NowTHINK!AboutIt

Can Time Replace Money for Tithes?

August 18, 2012 by EnnisP 1 Comment

Anyone Can And Should
Give Their Time To God
Should We Consider It A Tithe

A person’s time can qualify as their tithe but under what conditions? Can anyone do this? Would all time-served qualify?

Just off the top of my head, I came up with a few thoughts on the matter. You be the judge but keep this in mind. For time to qualify as a tithe, it must add value to the organization.

Churches are not aimless. God commissioned them to do many good things in this world and, large or small, they need some kind of structure to get the job done. Tithe money is the resource for funding the effort so if time and service are to qualify as a tithe then following are some possible ideas for gauging the effectiveness of a person’s time.

It doesn’t have to be overly rigid but a few guidelines to keep in mind are:

Serve the same amount of time regularly.
Serve in a pre appointed time slot or at lease one that coordinates with the church schedule.
Serve in a capacity you can handle.
Serve reliably.
Serve cooperatively and under the direction of the organization.
Provide a useful service.

Sounds like an employment contract and it should. Giving your time as a tithe instead of money should work very much like a job. Employees work at a designated time and perform specified functions for which they are paid, usually by the hour.

Not showing up on time or performing poorly can be more hurtful than helpful, just like a job.

The time you serve in church shouldn’t be treated any less significantly than any other employment. It is important. It needs to add value.

THINK!AboutIt?

Be A Chopstick Not A Chop

August 7, 2012 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

What Do Churches and Chopsticks
Have In Common

We recently had “Chopstick” Sunday at church. The title of the sermon was “Be A Chopstick Not A Chop” and the message was quite simple.

Instead of being just an individual attending church, each person should aim more and more toward becoming a collective part of the whole.

The word Church, after all, is a collective noun. It refers to one entity but is made up of many parts working in unison – church members – and chopsticks illustrate what that looks like in practice.

You could say the word hand is also a collective noun. It is one appendage on your body but it has several parts – digits – that work well together to do many complex things, like hold and use chopsticks. Easier said than done.

Chopsticks are very simple gadgets but aren’t so easy to use. They enable a person to eat food one-handedly but it takes more than just chopsticks to accomplish this. It requires the synchronized effort of at least four fingers coordinated enough to perform the task.

Each finger has a different part to play and must practice to get the movements correct. The skill to grip a piece of food with chopsticks and transport it without incident from plate to mouth doesn’t come naturally. It requires each part to perform a different function separately but in unison to accomplish this goal.

I’m not sure why anyone would want to eat food one-handedly but they do and chopsticks in a deft hand make that happen. The point is, like chopsticks, the church involves many different parts working together, with coordination, to accomplish whatever goal they visualize.

And just like chopsticks, it takes practice to get it right. This is important because in a word, the best way to describe a human being is: limited. We are not stand-alone entities. For any individual to accomplish any notable thing, others must do their part. Therefore, the philosophy is: [Read more…] about Be A Chopstick Not A Chop

What Does “Purpose In Your Heart” Mean?

July 17, 2012 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

“To give or not to give”
Is NOT The Question

Every Christian knows that “giving” is what we do. No one questions it. It is automatic. Even new Christians, not yet schooled in the art of giving, have a nagging sense of responsibility to give. When urged to do so they give without hesitation, in most cases. This means, of course, that “Giving” or “Not Giving” is not the question.

The real question is “how much should one give and how regularly?”

Or to put it another way, how does one determine how much they should personally give? Is there biblical instruction, a rule of thumb to follow, or a general principle to apply?

Most of the responses to that question fall into one of two categories: Tithing or Grace Giving.

Tithing is contributing 10% of your net income (some say gross) to God’s purposes. That statement isn’t exactly clear. There are still questions to answer but the Grace concept is a little less definitive. I’ll share more just now.

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Unfortunately, the discussion between the adherents of these two schools is often frictious. Not always but often and that isn’t strange. Money is a sensitive issue so we shouldn’t be surprised when people get lathered during discussions on right and wrong ways to manage it. For the record, just so you know, I’m not trying to start a fight here. [Read more…] about What Does “Purpose In Your Heart” Mean?

Why The Bible Is The True Best Seller

June 24, 2012 by EnnisP 12 Comments

The Bible Sells Best Because
It Is Living, Powerful And
Universally Desired

The Bible is often said to be the world’s best-sold book but search the bestseller lists and you won’t find it anywhere, top to bottom.

It makes you wonder. If it’s a best-seller, why isn’t it on the list? Well, the answer is simple.

The annual sales figures for the Bible are so high, averaging between $425m and $650m, repeatedly – year after year – that it dwarfs the sales of all other books. The best any other book can hope for is second place and a very distant second place at that.

A list of “best sellers” is interesting only if the top spot is up for grabs so the real best-seller had to give way to all the rest.

The Harry Potter series, which has enjoyed high volume sales in recent years, is a good example. According to The New Yorker even books with Harry Potter stature don’t compete well with the Bible. Not only is the Bible the best seller of all time it continues to be the best seller every year even when compared to the astounding sales figures of a series like Harry Potter. [Read more…] about Why The Bible Is The True Best Seller

Inch By Inch Life’s A Cinch

June 7, 2012 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Not All Inches Are Equal
Variety More Important
Than Number

Basically there are three kinds of people: routinely organized, obsessively organized and sufficiently organized. The differences are:

The Routinely Organized person can give you a list of things they will do on any given day.

They start each day with the list in hand. During the course of the day they will accomplish all or most of the things on their list. At the end of each day they will make another list for the next day. This person is comfortable with habit.

My grandmother was this kind of person. She made many hamburgers during the course of her life using her special recipe and every one tasted exactly the same. They were amazingly delicious like everything else she cooked.

The Obsessively Organized person can give you a list and a timetable for every item on the list.

They can tell you when each item will or should begin and they can give you an end time as well. They also have a contingency plan should things not go as expected. This person loves reaching short term goals.

The Sufficiently Organized person may or may not have a list each day.

This person takes the long view not the list view so the day to day grind bores them. Living in the moment – the opposite of routine – characterizes their life. They easily over schedule and over commit but contrary to popular opinion this persons knows there is an ultimate reason for everything and can eventually achieve significance.

All three approaches are important because each one represents a different kind of inch: routine, project and ultimate purpose. None alone is sufficient. It is true that routine is the bedrock of success but you need more than a bedrock to succeed.

What you do in any one day doesn’t represent a life purpose and you can’t always “goal” your way into that purpose. The many common things we routinely do are good examples: eat, sleep, brush teeth, bath, tend the garden, go to work, pay the bills, etc.

Those things give us a sense of personal control and continuity but none of them are all important.

What about cultures where people don’t brush their teeth. Would they gauge individual significance on how many teeth you have left or how many false ones you can afford at the end of life? To them a full set of teeth would seem weird. Fortunately, meaningful living is possible even for people who gum their food. That’s good because brushing your teeth regularly is no guarantee you won’t lose your teeth anyway.

All of that is to say that ultimate success isn’t determined by numbing routine or an endless list of goals achieved and there are many proofs of this in the Bible. Biblical characters with the most impact aren’t easy to emulate. There was nothing routine or repeatable in their path to significance as the following examples will show. [Read more…] about Inch By Inch Life’s A Cinch