God’s Economy?

In establishing the Church of the Saviour, Elizabeth O’Conner explained they needed to establish how future church members would handle money. Would they tithe, would they tithe and add some? Would it be up to the individual?

They decided to ask Reinhold Niebuhr an eminent theologian his opinion of their thoughts. He came with the concept of proportionate giving: “We covenant with Christ and one another to give proportionately beginning with a tithe of our incomes.”

I am just going to use Elizabeth’s words here because I can do no better:

“None of us has to be an accountant to know what 10% of our gross income is, but each of has to be on our knees before God if we are to understand our commitment to proportionate giving.

Proportionate to what? Proportionate to the accumulated wealth of one’s family? Proportionate to one’s income and the demands upon it, which vary from family to family? Proportionate to one’s sense of security and the degree of anxiety with which one lives? Proportionate to the keenness of our awareness of those who suffer? Proportionate to our sense of justice and God’s ownership of all wealth? Proportionate to our sense of stewardship for those who follow after us? And so on and so forth. The answer of course is in proportion to all of these things.” – Elizabeth O’Connor

These thoughts are challenging given the modern Christian environment we move in. I do know of churches that would subscribe to this style of economic thinking……………what about you?