80/10/10

At the beginning of one of our building projects at King’s (and there have been several in the life of this church since I came!) I wrote to the leaders of our church – that would include those who lead ministries or small groups - to tell them that we were in earnest discussion with banks and I said, ‘I need to know if you are really with us!’ Their response was to commit themselves to giving over £720,000 over the first three and a half years of the project. There were 150 of them, representing 88 ‘giving units’ as some of them were married. That’s 88 families committing themselves to giving.


Since I began to lead King’s I have taught the following principle: give 10%/save 10%/ live off 80%. This makes for sound budgeting and is honouring to God. The thing is – most people live of 105% of their income – that’s the culture we are in and the results of that approach have caught up with our world in a big way, in case you haven’t noticed! Spend, borrow and manage debt is the way the world does things – but living by the 80/10/10 principle will restrict some of the things you would like to do because you are making a priority call – putting God first and putting something aside for a rainy day.

There will be those who are in debt and who would like to honour God but have lived life at 105%. Being in debt is not fun – we know that. It can be crippling and can destroy lives. At King’s, in order to offer help and support in this area, like some other churches we have set up a debt advice team – people who will sit down with those in debt and help them to see the way ahead.

For others it is simply a matter of making priority calls and deciding what to do with the money we have. To give at King’s, people can put cash in the buckets as they are passed round during worship - but those who have been around the church for any length of time will know that as those buckets go along the rows, especially the front row, it begins to look as though no-one is giving anything. No-one seems to put anything in the bucket! The reason for this is simple – we actively encourage people to give by monthly standing order directly from their account into the church bank account. There is a great deal of money given in this way – the easiest way to give. So, for Deb and I, we have worked out what to give and when there is a salary increase I immediately work out the extra needed so that by the next bank transfer it has been updated. That’s how we do it!

Willing giving!

King’s continues to seek to raise millions of pounds beyond our usual tithes. As we look at the Old Testament we see that beyond their tithes there were opportunities for them to give offerings – voluntary and freewill offerings. I want to draw your attention to three such occasions.


In Exodus 36, when the Tabernacle was being built, it records that the Israelites brought freewill offerings ‘morning after morning’. The result was that the skilled workmen who were creating the Tabernacle left their work to come to Moses and ask him to tell the people to stop giving as there was more than enough! And it says that Moses did so and ‘the people were restrained from bringing more’ (Ex 36:3-6). This is a leadership challenge I have yet to face – but would love to have to deal with! In the past I have restrained one generous lady from giving £25,000 to one of the King’s projects – knowing her circumstances I thought this was a right thing to do. She gave £5,000 instead.

The next example is in King David’s time. He raised money to honour God but it was his son, Solomon, who actually did the building. David raised the money before it was actually needed. In 1 Chronicles 29 it says,

‘Then the leaders of families and the officers of the tribe of Israel, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds and the officials in charge of the king’s work gave willingly. They gave towards the work of the temple of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron.’

It’s a great passage! Afterwards David stands and gives a great prayer of thanksgiving – if you read it you will notice that it has great similarities to what we call the Lord’s Prayer and is the Old Testament foundation for it – in effect, the Lord’s Prayer is founded on generous, willing giving!

The early church and giving

Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about giving and instructed them like this,


‘On the first day of the week each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income’

This indicates that giving should be regular, systematic and proportional. Later on, in the second and third century, Iranaeus, an early church father said, ‘The Jews were constrained to regular payments of tithes. Christians, who have liberty, assign all their possessions to the Lord, bestowing freely not the lesser portions of their property since they have the hope of greater things.’ In other words – it’s all His!

Augustine even put it this way – ‘let him render tithes and out of nine parts let him seek to give alms.’ In other words, there’s the principle of the tithe as the starting point of giving and then you ‘give alms’ on top of that – that’s showing mercy by giving to those in need.

So how are we doing with this? You might say to me, ‘Steve – you are always talking about grace. Doesn’t grace mean that God loves us – even if we don’t do anything that comes close to this?’ And you would be right! The message of grace is that God’s acceptance of us in Christ is not dependant on our performance. We cannot earn our salvation – we couldn’t earn it before we came to Christ and we can’t earn it afterwards, either. But – it would be a misrepresentation of the message of grace if we took it to mean, ‘I don’t need to pray, I don’t need to read my Bible, it doesn’t matter how I live my life... and it doesn’t matter what I do with my money!’

Randy Alcorn wrote this, ‘I will listen to the Christian who says ‘Tithing isn’t meant for us today’ – provided that he gives regularly and that his giving exceeds the tithe.’ Now there’s a statement to make us smile – and think! That’s the message of grace. Under the grace of the law it was a tithe – surely under the grace of Christ it can’t be a lesser amount... can it?’

