Tithing.com

News & Events About Tithing

News is always changing and updating when it comes to tithing or stewardship topics within the church. Tithing can be controversial in many circles so we are helping you stay on top of the most recent headings and current events surrounding topics such as tithing, giving, stewardship, and church finances.

Church Gives Automated Call to Remind You to Tithe

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As I was going through my routine of reading blogs on tithing, I came across the New BBC Open Forum. Here the writer shares a story of receiving an automated phone call to remind him to tithe this upcoming Sunday.

“Today was “Prove the Tithe” Sunday at Bellevue. Yesterday every Bellevue family received an automated, pre-recorded phone call from Brother Steve saying (paraphrased but close), “Tomorrow is ‘Prove the Tithe’ Sunday at Bellevue Baptist Church. God says, ‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.’ Whether you already tithe or not, we’re asking you to take one-tenth of what you make in one week and give that to our church in the form of a tithe. Blah blah blah.””

Here is the link to ‘prove the tithe day‘ on Bellevue’s website. I’m curious . . . just curious, if any members have received automated phone calls about praying for a missionary, or serving at the homeless shelter? Why do churches (small ‘c’) have such a push for money? The answer is simply found in Matthew 6:21. It’s a pretty sickening cycle to get yourselves in a position to spend more money to get money isn’t it?

I’m all for accountability, but this isn’t the right kind of accountability. Regardless of your belief on the requirement of tithing, if you don’t give frequent reminders about other things as well, there is no reason to remind someone about giving you money.

Our priorities are all messed up. The order is Jesus – Others – You. I applaud (sarcasm) Bellevue for setting the example here. I’m not saying it’s wrong to challenge others to give or be sacrificial with their resources when you are directly involved in benefiting from it. We can see that Paul challenged the Church numerous times on providing for himself and others. What i think could be wrong in this situation is overflow of accountability that churches provide when it comes to giving, but all other accountability is so barren. Do me a favor. Look directly in the seat in front of you next Sunday, and pull out the information in the back pocket. Ask yourself, besides giving, ‘What else are they trying to remind you of’?

Maybe a GOLD offering plate disrupting a service is not a big enough reminder.

The Annual $34 Billion Church Scandal

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Found this astounding article that opens up the research on how religious organizations provide a safe haven for 34 billion in fraud and theft ANNUALLY! Here are a few excerpts. It will blow your mind!!

The January 2011 issue of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research reported that “Christian religious leaders will commit an estimated $34 billion in financial fraud in 2011 while $31 billion will be spent on global missions.” Researchers from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimate that Christian religious leaders will commit $90 million in financial crimes daily and the fraud is growing at a rate of 5.97% each year. If the researchers are correct, religious financial fraud among Christians will almost double in 14 years to $60 billion annually by 2025. 1

Dr. David Barrett, the first editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia and a researcher for the Center, has been studying religious financial fraud for more than 20 years. According to Dr. Todd Johnson, the Center’s director, these statistics were the result of Barrett “developing a balance sheet for global Christianity.” Barrett was “trying to understand the totality of Christian finance.” 2

Read the rest here . . .

Is this for real?

Here’s another excerpt

Here is a small sample of religious financial scandals from around the world:

  • Brazil: Bishop Edir Macedo, head of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, and 9 of his associates have been charged with embezzling more than $2 billion. 4
  • Canada: Televangelists Ron and Reynold Mainse allegedly recruited investors in a Ponzi scheme. 5
  • China: A whistleblower goes to jail for speaking out after donations for earthquake victims were stolen. 6
  • Italy: Police confiscated 23 million euros in a Vatican bank account as part of an investigation into money laundering. 7
  • Ukraine: Pastor Sunday Adelaja was charged with fraud in promoting a business venture to his congregation that lost $100 million. 8
  • United Kingdom: Church treasurer Derek Klein embezzled funds to pay for a stamp collection. 9
  • United States: Trent Huddleston, former senior accountant at Oral Roberts University, alleges that more than $1 billion was money laundered annually by members of the Oral Roberts University board. 10

The whole article is so eye-popping! There is much more. You must read! After reading, I almost want nothing to do with church. I don’t even want to be called the  ‘church’. I don’t want to be called a ‘Christian’. This is so embarrassing! How much more anti-Christ can you be? Maybe the 501c-3, non-profit, religious machine is the depiction of the anti-christ?

All along Tim LaHaye has us looking for some attractive European man with hidden horns and fangs, when we’ve created an institution that looks like Jesus, talks like Jesus, and seems like Jesus, but resembles the anti Jesus. How much more anti Christ can you be than a ravenous wolf dressed as a sheep? What does a real follower of Jesus do? This certainly puts me in a quandary.

