More on Rural and Small Churches; Faithfulness in Giving:

Straight AheadOne of the comments made on my previous entry reminded me of something else I wanted to say about rural and small churches. Arthur Pink, in writing about tithing, notes how a congregation of ten families who faithfully tithed their income could support a pastor. Theoretically, at least, this is true. Of course, even if this could pay for the housing, medical insurance, and other costs of a pastor and his family, it would leave nothing for maintaining a church building, evangelism, Christian education, or other missions work of a church. Still, Pink has a point. (And some question the necessity of church buildings, though I think they are rather important.) If, however, a congregation of even fifty households were committed to faithfulness in giving, there is no doubt they could pay a reasonable salary to a pastor and still have an impact in terms of missions and evangelism. My present congregation, though very small, has been consistently faithful in giving over the years. Many ministers despise preaching stewardship sermons. Personally, it thrills me to encourage people to give to the Lord's work; but this encouragement has to be done from a biblical perspective. Our denominations still have a great responsibility in this area which I feel they have largely ignored; but ministers and local church leaders have too often abrogated their responsibility to encourage biblical stewardship and tithing to the local church.