The Benefits of Tithing

Recently we heard a man give this testimony about learning to give. 

I was telling a friend about my financial woes.  He asked me if I tithed.  I laugh at this now, but my answer was, “I can’t afford it.”
Then he said to me, “Well, it doesn’t sound like your method is working very well.  Maybe you should try God’s method and start tithing.” 
After I started to give, I realized that God not only blessed my giving by stretching my finances to meet my needs, but I was able to give far more than the tithe because God began to give me extra money so that I could give it to missions.

In another church there was a flyer in the bulletin about the differences between tithers and non-tithers.  While I had always believed in my heart that tithers seem to do better financially, I had never read of anyone trying to prove it.  I don’t know how broad the survey was, but the survey done by State of the Plate told a statistical story that reinforced my beliefs.  Part of their findings can be found on their website:  www.stateoftheplate.info.
Here are some of the things that the study discovered.

• Tithers make up only 5-20% of most congregations, but they give 50–80% of the church’s monies.
• Eighty percent of tithers have no credit card debt, 74% have no car payments, and 48% own their own homes.  As Brian Kluth, founder of the study says, “The weird thing is, a tither looks at that and says to himself, 'Well I'm better off because I give.' A non-tither looks at that and says, 'Oh, they give because they're better off.'"
• Most tithers (77%) give more than 10% of their income. 
• Almost all (96%) tithers attend church every week.  Perhaps this is an evidence of Matthew 6:21 and Luke 12:34:  “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  People give to what they treasure and they treasure what they give to.

As I read the study, I began to wonder.

• If everyone tithed, what would the church be able to accomplish?
• If every young person learned to tithe, would they be less likely to leave the church when they became adults?
• If every Christian throughout history had tithed, would the work of evangelizing the world have been accomplished by now?

Of course, I do not know the answers to those questions, but the statistics from State of the Plate do make you wonder.