Tithing and the Church's Mission
Diocesan Press Service. January 10, 1963 [VI-3]
Tithing and The Church's Mission
by Carl R. Sayers and Bertram T. White;
Foreword by the Bishop of Michigan;
Morehouse-Barlow; Pp. xi-65. $6.00.
Key quotation: "... our parish financing has tended to center in parochial money-raising schemes ... in lieu of the biblical tithe which comes to grips with a man's basic paycheck."
This all-too-brief book pleads a case for Christian stewardship that makes up in focus what it lacks in scope. The plain facts about tithing and related issues are presented straight. Most readers will feel the want of more discussion than this compact treatment allows. But none will miss the point: that God (not Moses or the rector) thought up the tithe, and intends it to be the standard for stewardship in His Church. The authors treat all the standard issues before or after taxes; variations of the 10% formula; fund-raising masquerading as stewardship; the importance of time and talent as well as money, and so on. They also introduce several fresh ones: the questionable validity of tax exemptions for churches; discounts for clergy; the relation of stewardship to evangelism. The book as a whole is a commentary on the Great Intercession recited over the Offering at each Eucharist. Chapter 7 -- the conclusion -- deserves reading at a vestry meeting in every parish. One might hope all rectors and vicars will read the whole book, and urge their vestries to do the same. -- Robert A. MacGill