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Returning Our Wealth to God

Although our average income has increased over the years, our rate of tithing, especially among today’s Korean-American adults, have decreased. This may be attributed to two factors: (1) There are less second and third generation Korean Americans attending churches or being actively involved in church and (2) There is a lack of stewardship and conviction. On the first factor, without any scientific research, it is quite evident from the demographics of any Korean church you walk into that the members are either getting older or getting younger but the middle age group of 20’s and 30’s are noticeably absent. We either are too busy to attend, too disillusioned to believe, too fickle to stay and contribute to any one church or just plain “flaky.” On the second factor, our migratory and absent behavior towards church provides us little or no conviction to give to church let alone even have the opportunity to give. It’s not that we don’t want to give because our generation sporadically donates to our Alma Maters, our favorite charities, and the odd dollar here and there to the needy.

So this begs the question: “Why should you give you wealth to God?”

The simple answer is because, according to God, “everything belongs to Him.” The Bible tells us that “All good things come from Him.” Then from that knowledge, I view the prescription that we give a tenth of our income to support our local church as a guideline, not a maximum since we really owe everything to Him. Even better, God promises a ten fold return on what we give back to Him. No other investment on this earth can match what an investment in God’s Kingdom will return. It is when we start to think, “I earned this on my own; I deserve this or that; I am the reason for my success” that we start down the road of separation with God and lose our stewardship responsibilities that God expects of us.

Churches depend on the financial support of its members. I’ve seen companies run by Christians donate to their local churches and local charities and individuals who give both their time and their wealth to church. As a result, churches can thrive, giving back to their members both spiritually through faith and financially to their needy, and to their community through service and outreach. This is a circular model that first depend on the generosity and stewardship of it’s members and then, in turn, they are blessed. The interesting thing about God’s models throughout the Bible is that we always get more out than what we put in.

Giving is not about how much you give. Like the story of the poor widow who gave two copper coins which was considered more than the bags of gold from wealthy, it is about what percentage of our wealth we give. Unfortunately, as we’ve become more and more wealthy, we haven’t increase our giving to God proportionally. We tend to put a ceiling on our tithing and giving saying to ourselves, “How can I give to church more than I pay for my cars?” or “How can my tithe be more than my mortgage payment?” Here we fail to realize, again, that all of the blessings we have received and are receiving is from God and everything is His. I would argue that your tithe should be your biggest expense as God has commanded us to put Him first above all earthly idols. Putting God first financially, whether you are wealthy or poor, will give you the peace “that this world cannot give” knowing you are storing your treasures in heaven and “open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it” (Malachi 3:10).

Give with your heart, not with your calculator. Having a tithing plan to give to God regularly is not only good practice but recommended by the Bible. The longer we put off our tithing and not do it on a regular basis, the more reasons we will come up with for the use of that money for something else. However, God warns us as he had warned the Pharisees that going through the motion of giving without the meaning is worthless to Him. He wants us to give with our hearts and show mercy, justice, and faith in our giving. How do we do that? Here is one example:

Recently, a church was running a fundraiser for their new church building they were about to purchase. This church had been thriving and growing and it’s members and leaders dedicated to focusing on serving the community at large instead of their own building project. As a result, they had decided to do a one-day appeal to their members for all of the funds necessary to complete their building, so that they can focus on the more important task of serving and reaching out to the unsaved.

When the building contractor came back with the final bill, it totaled over a million dollars with many unexpected expenses and repairs. Although the largest one day fundraising record in North America had never been over a million dollars, the pastor felt impressed to go forward. On the day of the fundraiser, a certain young couple in their thirties, who had steadily supported the church, heard for the first time the amount needed for them to finish their church.

The husband felt impressed to give and knowing that he had recently received a large amount of money from selling a part of his business he had nurtured for ten years, he didn’t know how much to give. He and his wife went for a drive for lunch to pray and discuss. When he asked his wife what amount she was impressed to give, the amount she told him was exactly the amount he was impressed to give as well. With both their hearts synchronized with God, they went back to church and wrote a check for $500,000.

As the treasurer tallied up all the gifts that afternoon and gave the final number to the pastor to announce, the couple could see that the pastor was visibly moved as he read out the $1.2 million dollar total for the day, which now stands as the largest one day amount raised by any church in North America. This couple stood in the back corner of the church, anonymous and happy that their gift of faith has helped increase the faith of their church and would be used to provide for the needs and services of God’s people. They gave with their hearts showing tremendous faith and mercy.

I later asked the couple if they were apprehensive at all that they had given almost half of their wealth to the church. The husband replied, “I don’t want to look back later in life and regret that I wasn’t faithful to God’s calling especially in the area of giving back to Him. I know that He will return back more than I could imagine.”

God is calling us, the blessed generation, to be good stewards of His money. As God continues to bless us financially, we have the privilege and burden to be His instrument to support His church.

Previously published in August 2004

Danny Kim serves the English Ministry coordinator and elder at the Glendale Korean Church.


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