Urban Mission Focus, Changes in Tithe Sharing Addressed at Spring Governance Meeting
by AT News Team
At the spring 2012 meeting of the top governing body in the Seventh-day Adventist Church plans were reviewed for focusing the outreach activities of the denomination on urban areas and the first step taken in balancing the sharing of tithe income around the world. The General Conference executive committee met this week in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the agenda was primarily about financial and strategic planning as is usual.
The committee voted to direct the GC treasurer to prepare the budget for 2013 with the assumption that the percentage of tithe shared with the GC by the North American Division will be reduced. The actual policy change will be on the agenda for the Annual Council of the committee in October. A study group will continue to review the possibility that the percentage of tithe from other world divisions will be increased.
Church members around the world are taught to give ten percent of their income to a Tithe Fund which is administered by local conferences. The denomination’s Working Policy dictates how this fund is divided up and currently in North America eight cents out of each dollar donated goes to the General Conference, while in the rest of the world it is only two cents out of each dollar. The proposal is to change these figures to six cents and three cents.
The reason for the imbalance has to do with history and economics. Historically, the Adventist movement began in the United States and the churches here took the initiative in planting missions in the rest of the world. Various percentages of the tithe have been devoted to these international efforts over the past 150 years and the results have been spectacular. The number of Adventist adherents has grown from a few hundred in the mid-19th century to perhaps 30 million today, generally recognized by scholars as one of the fastest-growing new religions on the globe. The growth has slowed in North America as it has accelerated in some parts of the world, and church leaders now see the need to invest a larger share of resources here.
It is also true that in recent months tension has surfaced between denominational governing bodies in North America and the GC officers over the topic of whether to ordain women serving in pastoral ministry. GC president Pastor Ted Wilson went out of his way to express appreciation to the North American Division during the discussion of the proposed changes in tithe-sharing percentages. “Let me underscore the appreciation on the part of the world field and the General Conference for the generosity on the part of the North American Division for decades,” the official Adventist News Network (ANN) quoted Wilson. “We do value it and appreciate it.”
If the new policy is confirmed at the October meeting the new policy will be phased in over a period of eight years from 2013 through 2020, reported the NAD in its weekly Email newsletter. The portion of the tithe coming from the NAD has dropped from 69 percent in 1985 to 44 percent in 2010. This reflects the growing portion of the membership in the rest of the world as well as the growing economic strength of Adventists outside of North America because the actual dollars contributed in North America has also continued to grow.
The review of urban mission plans included the announcement of 24 major cities where initial projects will be launched in 2013 and 2014. These include New York City, which is designated to provide the first model for the new approach, Kinshasa, Kiev, Moscow, Prague, Geneva, Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Mexico City, Caracas, Bogota, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Luanda, Sydney, Christchurch, Manila, Mumbai, London and Lagos. In addition to conventional evangelism, the new strategy calls for “centers of influence” which meet social needs and “Global Mission Pioneers,” volunteers who start new groups of Adventist believers, “help meet physical and spiritual needs, speak the local language and live and work in their own culture.”
ANN also reported that changes were made in the work of the General Conference Auditing Service (GCAS), the internal auditing organization of the denomination. Some audit work will be shifted to local, outside firms and denominational entities outside North America will begin to pay for audits as the NAD currently does.
The oft-stated theological reason for giving tithe to the Conference, as opposed to individual charities, is the text in Mal 3:10 about 'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.' However, even one adopts the analogy of the Temple as justification for centralized tithe paying, shouldn't all tithes go to the CG; otherwise, it seems to be suggesting many Temples?
I never really understood the biblical justification of the current system or tithing to the Local Conference, with the Conference itself then tithing upwards to Unions and Divisions etc. Also, if we are to adopt the Mosaic Levitical tithing system, why don't we adopt the 'second tithe' system to the poor, widows and orphans in Deut 14?
It is a good system in itself, so why worry about how tenuous the link to the supplied Bible texts may be? It is impossible to rationally argue that any part of the SDA church corresponds to the Jerusalem temple. I am really surprised we don't encourage the 3rd tithe, which was to be used to attend festivals in Jerusalem. Imagine how camp meeting would expand if every SDA had to devote 10% of their income solely to attending such meetings.
Making people feel guilty over tithe works for some. Old Testament tithing applied strictly to the priesthood and was part of the Hebrew economic system which depended on tithe just as in most nations today the dependence is on tax. There was only one place of worship: the temple, which received the tithe. Today, we each worship at our own church and if all the tithe went to that church, how much more could be done with local oversight and choice of using the tithe?
Sure, why not encourage a third or fourth tithe? The latest Review online shows that only 10% of members currently tithe, and it is way down worldwide because of the recession. If people only knew how their tithe money was used. On another site begun by a magazine like Adventist Today there is a discussion of how church funds have been expended in the past to
"settle" cases of denominational employees sexual molesting of kids–it's called "Risk Management" the insurance necessary to pay to quiet these cases.
Where do you think the G.C. gets their money? You pay, but there is absolutely no transparency–it falls into a dark hole out of sight.
The original tithing system was that people gave 1/10 to their local Levite, who gave 1/10 of that to the priests. Eventually, the Levites became so corrupt that the tithe was paid direct to the priests. That is reflected in Malachi's call for the tithe to be sent to the 'store room'. The tithe was paid in gratitude for the gift of the land of Israel, and originally applied only to agricultural products from that land. It was later expanded to include Babylon and other surrounding countries.
As the husband of someone who has for 27 years worked as an accountant or associate treasurer at different levels within the church (not conference or GC – yet) I probably know more about the finances of the church than most members. There is very little you can't find out if you ask. Every level is required to prepare a financial report each year – and at least here in Australia most of those are independently audited and lodged with the appropriate government department, as well as the GC audit – and any member has the right to request a copy. It won't, of course, tell you how much your pastor or the GC president was paid, but it will tell you how much was spent by each department. In a general way you can know where the money came from and where it went. Finding out why is sometimes a different matter. The transparency, accountability and accuracy of church finances unfortunately varies somewhat from place to place. That is more a function of human variability than an inherent lack in our church policies. Very few of the misuses of church funds were/are according to church policy. There is a far greater need to hold people accountable to church policy than there is to change church policy. That includes the use of the tithe. But I do support a change to allow more tithe to be used at the local level.