Tithing is an extremely awkward subject for any person, in any church, in any walk with Christ. It always will be. Giving money to the church seems risky. People don’t want to invest money, each week, to something they don’t understand. People don’t want to give money if they don’t know what it’s going to or where it will be invested. Tithing in Kids Ministry is equally awkward and honestly even tougher.
Something really cool has been happening recently with our Kids Ministry tithing process. This summer our K-5th grade environment has been raising money for a local Elementary school in need of support. It’s a great school with awesome kids, but in a bad part of town where poverty is a major issue for the families around. We have been raising money to buy the teachers supplies for the classrooms, to buy flowers for the courtyard of the school, and for PAPER!
At first when we talked through this tithing process, I was skeptical on whether any kids would bring in any money at all for the cause. I was talking through my worries with a volunteer and she suggested that we make a competition out of it. Have a jar for boys and a jar for girls. Whoever raises the most money out of the groups wins a special prize on Sunday. Well we pitched it to the kids and the results were astounding! Kids have been bringing in more and more money each week. They have been so excited to see the money jars to see how much money was present.
It has been awesome! The thing that has been coolest is that the more money that has been brought in, the less the kids are worried about the competition. It has gotten to a point where they are just excited to be raising money for those in need. A kid last week brought in $20 dollars! That’s crazy! So it has made me wonder, why don’t we have the faith to tithe like children? Why don’t we give as freely as children?
I want to encourage all of you to pray through tithe. Listen to Christ in this call. Listen to where Christ leads you to donate, to help, and to grow. Giving isn’t a one way street, you’ll grow from the experience in big ways. How important is tithing to you?
“Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything.” -Proverbs 11:24 NLT
