Christians, why do you have to pay money to belong to a church?

Question

My mom and stepfather go to a Christian church and force me to go along with them.

Anyways, I noticed right away that every Sunday the church collects "tithes" and apparantly they expect that you give money for that, and for other special offerings. I just want to know why you should have to pay money to a place of worship. It doesn't make sense to me. You go there to strengthen your spirituality. Why should it cost money?

Interesting.... Well, it's not my money going in the plate!

Answer 1

Because there's a sucker born ever minute.

Answer 2

I'm not Christian and don't attend a church anymore but I wanted to answer this one anyway.--- Tithes was a practice in the Bible days. So naturally, today's Christians would follow that teaching just as much as all the other Bible teachings.--- Giving of money to the church is what keeps the electricity on, the heating bill paid and the upkeep on the church building taken care of. This money provides a physical place of worship for the church members to attend (in order to strenghten their spirituality). --- Some of this money would go to pay the Pastor for his work (usually full time) and care for his family. --There are other special offerings that would go for community work and other programs, but the ones I have mentioned would be the most common uses for the money given. I, personally, never had a problem with this. Blessings.

Answer 3

You won't find tithes in the Bible for Christians (New Testament). You will find it in the Old Testament for the Israelites to support the Levitical Preisthood. It was a mandatory thing.

Some churches use the Old Testament and a few verses in the New that talk about money collections taken for the poor and persecuted believers in Jerusalem to justify asking for money.

As far as I know, all churches take offerings. These days it seems that more and more of them employ subtle (and some flagrant) methods of manipulation and pressure bringing an attitude of guilt on people to give.

Christians are nowhere told in the Bible to pay tithes. Collections are a tradition that started with the early Church and are completely voluntary. And, if you read the Book of Acts, you will see that new believers gave up everything they could to help their poor, persecuted brethren.

Answer 4

The tithes that a church collects is not a fee for belonging to the church. You can attend the church forever and never give it a penny. The tithes that people give to a church is in response to Gods commandment to "bring all your tithes and offerings into the storehouse...", and these tithes are normally 10% of a persons before tax earnings.
Some people don't give 10%, some do, and some try to when they can. I fall into that description somewhere myself.

"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “ If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it."
Malachi 3:9-11

Answer 5

Christians don't HAVE to tithe, but it is often encouraged if people can afford it. Not only because it is traditional, but because churches have bills, too, and priests and pastors still have to eat! If spiritual leaders spend a lot of their time looking after the needs of their congregation, that doesn't leave room for having a "regular" job. Also, it would be an enormous financial burden if just one person or a few individuals had to pay for everything that a church needs. It's much easier to spread the burden out among a larger number of people, that way nobody has to go broke but everyone can benefit in some way.

Answer 6

tithing is an act of worship. In worship services, we sing to God that we give all to Him and to come inside us. Well, giving Him a 10th of what we earn is a sign to Him that we love Him. It is giving back 10% of what He has given to us.

You are not required by the church to give this but God does. He doesn't ask, He demands. But not in the sense you think. He says, "If you love me you will keep my commandments". that means if we love Him then we'll want to keep His commandments. We'll want to tithe.

Me, personally, I didn't tithe for a long time. I finally was able to tithe and I tell you. At first it was hard, especially knowing that I didn't have enough money for bills. But you know what? I'm not homeless, I have a job, a car, and more than I need. God provides. If you're faithful with little then much will be given to you.

so all in all.. the reason we should tithe is because we want to bless God with what he's blessed us. It's a heart issue. a faith issue. We support the pastor and church as they do God's work.
hope this helps.

Answer 7

The idea of a tithe is based on the command to give a tenth of your income to support the temple, as well as the Levites whose life was dedicated to ministry to the people, and to the temple. These people had no source of making a living as everyone else did, so they depended on the people to support them, and this was also a law point given in the Levitical law as given in the Old Testament. That law has carried over to today since many Pastors gain their income from only serving in the church with no other source of income. If one examines closely what they do, as well as what is expected of them, then being the Pastor of a church is indeed a full time job. Let's look at it another way, would you work for a company for free? To have no income for what you do, yet be expected to be there to do the job expected of you? I doubt it. For the idea that a Pastor does nothing, I would offer anyone the idea of following one around all day, and all night and see what they put up with. People are some of the most whiny beings around, and expect their Pastor to be there to take care of all the problems brought to them.
So far as giving money as a "must do" to belong to a church, no, there is nothing to stop one from belonging to a church if they put nothing in the offering plate at any time.

Answer 8

It's not paying, it's called tithing and that's a voluntary contribution.
I can't believe how horrible people are about donating money to a church! What do you give, $5.00 to listen to an hour sermon? You'd give more than that to some dude on the street playing a guitar, or more than that when you request a song in a bar, or tip a pizza delivery guy.
Look up the meaning of the word tithing. I'm disgusted that people think donating to a church is somehow soooooo wrong or bad or criminal!
Next time, don't tip your hairdresser or waiter- that's tithing! Why should you PAY for a service, right?
Just keep your hands in your pockets and don't give a dime if that's how you feel.

Answer 9

Most churches are self-supportive and depend on the tithing of its members to pay for salaries, missionaries, benevolent acts, utilities, bibles, etc.

In the epistles, Paul used to encourage the people to help support their churches. You could also find examples of tithing in the old testament. Tithing is giving 10% of your earnings to the church. Some churches have annual expense reports which they give to their members. You should find out if your church have these and don't give until you feel completly comfortable with the idea and reason to give.

Answer 10

You do not have to tithe if you can not afford it. Biblically you are supposed to give a percentage to help the church do the work of God. The ministries for the homeless,abused and such as well as supporting anything else the church does to help out in the neighborhood. My church does not want you to do so if you can not. If you are making it but barely they pretty much in unspoken word tell you not to. It is or was once called an offering. In other words you are offering God part of what you have.Any one is welcome at almost any church and they do not have to give if they choose not to. It is not a prerequisite for worship.

Answer 11

it doesn't, but if you are a member of a church, you have an obligation to help fund the church so that they are able to provide the outreach to the community that they do. It is after all, your church. Most folks see it as giving money to God, since the money basically funds the church to do things for God. And yes, that has to include paying some full time people that are involved like the pastor.