To Tithe or not to Tithe?

As a reminder, I'm an expert.  I'm an expert of my experience.  I spew thoughts and feelings from my head and heart.  And tithing is todays thought.  I may be wrong.  I may be right.  There may not be a wrong or right. I'm not here to start a fight.  I also want to say that I've had a conversation similar to this with the pastor the church I would attend, if I attended on the reg.  And I was pleased that they were aware of these issues and worked/are working hard to change some of these.  This isn't the end of the conversation, only the beginning.

I researched tithing statistics last night and was shocked but not.  It seems on average hardly anyone tithes.  It's common in church culture that 10% of your income is the acceptable tithe, but not limited at 10.  But it turns out the majority of church goers don't do that.  I think many of the numbers pointed to 2-3% on average.

A big question I have is why?  Why do you tithe?  The answer may be different for everyone.  Some would say to "Expand God's Kingdom"  or "I'm only giving back to God a portion of what is God's".  Or something similar to those.

Ugh.  This is so difficult to write.  I could go several different ways.  

And there are exceptions to every point I'll talk about. 

Remember the rich young ruler?  When he told Jesus he followed all the rules and kept all the commandments?  Jesus then told him to sell everything he had and give to the poor and needy.  And the young ruler could not.  His wealth and belongings owned him.  They were his idol.  Selling everything would be radical.  

But isn't believing in a virgin birth, a man that was god and walked on water,

resurrection,  and several other miracles? That's pretty radical too, eh? 

But many always say we don't actually have to do that.  But what if we did?  This kind of piggy backs my post from yesterday.  1 John 3:16,17  Those that have material possessions and don't have compassion on the poor and needy,  how can the love of God be in them?  How can the love of God be in someone if they don't sell their material possessions to give to the poor?  I can count the number of people I know that have actually done that or are currently doing that on my fingers and toes.  

ANYWAY, back to tithing.  Lets just go with the ballpark average from several sources that 80%  of the tithes churches receive stays inside the walls of the church for salaries, mortgages, bills etc.  So maybe 20% of your 2-3% of your income tithe actually goes out the door.  If you are ok with that, fine. I think most tithes just go to pay for your use of the facility.  Which is also fine.  I have no problem paying for a service.  Currently, I don't go to a church.  Others in my household do.  So after writing this I really feel compelled to tithe for our use of facilities on the sunday morning.  

Getting a little long here, so I'll wrap things up.  Give as you feel led.  Not out of obligation.  Listen to your heart.  If you aren't giving of your time and money to others you feel are in need, try it.  See what happens.  Giving away your money also does things to your brain chemistry.  

Oh man.  This just opened up another topic.  Where should I give my money and how do I know it's helping.....I'll save that one for later.