Some Questions for yall:
What do you think about spiritual warfare?
What do you think about tithing?
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Practicum Report Number 4
This week at sunday school class i lead the class. During the sermon i wrote up some questions and just led a discussion on a few different things. We talked a lot about the enemy and his impact on our lives, so that was a good conversation and a time of being vulnerable and sharing things that are going on in life. We also talked about tithing, the importance of it and the different ways to do it... maybe. A few of us in the group struggled with tithing at our home churches because the tithe money went to making a new church and not actually serving the community; we saw a lot of hypocrisy in that. We also had a good turn out for the group; usually we only have like 5 people, but this time we had like 10 people - that was encouraging.I will update this with the questions that i asked and the notes that i took; right now it is back in my room in my notebook.
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I bet that was a great discussion... first of all, i think that these are topics that are way too covered up in churches. There the touchy subjects so they hardly ever come out of the woodwork, but they are definitely things that we should think about. I think that spiritual warfare is crazy right now. By crazy i mean, everywhere, and happening a lot. i mean, the way i look at it, its kinda the reason that we struggle with so many things. What else can describe the sin that is occurring in the world today. But then again, maybe I don't even know what spiritual warfare is. The one thing i do know, is that God has already won the battle. So what I think we need to do is gather our strength in Him. And hold on tight.... I think that with every decision we make, we are choosing to either follow God, or not follow God... but why has it proven so hard to stay on one side of that scale... definitely something to think about.
ReplyDeleteAs for tithing, well this is a really rough subject for me. I know that what I earn is to be used for God, but i still struggle to find a balance. How much do i give? How much is enough? what if i can't tithe? Honestly it frustrates me, because I want to be able to give money to support the work of God, but at the same time, I simply don't have any money. For instance... I am going on the Texas mission for spring break. That means that my FIRST couple paychecks are going to have to all go to that. Is that a tithe? Is me paying for myself to go somewhere in service a tithe? I mean, i hope so, but i really don't know. Then again, a couple months ago i heard some really scary statistics about church tithing, and i can see through that why so many churches are struggling. I don't know if i could answer any of your questions without more questions - do we give to the point of depravity? Do we give to the point where we are struggling terribly? Who do we give to? Do we give even when we don't know if the money will be used to serve God? I don't know, but I do hate money. I wish we could all just live, and use our bodies to serve one another without money, so that life would thrive off eachothers service, not paper and coins. but then, who would do the dirty jobs? probably no one.
Tithing is very important and I think we have lost focus on this discipline today. So many people give less than 5 percent of there income away to advance the kingdom of God. The funny thing is that 85% of our congregation are considered covenant members in the Wesleyan church. That means that 85% of our congregation made an agreement to tithe 10% of there income to the church and we still only average around $1,000 of giving each year per person. Another thing people do with tithing is split it. They give only part to their church and consider the rest of their tithe as giving to humanitarian organizations. Our view of tithing is so skewed and in my opinion, I think that is one of the main reasons the church is suffering today.
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