Short on cash?

One of the most difficult challenges in starting a new church is having the "much needed" resources to finance the ministry. I was reminded of this yesterday while visiting (coaching) a church planter in my region. As we talked about the challenges of people tithing to resource the church plant I realized a lesson that I had learned in my church planting journey. People want to give! As people connect with your plant they quickly understand that they should give 10% of their income as a tithe to the Lord. The problem that I found is that they don't tithe (10%) because they are so much in debt, they hardly give at all because they feel guilty about not tithing 10%. I learned this one day in a discussion I had with a young couple about tithing. They were distressed over the fact that they couldn't tithe because they didn't have the money too tithe. As I listened about their financial situation it dawned on me that they felt that they could only give about 4% of their income because of their debt load. As I assessed their dilemma I realized that they weren't giving at all since it wasn't the full 10%. The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart to give them this challenge; start where you are. I learned that the best approach to get people to start tithing was to start with a committed heart to give what they could. I believe that the biblical responsibility of every believer is that they pay off their debts. Irresponsible biblical behavior is that you "don't pay your debts" and and that you use that money to tithe 10% to the church. What I learned to do with this dilemma was to encourage people to both pay off their debts and sacrificially commit to tithing what they could to the Lord. I challenged them to increase their tithe as they paid off their debts. Through this approach we had more people giving and resourcing the work of the church, and we also saw an increase in our people becoming better financial stewards and contributors to the work of our church plant. The lesson learned; people want to give! Help them to become biblically responsible with their money. Teach them to pay off their debts while also giving to the Lord, whatever amount 1,2, 5, 7, 10% that they can give to the Lord. Challenge them to increase their giving as they get rid of their debt load. If you do this, you will find more resources for your church plant.