What about "the poor tithe?"

A friend of mine just posted her recent experience on Facebook about how money is tight and how she felt like she was rationalizing and that maybe it was ok to not tithe just this one week to pay for necessities.

It is criminal that the church has convinced so much of the body of Christ that they must follow the Jewish practice of collecting the Levitical tithe and handing it to the local church. The problem I see is that all of the arguments for maintaining the Levitical (priesthood) tithe are equally valid for maintaining the second tithe AND the poor tithe. The church has carefully left those out.

Nowhere in scripture is the church given authority to collect a tithe. Nowhere in scripture is a pastor/shepherd given authority to collect a tithe.

This friend of mine could have benefitted from the proceeds of the poor tithe. What gives church?

Sob stories and arm-twisting

What kind of pressure does the church put on you to give? Should there be any pressure? I normally avoid paraphrases but in this case I thought it was almost humorous the words Eugene Peterson chose.

2 Corinthians 9:6 The Message
"I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm- twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving."

Seems like our churches have become more and more like the gentile courts, where Jesus needed to knock over tables. What do you think?

Give to the local church first?

We recommend that you give to your local church first, then give to ______.

I hear this all of the time, I got to wondering where this idea came from. Is there a Bible story that teaches this or did someone come up with it and it sounded so "right" that we just grabbed ahold of it? I ran a Google search (I know, I know) to see if anybody else had written anything on this topic and it did not seem there was much out there. One article I did find lays out some very interesting arguments about this very topic. I loved this statement Robin A. Brace makes at the end:

"Ministers should not continue to behave as though we were still in the middle of 19^th century denominationalism which insisted on loyalty to the local church alone, rather, pastors should warmly encourage their members to be very aware of world-wide issues facing Christians and the Christian Gospel and should rejoice when their people feel impelled by conscience to support more global Christian endeavors"

 What do you think?

Is your bank statement an accurate measurement of where your heart is?

I do not disagree that giving is good. I don't disagree that where your treasure is there your heart will be also.

The idea of any church that claims to be "Christian" making a statement that 10% or any amount for that matter is the right amount or the base amount is wrong. It adds to the gospel, it is the same argument that Peter and Paul had over adding the Jewish law to the life of grace. Peter compelled Titus to be circumcised if you recall. Peter ate like a Jew only when he was around Jews. Paul rebuked him to his face. He made the argument public.

While I agree that sure a bank statement might be a reflection of where someone's heart is I believe that if you have to look at your bank statement to see if you are right with God you are probably not right with God.

Seems that the concept of a tithe is a convenient way for the rich to feel ok with keeping the 90% that amounts to more than they ever needed.