While we are grateful Central Church helped us with our rent during a month of struggle the culture…read morefeels more like a corporate business than a place to fellowship with God. And i find myself convicted in the rest of what im about to say after prayer. Ive felt this way months before the financial classes but me and my family went and husband went here before we came into the picture. There is a heavy, constant emphasis on tithing a strict 10% and urging of optimizing with gifts beyond that. We live 45 miles away, they offered it online to and are still pressuring us to attend a mandatory financial class after helping with rent. We tried our best and went three times' third time i was sick and i am still sick now and recovering; after having asthma flare ups with this infection, among other health conditions but we quickly realized their formula isn't factually a possibility for our income from The Ramsey class written in the 90s that cherry picks the bible but isnt fully biblically sound. We are simply too poor for it to apply. When my husband explained that the 90-mile round trip and our financial reality made it impossible to finish, the church kept asking us to finish. Months ago, the pastor dismissively told me that 'everyone needs to work in today's society'--completely ignoring that I am on SSI for severe health conditions and that we full-time homeschool our autistic son after standing in a long line to speak with him, little time beyond that. And Because their rigid system didn't fit our life and we had to bow out, they blamed us. They acted exactly like Job's friends--treating our medical and financial hardships as a personal and spiritual failure or mistake on our part being poor rather than showing Christ-like empathy. Due to the distance, these unbiblical red flags, and convictions we have decided to leave. We have also done tithes and offerings when able to give it out of love for God and nothing more.
* 2 Corinthians 9:7 - Give what you have decided in your heart, not under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.
"Who devour widows' houses, and for a appearance's sake offer long prayers; these will receive all the more severe condemnation."
-- Mark 12:40 (NASB)
* 1 Corinthians 16:2 - Set aside money on the first day of the week in keeping with your income, rather than a flat percentage.
* 2 Corinthians 8:8 - Paul explicitly states, "I am not commanding you," framing giving as an act of grace and love rather than a rule.
* Old Testament Context - The 10% "tithe" was a tax under the Mosaic Law to support ancient Israel's priests and temple. The New Testament replaces this with freewill giving.
Luke 6:35, Jesus teaches His followers to "do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return." True Christian benevolence is an act of grace, modeled after God's unconditional grace. It should never be used as blackmail to force attendance at a class.
"Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me there will be 'Yes, yes' and 'No, no' at the same time? But as God is faithful, our word to you is not 'Yes' and 'No.'"
-- 2 Corinthians 1:17-18 (NASB)
And He said to those who were selling the doves, 'Take these things away from here; stop making My Father's house a place of business!'"
-- John 2:16 (NASB)
"Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?"
-- James 2:5 (NASB)
With force and with severity you have dominated them. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered.'"
-- Ezekiel 34:4-5 (NASB)
Or if a person swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, in whatever matter a man may speak thoughtlessly with an oath, and it is hidden from him, and then he comes to know it, he will be guilty in one of these... then he shall confess that he has sinned in that matter.'"
-- Leviticus 5:4-5 (NASB)
Thats our experience but its not everyone's experience. The choice is yours.
