[OPINION] What You Must Know About Tithe And Offering, By Francis Nwokike

Francis Nwokike

Tithe And Offering.

Hi guys, good morning to you all and happy new month. It is going to be a November to remember for us all.

Today, I am going to digress a little and delve into the "undelvable".

I was watching a video about a woman calling out one of the general overseers of a church, accusing him and his pastors for deceiving her sister into sowing all the money giving to her to start a business to the church.

She was more aggrieved that after sowing the money, she will come back to her to collect more and more and always giving to the church without really starting the business.

Meanwhile until now, she never knew she was giving the money to the church and when she found out and stopped giving her money, her sister started picking on her and seeing her as a stingy sister that has but have refused to give.

The lady is now asking the church to refund the money given to them.

Sounds funny right?

I read through most of the comments and found out everyone has their own interpretation of the situation and most attacking the lady for daring to call out a GO of that status.

Well here is my take on this matter and my own personal advice to you.

First, no one is forced by any pastor or reverend to pay certain offerings or give to ones church. This is certainly the truth BUT many will not understand what is going on in the church today.

Many will also not understand why churches are springing up in every nook and cranny of our neighbourhood.

I cannot be a judge and I cannot condemn anyone.

The truth is that, the Bible commanded most of these things but our brothers are now capitalizing on it to enter into priesthood, called or uncalled.

The way and manner emphasis are laid in the topic "giving" in our churches these days is alarming.

I am not going to call any church out here but the trend is alarming. We are human beings with emotions. We want good things in life. We sometimes go the extreme to achieve great things including giving out all we have just because a pastor said we should and then wait for God to bless us.

God does not truly work that way.

I am not saying you shouldn't give to your church, all I am saying is we should give godly and according to what we are capable of.

Any man that tells you that only your big offering will move God to bless you richly is not called by God.

This brings me to my reasons of writing on this topic (I hardly do but things are getting out of hand).

So, for the fact that we are not of the same IQ and that so many people can easily be deceived either out of frustration or by poverty, I will be sharing;

How to identify exploiters in the name of pastor...

1. They are more of motivational speakers with the intent to raise your spirit into believing all they say.

2. They lay great emphasis on any verse of the Bible that talks about giving.

3. They make you believe your giving is for your own good alone.

4. They are mostly from a poor background and know how to share their pitiable story to their congregation and ending up with "and when I accepted God and started working my ass out for Him, things turned around."

5. They almost make you believe you are not a child of God if you don't give (whether you have or not is none of their business). Some of them will encourage you to borrow and give to secure your future.

6. They never ask about the welfare of their members.

7. Some of them that even have the poor members at heart at all will after collecting tithes and offering for the growth of God's kingdom and his people will still ask for another collection tagged "welfare offering" to be used to take care of the poor amongst them. What then is the need for our normal offering and tithe?

8. They always have projects going on in the church and will ever task members to give towards these unending projects.

9. They cajole those that don't pay there tithes and remind them that sickness, misfortune and death is not far from them for eating God's money.

10. There sole aim for church growth is not to raise men for God neither is it to bring men to repentance, no, it is to bring in more people so that the offering and tithe will increase. That is why they undergo massive evangelism with the sole aim of inviting prospects to church instead of leading them to Christ and encouraging them without telling them to quit their church and join theirs. They have super Sundays every week. They convince you to leave your church and stay in theirs. They give you reasons not to go back to your former church. Then, they finally tell you that the secret of their wealth is GIVING.

My ADVICE

1. Never go to church to please any man or show of your wealth and new cloth.

2. Always read other portions of the Bible not read to you in church.

3. Pay your tithe and give offering according to your earning. If you are not found wanting in little, you won't be found wanting in much.

4. Never succumb to psychological degradation by any pastor because you don't have to give.

5. Never borrow to give.

6. Reach out to the poor in your church or environment directly not through your church alone. Let the church do there bit from God's money, that's part of what it's meant for.

7. Do not give to please your pastor or brag to your neighbor sitting by you in church. (God won't even accept such offering, so you end up wasting the money)

8. Don't give your school fees, business profits, money meant to start a business or do a job to any pastor with a promise it will come back seven folds.

9. If your church can't help you or your family in times of lack, leave that church. The church of God is not parasitic. It is not a place for moral support alone. It should also financially support too. You should not only hear in the radio how your church went to prisons, or homeless people's house to make donations, you should feel the impact too as a member.

10. God don't bless you just because you give, He blesses you only when you work. If you give and then sit waiting for favor from another man to give you multiple times of what you gave, you will wait a long time.

May God continue to bless you and reveal himself to you.