By Derek Larson
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October 24, 2026
This week I am thinking about our Pledge Campaign and the old concept of tithing. I shared a reflection with you earlier this week and today I post it again here. My hope is that this teaching and reflection can serve as a contextual tool as you discern how God is calling to support the common ministry of St. Peter's in 2027. I've included a video and a link to the podcast in case you'd prefer to listen instead of reading since it is a bit long. But here is the summary: I don't believe everyone is called to tithe. But I do believe tithing is an important principle with a long history that has something to teach us. Read on to learn what. That's what I'm thinking about this week. What's on your mind? I'd love to hear. Peace, Derek Have you ever heard the word “tithe”? *Listen to the following reflection in the video above or on our podcast . We’re in the thick of our pledge campaign at St. Peter’s as we haven taken on the challenge to boost our budget in 2027 to make a significant impact in ministries with children and youth. And while we talk a lot about giving and pledging, we don’t spend much time talking about tithing, which can be touchy subject. But what does it even mean? And where does it come from? And is it at all relevant to us today? Tithing is an ancient term that means giving 10% of something to God. Many churches teach that tithing is a Biblical mandate that all Christians are called to give 10% of their income to the church or to the poor. At St. Peter’s we have a much more nuanced approach, but still hold tithing as an important practice within our tradition. But where does it come from? Tithing was an important part of community life in ancient Israel and one of the commandments Moses brought down from Mount Sinai from God. In Leviticus 27:30 all people were required to bring a 10th of the produce of their work to the priests as an offering to God. These gifts were used to support and sustain their common worship in the tabernacle and to care for the needs of the poor. Some was also burnt as an offering to God. In offering God the first fruits of their labor, the people recognized that God was the source of all they had and would continue to bless them if they put God first. Even then though, it was a challenging practice for the people, and many did not fully obey those directives. Later, the prophet Malachi compared withholding tithe with “robbing God”(Malachi 3:8-9). On the other hand in Matthew 23:23 Jesus criticized the Pharisees for overemphasizing the tithe while continuing to call for it’s keeping, ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.” While the ancient laws of Israel were an important part of the Scriptural tradition, the early Gentile Christians did not consider them all to be binding under the gospel of Christ. It was enough for them to follow Christ with the simple love of God and neighbor. And yet this did not mean the early Christians had a relaxed view of giving—indeed it was the opposite! Acts 2:44-45 puts it this way, "All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” So while the ancient Israelites were expected to give a tithe, the early Christians gave a whole! As Christianity spread throughout the world, holding all things in common became less and less frequent, but giving for the needs of the community and the support of shared worship was always deeply present, and many Christians still practiced the tithe. In the fourth century St. Augustine of Hippo encouraged Christians to give more than the tithe, noting that the tithe was the bare minimum of the Pharisees and not the standard of Christians. St. Thomas Aquinas of the 13th century continued this line of thinking and argued for that the tithe was a binding minimum standard for Christian giving. What about today? For many churches, giving 10% of one’s household income continues to be the standard practice encouraged for Christians. Indeed, even our own Episcopal Church through resolutions passed by General Convention (by both clergy and laity) affirmed the tithe to be the “minimum standard of giving for Episcopalians” and that all bishops and deputies should work towards it. The resolution was first passed in 1982 and then reaffirmed in 1988, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2009, and 2018. The Roman Catholic Church has affirmed the importance of giving, but has not held the tithe as a required expectation of Catholics. The United Methodists call tithing, “the minimum goal.” The Church of the Nazarene calls tithing “the minimum financial obligation” and encourage additional “freewill offerings”. Southern Baptists teach the tithe. Seventh Day Adventists teach that the first 10% of all income belongs to God. Other Christian traditions encourage tithing but do not consider it as morally binding. There are quite a range of perspectives! The truth is that there is not one, single, clear directive within Scripture that requires Christians to give 10% of our income. Instead, there is a long legacy of giving sacrificially from the heart to sustain the life of common prayer and care for the needs of others. And God calls us each one of us to give according to our own circumstances, the season of life that we are living in, in accordance with our conscience and discernment. For some that means giving 5%. For others that means giving 15%. The wealthy are often called to give more than the poor. Newer Christians are often called to start by giving less. A single blanket mandate is rarely the answer. The questions as we discern how to give and share that which God has given us are (1) What does the Bible say? (2) What does my tradition say? and(3) What does the Holy Spirit say in the circumstances of my life?. Lessons of the Tithe Whatever the amount of our giving, there are some key principles that we can learn from the practice of tithing. Christian giving is a communal responsibility, not a personal philanthropic donation. Sometimes we think of our personal giving as a kind of philanthropy—a personal donation