manna from the sky, coins from the fish mouth, miracles for widows from small jars, miracles in wine in large jars, and offerings placed at the apostles feet. Men have farmed, served, made, sold and traded for a living for as far as history has reached, and God has seen fit to bring provision through that labor as well. There a principles and lessons inside of each one, I am sure, but the greatest lesson for me might be that God can provide through anything and so we must choose not become to prejudiced, too opinionated, too entrenched in looking up at only one rain cloud of provision or we may find ourselves swimming in resources but unable to receive it because our judgements have blinded us to the rising tide of God’s favor which simply came from an unexpected direction. Lesson summary: expect God’s favor from every direction and learn how to say thank you in several languages.
With this in mind I challenge you a few things. First, write down on a single page the sources of financial and life provision--which might include housing, food, transportation, etc.--that has come to you in the last year and note the source of that provision. Decide how to offer some thanks to God for each one since he saw fit to take care of you during this season using these things. He, after all, gets all the credit for the flow of resources, not your skill, not luck, not the markets, not the government, and not your employer. See how in the passage from 2 Corinthians 9 that God gets the credit for the actual supply: “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” For us to learn that God’s intention is to make us rich (“you will be made rich in every way”) sure takes the burden off of us to try and create our resources and hold on to them, instead we can take joy in the work of our hands as the writer of Ecclesiastes underlines in chapter 2. After overviewing how all the results of hard work were only temporarily held in the hands of the worker he concludes, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God.” Give elaborate and specific thanks to God whose desire is not only provide for you and give you joy in your labor, but whose desire is to make your rich so that you can be generous in every occasion.
Second, I would challenge you take special note of where you have not received any provision in this last season. If you are in ministry work, did you receive no hourly wage for anything? If you are in business, did you receive no offerings or gifts for your family? If you are a business for missions person have you received the tithes and offerings on your principle? Did you only receive weekly compensation, but no residual income from investments? Do you never invest in fear of lacking in the present? If you are retired, did you receive only your pension, and not anything from present labor? These questions are not designed to create any sense of judgement around you, but only to inspire an exercise: repent for judging any avenue of God’s provision by saying aloud, “Father, forgive me if I have held any prejudice in my heart against this avenue of your provision. If you have a blessing in store for me from this area then I choose to have open hands to receive it and I will remember to thank you when I receive it since it has not been my nature to see it coming from that direction.” Simple, wasn’t it? I am not implying that you need to change jobs, change your weekly schedule, or modify anything. I simply asked you to repent from prejudice so that IF the Lord were to ask you to apply yourself, or receive a certain kind of blessing, you would not be blind and unable to enjoy it.
I am fond of saying, “There are always a hundred ways to do something the right way.” I find this attitude inspires my sons instead of chaining them to the ground with my expectations. I hope this encouragement has unchained you a bit from the expectations in your own heart of how God will supply your needs. Together we can hope that his obsession with supplying us will eventually overwhelm every foolish prejudice and principle we cling to while the flood of provision continues to rise all around.