I have been convicted to start tithing as you have all read in previous posts.  Jamie and I have decided to start tithing as of the 1st of the year.  This would mean that our first tithe would actually occur on the 15th, unless we decided to use the one on Dec 31st to begin.

I have continued to be conflicted in who to tithe to.  I do not feel it is right to tithe to a church based on the standard organized church definition of tithing.  I believe that the tithe as preached there is an admonishment to sin rather than to live righteously because it puts the gaining of money for the use of "the church" above the direction of God's money for use as he sees fit.  It basically places "the church" in place of Jesus who is the true receiver of our tithes.

However, I came across a passage that threw my conclusions from before as to the "who" that we tithe on their head.  This came shortly after I learned of the expectation of the "church" that God led me to (of this I have no doubt that God led me to them) that we are to tithe.  I have a feeling I will have to chide myself publicly again and again as I learn more about Christ and how to live by the word of the Holy Spirit.

Here is the passage that threw my conclusions into disarray.

1 Co 9:4–14 (ESV) - Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

This seems to indicate an expectation in the first church to give to those who were apostles, preachers, teachers (not a limiting list) to give materially to those who have give spiritually.  So this seems at direct odds to what I concluded previously.  So which is right?  Which is wrong?  Or, am I both right and wrong.

This led me to a chase for other interpretations and examinations on the practicing of tithing.  And I ran across this pdf.

I read that document and it made sense to me.  I can't find any fault with it in my heart, mind or spirit as yet.  Now, I still have some questions for my church to make sure that their expectation in the tithe is sound and of the right spirit, but now, I have no internal question as to the appropriateness to tithe to my God led to church.  If their reasoning is unsound for how they use the tithe or why they expect it, well, maybe I can be a teacher.