New Testament giving

To those who would think that tithing is ‘only’ an Old Testament view and would want to move on to talk about Jesus and his attitude to giving, well – that Old Testament practice of tithing was the foundation of the grace of the law. When we come to look at Jesus we have to remember that he was a Jew. He would have tithed as a matter of course. In his conversations with the Pharisees on this topic, not once did they challenge him on it. In fact, he challenged them and commends tithing. Matt 23:23 says this,

‘Woe to you teachers of the Law and Pharisees. You hypocrites! You give a tithe of your spices, mint, dill, cumin, but you have neglected the more important matters of justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.’

This comment is repeated in Luke 11:42. Jesus is interested in the heart and so challenges them but does not say that tithing doesn’t matter.

From the New Testament church we can learn further lessons. These people were very, very generous. Even a surface reading of the Book of Acts shows that this was a giving community, selling possessions so that no-one was in need and bringing the proceeds to the apostles and laying it at their feet - conveying that they were giving it freely for them to distribute.

The More Monster

The More Monster is in us all and in the end it’s an issue of the heart. Perhaps there are other demands on our money - ‘I can’t afford to tithe because of the cost of education’. Or, ‘We have two cars to run’, or ‘I go on a number of holidays each year’, or ‘I have a number of houses to maintain’. These things are not wrong – I have a mortgage on our house; I own a car too. Deb and I have made some choices concerning our priorities – we don’t have a second car and our boys go to the local secondary school but we go on some nice holidays. We could forgo the holidays and put the money into private education but we have made choices – God gives us choice - but the principle of firstfruits is one I believe in.


My firm belief is that a tithe is 10% before tax... I have known people who have tried to engage me on this topic as though we are in some sort of negotiation. My response to that is that you make your decision before God. It might help you to know my history in this. In my twenties I was established in a very well-paid job and drove an expensive car. Then I became a youth pastor and saw my salary reduced to a fifth of what I was earning before! Through all of that I knew that where and how you put your money says a great deal about your heart and your priorities.

Scripture clearly sees giving as part of worship – which is why at King’s we take up the offering during worship. We are saying to God, ‘I trust You!’ Our giving springs from an understanding that before everything, all that we have belongs to Him anyway! So when some people give and say, ‘You don’t know how hard I have worked to get this. It’s mine and I’m giving this bit to God...’ actually, biblically it is all His. Whether it is a great deal or a little, it belongs to Him. Leviticus 27:30 indicates that we should live off 90% of what we receive.

Firstfruits or lastfruits...

Then there is the biblical principle of ‘first fruits’. Proverbs 3:9 says ‘Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops’ - the principles of tithing and firstfruits overlap. The best book I have ever read on Christian giving is Money, Possessions & Eternity by Randy Alcorn, if you are interested in following up this topic – it’s a good book to read.

‘The firstfruits and tithes certainly overlapped, and it seems that generally they were the same thing. The term ‘tithe’ stressed the exact amount while ‘firstfruits’ emphasized the nature and quality of the offering.’

That is why in Old Testament sacrifice, it wasn’t a blemished lamb that was offered – it was the best! It displayed that, as a follower of God, God deserved the best. He is first in our lives. So the tithe was 10%, while the firstfruit was about motive and what was in one’s heart.

Sadly, many Christians practice the principle of ‘lastfruits’, giving what is left after everything else has been covered. If we are honest, this is true – in a congregation the size of King’s, we know it.

It’s an issue of priorities – ‘I have my list of priorities, once I have budgeted for them whatever is left I give to God...’ That is not what Scripture teaches we should do! But people probably know this already as they read the Bible – there is a big tug going on in hearts because many want to follow God... but there is also a big tug from the More Monster!

The tussle of tithing...

An overview of what the Bible says about money is powerful stuff. Some of the verses we read are quite scary so we need to remember that we are looking at what God says in His word about this subject!

When some people in our churches talk about tithing, it’s not giving 10% before tax that they mean – it’s just their way of talking about their giving, like a catch-phrase. When we read Malachi 3:8, we face a different point of view.

‘Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. Yet you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings – you are under a curse, the whole nation of you because you are robbing me. 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 floodgate of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.’

This passage is quite clear – it says if you aren’t tithing then you are robbing God. It also says that if you do tithe then God will open the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessing so that there will be no room – that would be our testimony at King’s. Over the last fifteen plus years at King's we have taught proportional giving, that is giving from what you have, not what you haven't! We have also recognised that as we move from the Old to the New Testaments there is even more in the grace of God to us to be grateful for! Our giving arises from that recognition and a response of grateful love to the God who has done so much for us.

Some people say, ‘If I give my money then God will give me more money back.’ This attitude comes out of a view called ‘prosperity theology’ – we do not teach that at King’s; we think it is in error. God is not a slot machine where I put my money in and get more back - that sort of thinking is more about greed than sacrificial giving. The truth is that God might bless you financially... but He might not.