Spread the Good News about Tithing

Recently a woman came up to me after the small communion service that I offer every Saturday evening at the senior housing that our church owns. She seemed troubled so I assumed she wanted to talk about a health or family issue.

She told me that she was very troubled. She had been coming to worship with us every week since she moved into the building. She could no longer drive so she couldn’t get to her former church.

She said God was "laying it heavily on her heart" because she was no longer tithing to any church. She clearly would not rest easy until she had given to God the first fruits of what she had. She had two questions for me. “Would it be all right for me to tithe to our church?” and “Do you have automatic giving?”

Of course I told her that I would have to think long and hard about whether it would be okay for her to tithe to our church. No, seriously, like any pastor in any tiny struggling church (or for that matter in any large church) I said that it would be fine.

She seemed so relieved when she finally turned in her “Simply Giving” form that signed her up to have money withdrawn from her checking account and put into the church’s. She told me again how God had been nagging her to get back to giving to God’s work in the world.

The next Sunday I told her story to the congregation. I thought if someone who wasn’t even a member yet could give with such urgency that maybe her feelings would be contagious.

We haven’t had a run on Simply Giving forms. I have to wonder why. That is, I have to wonder why God would lay it on the heart of this faithful Christian to tithe, and yet not lean just as heavily on the faithful people who have been in this church for many years. Oh sure there are tithers, but they are not the norm.

The answer that I came up with is that the Holy Spirit works through the word and needs us to proclaim the blessings of tithing if the Spirit is going to have something to work through. Those of us who know the blessings of tithing must share the ways in which we are blessed before others will have that calling laid upon their heart.

Lord we thank you that we have been giving the opportunity to be a part of the work of your kingdom with our lives and with our tithes. Embolden us to share that blessing with others. Amen

 Copyright (c) 2008, The Rev. Dana Reardon. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Email her at mspastor@aol.com.
 

The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI.  A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care.  She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander.  She is still trying to understand the accent.  While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team.  That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.