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This is not the offering plate that your grandparents used!

Stewardship – to serve as one who manages another's property, finances, or other affairs – is not just means for the church to raise money. It is a way of life that recognizes that everything we have is God’s, and we are simply managing those resources while here on earth.

The Bible is filled with examples of grateful response to God's generous gifts. The Bible also teaches about responsibility to share with others and warns against selfishness and misuse of God's economic resources.

John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist denomination) urged those in connection with him to "Earn all you can and save all you can, so that you can give all you can." He modeled modest living and sacrificial giving. Wesley made sure those early classes of "methodists" took weekly offerings for outreach.

Today, we United Methodists join others to help all of God's children…whenever and wherever we can. Just as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes when the crowd grew hungry, today, through our congregation, we are the heart, spirit and hands of God's outreaching love.

How can you learn and practice good Christian stewardship?

Pray about your giving to God's ministries.
Model the humility and generosity God calls you to exhibit.
Join a Financial Peace University LifeGroup.
Set up a schedule to eventually reach full tithing, or tithe one week of every month.
Give your time, talents and or financial aid to Missions
Consider donating 10% of your will to the church.
Consider donating stocks or bonds to the church (avoiding capital gains taxes while also getting the full tax deduction)
Join the Stewardship Team

Tithing reflects a grateful heart that wants to give back to God a portion of what He has given us; in reality, what is already His. Tithing is our opportunity to show God that He is first in our lives. James 1:17 says that “every good and perfect gift is from above...,” so we have an opportunity to tangibly show God He is the “owner” of our finances by giving back to Him the first of what He gives us. Tithing also guides us towards and helps create within us the type of character that can find joy in the happiness of others, freedom from materialism and consumerism, and contentment in all circumstances.

There are at least three reasons why we should tithe.

1) Tithing reflects our heart.

What is the most important thing to you? Jesus said in Matthew 6:21 that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We can see the reality of that in the world today and the exaltation of the financially successful, and more personally you can see that by looking at your own checkbook.

Malachi 3:10
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”

2) Tithing is Biblical.

Long before tithing was a practice of the Israelite people, Cain and Abel, the second generation of the human race, brought an offering to the Lord. The Lord blessed Abel’s offering, but rejected Cain’s. Abel brought the “firstborn of his flock,” while Cain brought “some of the fruits of the soil” as an offering. God wants to be first. The following scriptures show how tithing is biblical.

Genesis 14:18-20
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all.

Genesis 28:22
“And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to you.”

Leviticus 27:30
And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord.

Deuteronomy 26:1-2
And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide.

New Testament?
In the New Testament, we find Jesus challenging his followers to not only tithe, but to give up everything and become His followers. From the rich young ruler, to the disciples, to His personal example, Jesus’ challenge is always to put God first, to avoid the vicious trap of materialism and consumerism, and to use our time, talent, and treasure to love God, other people, and ourselves in a healthy way. Tithing is at least a solid step in the right direction down the narrow path of becoming the generous, loving people that Jesus has called us to be.

3) Tithing is a benefit.

God’s kingdom is built on multiplication, not division. God uses the tithe as an investment where everyone involved gets a return on the investment. Obviously, the church and the kingdom are blessed, and yet God’s nature is also to bless the giver. This principle is highlighted in the passage below.

2 Chronicles 31:4-10
Moreover he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to the Law of the Lord.

As soon as the commandment was circulated, the children of Israel brought in abundance the first fruits of grain and wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. And the children of Israel and Judah, who dwelt in the cities of Judah, brought the tithe of oxen and sheep; also the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the Lord their God they laid in heaps.

In the third month they began laying them in heaps, and they finished in the seventh month. And when Hezekiah and the leaders came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and His people Israel. Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. And Azariah the chief priest, from the house of Zadok, answered him and said, “Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and have plenty left, for the Lord has blessed His people; and what is left is this great abundance.”