Why People Don’t Give
Saturday I spoke on tithing, giving and generosity. It is topic that some people don’t like to hear about and even more pastors don’t like to preach on it.
For me, giving is a spiritual gift as much as leadership is and we need to develop that in our churches and people the same way we develop the gift of leadership and evangelism. It is also a spiritual practice like reading your Bible and praying, which we encourage wholeheartedly in our churches.
One thing I have learned about preaching on money is the only people who get upset are Christians who don’t give back to God. Mark it down pastors, if you preach on money, the stingy Christians will be the only people mad. Unchurched people want to know what God says about money, they want education on it. Christians who give don’t get mad. The people who get mad are the Christians who feel convicted about the fact that money is their god and not Jesus.
I used to have reasons excuses about why I didn’t give. And used every one in the book.
About a year ago, I saw a list of reason people give for not tithing on Tim Stevens blog and thought they were right on. Here are the reasons and some of my thoughts:
- “I’m on a fixed income” or “I’m in college” and can’t tithe right now. Often this is followed with “when I make more I’ll tithe.” No you won’t. If you don’t now, more money won’t make you. You will just spend that extra money on something else. Tithing isn’t a money issue, it is a faith, trust issue. If you don’t trust God when you make $20,000 a year, what makes you think you will trust Him when you make $200,000 a year?
- “I live on a limited income.” Kind of like the first. Again, giving is proportional. The problem for many of us is we don’t know how to live within our means and be content.
- “All this church talks about is money.” Do you know who says this? Christians who don’t give. Why? Because it is Christians who are called to give. Non-Christians aren’t called to give. You will never hear a person who tithes say this. People who say this are the ones who do not have God on the throne of their lives, they have money there and they don’t like to be reminded of that. They have an idol issue.
- “If I won the lottery, I would tithe the winnings.” This sounds spiritual and is also the biggest lie. You don’t tithe now, but if you won $10 million dollars you would find it in your heart to give back to God $1 million dollars. Right.
- “We’ve made bad financial decisions and are in debt. When we get out of debt we’ll start tithing.” I understand this, this is where we are. But the Bible is clear that God blesses us when we give back to Him. Do you want God to bless you while you are getting out of debt? Um, yes. So give back to God, downsize, get on a budget, take a class, sell some stuff. Get out of debt, but this is not a reason not to give.
- “I don’t tithe because I don’t trust the leaders here.” Okay, then find a new church. Seriously. Find a church that you trust the leaders, trust where the money is going, go there and give to that church. If you don’t trust the leaders, like the vision of a church, why are you there?
I’m praying for the families in Revolution as many are already honoring God with their finances and even more have stepped up to honor Him during the 90 day tithing challenge.
