Make it Transformational: A Blog for Champion Discipleship

In his new book, “The Hole in the Gospel” Richard Stearns asks the billion dollar question, “What if Americans did ‘bring the whole tithe into the storehouse'?  How might the manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth be different?”

Stearns continues, “According to the book of Leviticus, the first 10 percent of our income is to be offered to God: “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.”  The tithe was not considered a gift to God – it belonged to God.  There were other provisions that spoke to freewill giving, but any such offerings were to be over and above the 10 percent required for the tithe.  That first 10 percent was seen as a bare minimum one would set aside for the Lord.”

I will venture to say that most of the evangelical Christians in the U.S. today know what the Bible says about tithing.  They would also agree that our money belongs to God and that we are simply stewards of what He has blessed us with while we are on earth.  Why then, do only 24% of evangelical Christians tithe in today’s economy?

The money given to churches and para-church organizations in the U.S. alone is having a tremendous impact in our communities and around the world.  We know we are saving lives and saving souls.  But where are the other 76%?  What would happen if we all gave our tithe – that is 10% of our incomes instead of the 2.5% we actually give?  We would have an extra $168 billion to spend in funding the work of the Church worldwide!

Stearns also states, “If every American churchgoer tithed, we could literally change the world.  $65 billion could eliminate the most extreme poverty on the planet for more than a billion people.  Universal primary education for children would cost just $6 billion; the cost to bring clean water to most of the world’s poor, an estimated $9 billion; and basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world, $13 billion.

Can you begin to catch a vision of not only what this would mean to the world’s poor but what it would do for the image of the world’s Christian’s?  Imagine how stunning it would be to the watching world for American Christians to give so generously that it:
•    Brought an end to world hunger
•    Solved the clean water crisis
•    Provided universal access to drugs and medical care for the millions suffering from AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis
•    Virtually eliminated the more that 26,000 daily child deaths
•    Guaranteed education for all the world’s children
•    Provided a safety net for the world’s tens of millions of orphans

Think about the statement it would make if American Christian citizens stepped up and gave more than all of the governments of the world combined because they took Jesus seriously when He said to love our neighbors as ourselves.  The world would see the whole gospel – the good news of the kingdom of God – not just spoken but demonstrated, by people whose faith is not devoid of deeds but defined by love and backed up with action.  His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.  This was the whole gospel that Jesus proclaimed in Luke 4, and if we would embrace it, it would literally change everything.”

*The statistics above are all referenced in Richard Stearn's book, "The Hole in the Gospel."