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I would be sitting my parents down and talking to them honestly. If my son thought I was screwing up, I would want him to bring it to me because every encounter is a teaching opportunity. Running a business is not easy and there is a lot of burden on your parents. They may be increasing their tithes because they believe you can't outgive God and they are making one last ditch effort to turn things around. It is impossible for a forum of people to assist you or them with this.
You might suggest that all of you attend Financial Peace University (even if you and your family have their ducks in a row financially, it's an opportunity to share with your parents). Here's a link. Now this is not to suggest they or you don't know what they're doing financially. Reviewing basics is never a bad thing.
My family are Christians and we own and operate a business, but I feel my folks are being too generous in paying tithes (1200 on behalf of the business, 200 on behalf of 1200 of their take home pay) to their church. With their mortgage payments, which their house is upside down, and their monthly health insurance of 1500 and climbing, they aren't really assessing on what they can actually give based on their personal and business finances.
I know this all sounds confusing, but they really have an odd way of managing their personal finance, which I feel that they are heading towards going off the cliff if they don't start carefully managing it.
I've brought it up with my mother, who seems clueless about it since my dad manages their finances, but I feel somewhat guilty for insisting that they scale back on their monthly tithes of 1400.
If one owns a business that is struggling to break even, should he pay tithes based on gross or net (profit)?
Before I begin to answer this question, GOD doesn't need our money. But he needs us to be obedient to Him, and for us to support our local churches if we are indeed a member of a church. Tithes can be paid based on what you net, and what you have left over after you have covered your basic living expenses.
Here's a hypothetical way to under understand paying tithes. If a person makes a $1,000 a month, and after he or she has paid for utilities, rent, and food (all basic living expenses), and that person only has $10 left, then giving $1.00 is technically paying his tithes.
In your parents' case, they need to figure out what do they have left over after covering their monthly household and business expenses.
Some churches have flat out lied to its members and told them that they have to pay 10% of their GROSS income. Remember the government and states take a certain percentage of our gross income before we even see our checks.
If the same person, I was hypothetically speaking about, makes $1000 a month, and gives $100 of his gross income instead of $10 of his net, he would be forced to choose between eating or paying a utility bill.
This is not being obedient to God, nor is this, as some churches teach, robbing God of money that he doesn't need. To keep it real, the money we make isn't ours anyway. Everything belongs to God, and we just have to learn how to be good stewards of what God has blessed us to have.
At my church, we are taught to SURRENDER our tithes over to the Lord. 10% is a good place to start, since that's the example set in the bible. We are taught at my church to give 10% after we have covered our basic living expenses first. GOD LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER---and it's more blessed to give than to receive. I always keep that in mind when I am paying my tithes.
Ministers use this law unwittingly....to obtain money
There's nothing unwitting about it. They know exactly what they're doing and they do it coolly and calculatingly.
On a separate note, how do you feel about a Church board using your tithes to tear down a perfectly good complex in order to build a completely new, larger, grander complex with all of the latest state-of-the-art electronics? Bayless Conley's Cottonwood recently did that.
There's nothing unwitting about it. They know exactly what they're doing and they do it coolly and calculatingly.
On a separate note, how do you feel about a Church board using your tithes to tear down a perfectly good complex in order to build a completely new, larger, grander complex with all of the latest state-of-the-art electronics? Bayless Conley's Cottonwood recently did that.
What I mean by unwittingly, is that they do not understand the law of tithe properly. They use their own understanding of it deliberately because that is what they believe. They only think that they are being sincere. Of coarse there are those who are not sincere about anything.
If the complex they had was good enough then why do it. I don't know any thing about B C Cottonwood. You seem to, so make your own judgment.
If one owns a business that is struggling to break even, should he pay tithes based on gross or net (profit)?
Neither one. Tithing was a commandment under the Old Covenant, as a means of supporting the Levitical priesthood. We are no longer under the Old Covenant and we don't normally have a Levitical Priest overseeing our church. You can give to a church if you want to, but there is no longer "a law" that says you must. (despite what zillions of pastors would have you believe)
Donate to the church as you are financially able: YES!
Give 10% of your income to a church, because there is some Bible law that says you have to? NO!
Neither one. Tithing was a commandment under the Old Covenant, as a means of supporting the Levitical priesthood. We are no longer under the Old Covenant and we don't normally have a Levitical Priest overseeing our church. You can give to a church if you want to, but there is no longer "a law" that says you must. (despite what zillions of pastors would have you believe)
Donate to the church as you are financially able: YES!
Give 10% of your income to a church, because there is some Bible law that says you have to? NO!
Bud
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