It's Near, If You Have The Money

It took just took forty minutes to fly from Kitale up to Lodwar, the district city of Turkana in northwest Kenya.  On a bus the three hundred kilometer trip is about twelve hours as the roads have deteriorated dramatically over the past several years.  Accompanying me on the trip was Rev. Paul Gickuki, a longtime friend and pastor of his church in West Pokot for thirty-five years.  Overhearing his conversation on his cell phone he was telling someone that, “If you have the money, Lodwar is close.”

Paul’s comment reminded me of the power of money; not the common thought of power to wield power, but the power money has to make life just a bit easier.  The twelve-hour bus ride costs about $15, whereas the forty-five minute flight, round-trip, is $150.  Instead of jostling in a packed bus in ninety plus heat, the flight is clean, cool and enjoyable.  Flying to Turkana is not a necessity, but it does make the trip bearable.  In my case, if it were not for the flight I could not have visited the pastors in Turkana as my schedule was tight which did not allow for two twelve hour excursions.  Having resources means that a person can do more in less time. 

Everything is close, if you have the money and if you have a lot it you can do more.  A private or chartered flight would have been even more convenient as you could schedule your day(s) based on your time rather than on the airline’s schedule.  And, if the airline had mechanical problems or delays due to weather, rather than fret about whether you would miss that one flight a day into the bush and back, having money takes the worry out of whether you will make that international flight you scheduled that night in Nairobi. 

Someone has rightly said that rich people plan for next week or next month, while the poor plan only for the next day.  If you have enough money you can chart the future.  If you don’t have the resources you live each day the best you can.

In many ways missions is a money game.  The ability to create programs, to help those in need, to generate a vision based on the resources available is not a bad thing.  Money is a power, if used properly, which can advance Kingdom work in a positive way.  The lack of resources makes missions even more difficult in an already difficult profession. 

The power of money or the lack thereof, of course, is not absolute and it can be a detriment in missions.  The notion that one cannot serve because they don’t “have enough” resources should be measured.  Do we live by faith, really, or is it based on the funds that are either in the bank or forthcoming?  If the trip to Turkana is vital are we able to suffer the bus for the greater cause, or do we scrap it because it is not convenient?  Is the motivation for service hinged on what God is leading us to do no matter what we have in the bank?  These are important and difficult questions, but significant in the life of every servant of Christ.

Indeed, Lodwar is close if you have the money, but whether by plane or bus, the greater issue is not how near we are but how far we are willing to travel to serve Him.

Missionary Tithe

For the past couple of years a mission organization has asked me to speak at their candidate school and I am asked to speak on what people need to when they get on the field. I have entitled these talks, “It’s Tuesday, Now What Do I Do?” In addition to what people need to do the first 12 months they are on the field I have a list of things new missionaries should not do! In this category I touch on the sticky issue of the missionary tithe.

At the outset let me state clearly that I am well aware we are not under the Mosaic Law and the tithe is not applicable for New Testament believers. Nevertheless, I grew up believing that giving ten percent is a good yardstick to gauge Christian stewardship. The little Baptist church I attended in Gardena, California drilled into me that a Christian should give, at a minimum, a tithe or we might be guilty of holy theft, i.e., robbing God! So, from the proceeds of my paper route, for every quarter I collected (yes, that was the months subscription in 1959) two and half cents of that two bits belonged to God. To this day I still remember the pride I took in placing my “tithe,” usually about a dollar and half, in an offering envelope each month. It’s one of the really great spiritual habits that were formed in my childhood. I still enjoy giving to God’s work.

When I arrived in Kenya as a missionary many years later there was a discussion among my colleagues on where the missionary tithe should go? I must admit, I have vacillated on this issue over the years. My friends on the field were adamant that the tithe should be given to the local church that a missionary was affiliated with on the field. I do indeed believe that the local church should receive the tithe, but the problem I had with that theory was that it gave a false impression, especially in developing country like Kenya, of how well that local assembly was doing.

Working among semi-nomadic tribes of Turkana and Pokot, the offering of 50 church attendees wouldn’t be enough to buy a half-kilo of beans. If, however, I put in my tithe then the church was almost self-supporting, able to pay the pastor a salary and going a long way in constructing a sanctuary. And, while my fellow missionary friends seemed to have no problem with reporting such church growth, I had a big problem with it. In addition to falsifying an autonomist national church to donors back home, the local church itself operates on a bogus assumption. Forty cents given by the congregation and forty dollars provided by the missionary is not congregational solvency, it’s an ecclesiastical ponzi scheme.

Additionally to be misleading, a missionary’s tithe sucks the life out of motivation for local Christians in the assembly in getting involved in their home church. There is no incentive for the national member to give to the church as their attitude is, “If it’s really important, the missionary will take care of it.”

I came to the conclusion that a missionary should not give a tithe on the field but to his/her home church back in the U.S., Korea, Philippines or wherever that missionary is from. Apart from the reasons mentioned above, I am coming to believe that the issue of money control is a sin against God.

We all know or have heard of people who withhold giving when they are offended or disagree with how money is spent by their local church. I do not see in Scripture where the Lord’s followers are given that power. I believe we have an obligation to give to the Lord’s work and I have a conviction (like Paul, I don’t speak by command but by persuasion) that my giving should not directly related to how it benefits me or, in the case of a missionary, my ministry. As a result of that persuasion, as a missionary on the field until today, I give to the local church of my membership, not my residence.

While a resident in Kenya of course I supported and raised money for many projects. But I never propped up a church with a false regular tithe. Indeed, I went out of my way, to the dismay of many African congregations, NOT to support their local church because I wanted to disciple them in the great gift of giving and not rob them of that joy, though they were not particularly happy with this aspect of spiritual growth.

To this day my wife and I tithe to our sending church. We also give weekly to the church we attend as well as to certain missionaries we support. And by the way, this is out of our salary, not from our organization. I think it’s unseemly for mission heads to tithe to their organization for the benefit of their own ministry.

Our gifts should be to God freely. If our giving is so we can control how the money is used I think we are not only cheating Him, but ourselves as well. That’s my opinion, but no doubt some would disagree.