Mac again last night took time out to try to scare his congregation into tithing. After the Jim Smyrl sermon, he held up an envelope given by an elderly person for the chest of Joash - she wanted to the be first to give her committment for the chest. He commented that a number of people have told him that they can't tithe until things get better, or they get out of debt...then Mac said that is probably why some of us are in the mess we are in, because we're not tithing.
Church, don't be scared into tithing 10% of your income to FBC Jax. If you feel led of the Lord to do so, then do so. It is not a scriptural requirement for Christians to tithe. Give out of the abundance with which God has blessed you as a token of your love for the Lord. But if you're going through tough times right now, or are in serious financial debt, or you can't make ends meet, don't tithe. If you feel the church is being a poor steward of the finances by giving $400k+ to Team Brunson each year, don't tithe and feel perfectly free to give to other worthwhile ministries that are better stewards of finances. The church will never tell you this, because they have huge salaries and expenses and are under immense pressure to get the giving to go up. They want to preach to us about how we should be willing to accept change (which we're STILL not sure what the "changes" are except larger pastor salaries and no ties on Wednesday night), but they themselves still want to operate the finances in secret in a day and time when openness and transparency of financial matters is the norm.