Churches Find End is Nigh

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Not long after we hear the news of the Crystal Cathedral filing for bankruptcy, the WSJ posts an interesting story on the growing number of church organizations filing for bankruptcy and foreclosing on the property. There article can be found here.

Since 2008, nearly 200 religious facilities have been foreclosed on by banks, up from eight during the previous two years and virtually none in the decade before that, according to real-estate services firm CoStar Group, Inc.

Truthfully, I was shocked to hear it was only 200, but then again I was shocked to also hear that just a decade ago nearly no facilities had been foreclosed and it grew to 200. I wonder what percentage of these organizations that had closed down preach some form of the health/wealth gospel? I guess the health wealth gospel came to mind when i heard the pastor that  was interviewed, say they were successful in everything except they couldn’t pay their mortgage. If they aren’t part of the prosperity gospel, I wonder how many of them fall into the charismatic/pentecostal category?  Ooops! Am I stereotyping?

Pastors Rich and Lindy Oliver decided their Family Christian Center needed more space after their congregation rose from a few hundred in the early 1990s to 650 by 2002. The church borrowed $4.2 million and began building a new 1,000-person sanctuary on 11 acres in Orangevale, Calif., including classrooms and a space for adult learning.

But when housing prices across California began tumbling in 2006, followed by a surge in unemployment and foreclosures, many congregants moved away, and those who were left reduced their tithing sharply. Meanwhile, the property, valued at $8.5 million in 2002 was appraised at just $2.5 million in 2008.

I really do feel for those involved in these situations since it is a huge burden to bear, but i believe that the Church as a whole in America needs this. As I said before, I’m shocked that it’s not worse than 200. It’s probably not worse than it is because there are still too many sheeple out there keeping many of the prosperity pimps in business with large, frequent donations.

Too many are still memorized by the charisma of the prosperity pimp and our greed to turn our seed into a money tree.

2010 Review: Top Blog Posts

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here’s a list of the most controversial, and informative posts from 2010 as well as a preview of new articles for 2011.

  1. Picking up the Pieces of the Veil
  2. The 12 Step Program: Tithers Anonymous
  3. Misconceptions About Jacob’s Tithing Vow
  4. Jacob’s Tithing Vow
  5. Is Church Marketing Right or Wrong?
  6. Incompatible Systems: Tithing v. Holy Spirit
  7. The Crack Tithing Addiction
  8. 5 Roadblocks to the Tithing Truth

Upcoming Stories for 2011

  1. Is Tithing to the Government Required?
  2. How to Tithe Correctly
  3. Top 10 Signs of a Prosperity Website Scam
  4. When Husband and Wife Disagree on Tithing
  5. History of Tithing

Pastor Suing Member for Lottery Winnings

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This post was originally written about an incident in 2010 that is now unverifiable. It is now updated and reflects a very similar incident in 2016. Here is a bit of the story below from ChristianPost.

A local North Carolina pastor is allegedly suing controversial Powerball lottery winner, 27-year-old mother of four Marie Holmes, for $10 million for reneging on a verbal promise to give him $1.5 million of her winnings.

According to Eurweb, local Pastor Kevin Matthews whose church affiliation is still unclear, told the publication that he is experiencing emotional and mental distress after Holmes changed her mind about gifting him $1.5 million to help him build a retreat center.

“Because of the emotional distress and mental stress they put me through, I had to start taking more medicine for anxiety and depression due to this situation,” Matthews allegedly told the publication.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/188-million-powerball-winner-marie-holmes-allegedly-being-sued-local-pastor-10-million-157716/

Crystal Cathedral Files for Bankruptcy

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This story came to my attention from the Yahoo Tithing Study Group. You can read the story here on nbc.

Crystal Cathedral Ministries, an Orange County landmark and megachurch founded by television evangelist Robert H. Schuller, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday morning. . .

. . . The Cathedral, which has been a landmark and a tourist attraction with its glistening glass tower, is now faced with $55 million in debt because of the economy and dwindling contributions.

Nope. We don’t want to admit that it was stupid financial decisions, so we have created a straw man to beat up instead. It’s the economy’s fault, and it’s your fault because you are not giving what you used to.

. . . Church board member and Schuller’s son-in-law, Jim Penner, said Friday that the cathedral’s intention is to repay all vendors 100 percent.

At least they have good intentions. But then again you know how the saying goes – the path to heaven was paved with good intentions and crystal cathedrals.

Among the long-time vendors for the “Glory of Christmas” pageant still waiting to get paid are Oliver, who supplied camels, horses and sheep for the pageant; wardrobe manager Juliet Noriega; dry cleaner Bruce Johnson, who cleaned the actors’ costumes; props manager Sharon Crabtree, and Carin Galletta, whose public relations firm provided publicity for the pageant.

I’m sorry, but, um, next time let’s use props instead of real, live animals.