Quote:
Originally Posted by good samaritan
I like many of your suggestions. I do believe that any pastors making a change in church operations of an already established church will have to walk softly in how they make changes. Churches have many tithers who you don't want to offend and when you cross people's theology it can become heated. I will hold a middle of the road standpoint by not preaching tithing as commandment, but a form of stewardship in our giving and stand against marginalizing people because of dollar amounts.
We must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. There still needs to be a focus on people's stewardship in giving and if we make people feel God doesn't care it may be a grave mistake. I don't want to become a social network without the Spirit of God. I believe we should be able to distinguish between saints and sinners. We must press the point of being Spirit led in all parts of our lives.
I love to hear testimonies of hundreds getting saved in church services, but when you return a year later and none are there. Or maybe a year later they live just as sinful a life as they did before their conversion. I don't to fail people by being to hard or to soft. I feel like we need to stay in the word, but it will sometimes cause conviction.
I don't want to see how many rules I can shave off in order to keep people at church. Our motives can be bad either way. There have been good well intentioned tithe preachers and bad, but there have been good and bad anti-tithe preachers. I don't just want to know the book(Bible), but I want to know the author(God).
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Amen, I know, if tithing is not an issue, the Lord will bless your work for Him. We all must try to get as close as we can to the original to declare ourselves part of the original. It can change to free will giving by simply never mentioning tithing again. No apologies needed. If folks ask why you dont enforce it, just let them know there is not enough evidence to make it a church issue. That position, these days, is very acceptable to average folks. Your church will become a breath of fresh air compared to the ones in your area that "badger" folks about $ whenever they walk through the door. I personally, am looking for a oneness church to attend in my area that thinks like you do. I will commit a few hundred bucks a month and a ton of outreach to the cause. I dont want a position, just a safe place to bring souls. I wish you were in this area.
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