to a charity that we care about. The IRS recognizes the importance of that kind of donation and gives certain exemptions for it. But when we give to a parish, it is not primarily a donation to an institution—it is taking part in the shared responsibility of the community to offer sustained ministry to the world. The Church does not exist apart from it’s people. It is you and me. Our giving is simply participation in the shared life of the parish. More directly, the bills and financial obligations of St. Peter’s belong to you the people of this community. It is your giving that sustains our common worship, formation, and service to the world. That’s what tithing was for the ancient Israelites. The tithe was the shared support of the religious life of prayer and worship for the whole community and the care for those in need. Tithing is a spiritual posture that puts God first. Tithing is not just giving 10% of one’s income; it is giving the first 10% of one’s income. In other words, before any bills are paid, any vacations are taken, any meals are ordered, as soon as you receive, you give back a portion of it to God. By doing that, you cultivate a spiritual posture that places God first in your life. It makes God the most important thing in your life. It orders all of your priorities and all of your needs around the presence of God. And not only does it prioritize the presence of God in your life, it builds within you a capacity for trust. Often we are hesitant to give because we are afraid we will not have enough. Tithing helps us trust in the God who provides and gives us enough. The God who takes care of us. In Matthew Jesus reminds us, “Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink or wear…your heavenly Father knows what you need. Look at the birds of the air…your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth more than they?” Tithing is a representation, not a substitution, for the whole. All we have comes from God. All of it. And thus when we give a percentage of that which we have to God, it stands not as a portion of what we have, but as a representation and acknowledgement of what we have. And it reminds us that ownership does not exist in the kingdom of God, for all belongs to God and all is freely given by God. Proportional giving connects responsibility to capacity. When we compare ourselves to others, it is easy to think that our giving is quite small or quite large or quite average. But the tradition of tithing places the value of the gift not on it’s comparative amount but on its source. Jesus speaks to this in Luke 21:1-4, “[Jesus] looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them, for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.” The amount of our gift is valued on the amount of what we have. And thus two dollars can be worth the same as two-hundred dollars depending on the person who gives it. Proportional giving helps us understand our capacity for giving. It helps us understand where our giving lines up in relation to that which we have, and thus helps us discern the right amount for us. It is not our responsibility to give more than we are able; and it’s not healthy to give less than what we are capable. Proportional giving offers us a target to aim for. Ten percent is the tithe. But 5% or 8% or 2% or 13% can all be ways give intentionally from what we have and not simply according to the value of the dollar. Giving should be challenging, but not crushing. Notice that the legacy of tithing is not 50% of your income. And neither is 2%. It seeks a balance. Ten percent, for most people, is quite challenging. That’s a lot. But for most people, it is not crushing. It is doable. And yet, it is important to recognize that the more wealth one has, the easier 10% becomes. And the less, the harder. And thus for some 10% is crushing. When rent takes up 80 or 90% of your income, giving 10% to the church may just cut off your lights. And some are okay with that, because they know that God will provide for them. But God does not call all of us to extreme poverty. And so for some giving 10% is too much. At the same time, if you have a 6 or 7 figure income and no rent or mortgage, 10% is a walk in the park. And thus perhaps it is too little. The tradition of tithing is meant to be felt. So that it might be a real sacrifice unto God. You, then, might be called to give more. So what should I give? Only you, your family, and God can answer that question. And what you give in 2027 will be different than what you have given in the past and what you will give in the future. All you are called to do, is to give meaningfully unto God for the common life of our parish and the care your neighbor. St. Peter’s is very blessed by the incredible generosity of our people, but we are not incredibly wealthy. We have just enough to pay our bills and support one full time staff person to sustain our ministries. And it is wonderful. But we are entering a season in which God is calling us to collectively to give more. Not for luxury or extra benefits, but to support the ongoing ministry of this growing parish full of children, youth, families, and people of all ages. That is our common responsibility. And only we can know our part in the responsibility. For my family, we are choosing to give at least 10%. We have not always given that amount. In fact, for many years our giving was quite small, and in some years we had little to no income. But the more we give ourselves to the ministry of this parish, and the more we place our trust in the abundance of God, the more we are convinced that our part starts at about $10,000 in 2027, or around 11% of our stipend and housing provided by the parish and other family income. I share that not to compare with anyone else’s gift—our pledge is much smaller than some in the parish, and larger than others. I share simply to offer my testimony as your priest, and to give you a reference point for thinking about your own giving. Tithing is what we feel called to do, but perhaps God has placed another calling on your life. Are you listening? What might that call be?
