What matters most to you when selecting a financial advisor?
Someone who shares your biblical values? How about someone who will take the time to explain your financial options clearly? Certified kingdom advisors meet high standards of competence, integrity, and biblical training, equipping them to offer financial advice grounded in God's word. No more wondering if your advisor truly understands what's important to you. Find a certified kingdom advisor near you at findaceka.com.
That's findaca.com. What does scripture really say about tithing, and does it still apply to Christians today? Hi, I'm Rob West. For some, the tithe feels like a doorway to trusting God's provision. For others, it's a source of guilt, confusion, or even division in the church.
John Cortinez joins us today to help us take a fresh biblical look at this ancient practice. Then it's onto your calls at 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey.
Well, it's a privilege to have my friend John Cortinez with us today as Director of Grantmaking at the McClellan Foundation and a frequent contributor to FaithPhy. John brings a wealth of wisdom to these conversations each time he joins us. And, John, it's great to have you back. Great to be with you, Rob. Thanks so much.
John, your article on tithing and the new issue of Faithful Steward, our magazine, starts with such a relatable moment. It was you receiving your first paycheck and wrestling with how to give. And maybe as a backdrop to this conversation, you could share that story with us. Absolutely.
Well, you know, like many people. I sort of thought of Christian stewardship. You know, maybe it boils down to giving 10% or tithing. That's something that's in our Christian culture. But I got that first paycheck and I ran into this question, is it 10% gross of the total amount or is it 10% net?
Because, like anybody who's gotten that first big professional paycheck, you go, wow, they paid me a lot less than 10% of. what the ticket was supposed to be. And so 10% net was small, 10% gross was big. And then I realized. That I'm getting all these benefits like health insurance and 401k contributions, and should I be tithing on that?
And so 10% sounds easy, but I found that calculating the right number and stressing over that was robbing me over the joy of what Christian generosity should be. Yeah. And I suspect many in our listening audience really resonate with that. You describe this potentially as even a divisive issue. What do you think makes it such a sensitive subject even within the church?
Well, you know, I think the teaching on this varies so much, but our Christian Stewardship culture does center, maybe overly anchor, I would argue, on this concept of the tithe. Over the past decade since I've been in this space in a serious way, I've spoken to hundreds and hundreds of people about their faith and finances. And for some people, like you said, tithing's been this doorway to trusting in God's provision and learning. how to faithfully give. But for other people it's really tied to a manipulative or even prosperity gospel style of teaching.
There are preachers today who will actually teach that if you fail to religiously give 10% to their church. you'll be under a financial curse from God. And so there's often a lack of a fuller biblical framework that holds truth and grace around this topic and really looks at the tide biblically. Yeah, and that's why I so appreciate the approach you've taken with this article in Faithful Stewart. It's titled Tithing: A Fresh Look at an Ancient Practice.
And you really took a deep dive both into the Old and New Testament, looking at each reference to the tithe, not only the word, but really the teaching on giving as it relates to the tithe. Let's start with the Old Testament and talk about how it portrays tithing.
Well, great. Yeah. So the Bible mentions tithing. 49 times. across 15 different instances throughout scripture.
And in the article, for those who are curious, we highlight every one of those instances. But just for some quick highlights in the Old Testament, as you said. Way back before the law, we had Abraham giving a gift to Melchizedek. Which predates the law and honors the priesthood of God. And then we see Jacob vowing to give 10%.
But in his prayer, it's kind of a conditional promise. If you do this, God, I'll do that for you. It's not clear biblically whether this is a model prayer that we should emulate the style of or not. Then when we do get to the law, We actually see three different tithes or three different uses for the tithe, depending on which. Commentator, you might be reading.
Those were the Levitical tithes to support the priesthood. That's probably the most familiar for people. But there were also festival tithes to fund the Jewish feasts. And then there was a charity tithe to support the poor. And throughout the history of Israel, and we see the tithe mentioned a few more times, there were cycles of neglect and then reform around these practices.
Yeah. And so, John, if we were to annualize this, again, just looking at the Old Testament, it would have been perhaps as much as 23.3% annually. Is that right? That's right. Again, there's some kind of disputes around the edges of how would you calculate that?
But a clear-cut 10% is not quite what it was. Yeah, no doubt about it.
Well, when we come back, we're gonna continue to unpack this. What about the New Testament? Are there principles we can take away from the Old and New Testament to apply to our giving today? And what does this look like practically? John Cortine is here today.
We're talking about the tithe. John is director of grant making at the McClellan Foundation. Stay with us, much more to come. Are you looking for a financial professional who shares your Christian values and offers advice you can trust? Certified Kingdom Advisors are experienced financial, legal, and accounting professionals who have completed a rigorous certification program rooted in biblical financial wisdom.
They need high standards of integrity, competence, and stewardship, helping you honor God with all He's entrusted to you. To find a Certified Kingdom Advisor in your area, go to findacka.com. Wondering who Faith and Finance recommends as a banking partner that aligns with Christian values? It's Christian Community Credit Union. When you open a high yield checking, savings, or Visa cash back card, you'll help advance the gospel when making everyday transactions.
Visit faithfy.com slash banking and use code FAITHFY when you sign up. That's faithfy.com slash banking with code FAITHFI. Membership eligibility required. Each account is insured up at $250,000. This institution is not federally insured.
Thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. With me today, my friend John Cortinez. He's director of grantmaking at the McClellan Foundation. He's also a frequent contributor here at Faith Pi, and he has an article in our new issue with Faithful Steward magazine all about the tithe that really takes a deep look and scripture at this ancient practice and helps us pull out principles that we can apply to our giving today.
Hopefully, helping you to overcome confusion, perhaps even misunderstanding, or divisiveness that has existed around this topic. John, I so appreciate the approach you took at this, diving into scripture to really examine the tithe. Before the break, you took us into the Old Testament. I'd love to hear about the New Testament and how it carries forward the tithe, perhaps as a rule or not, for Christians giving today.
Well, this is fascinating, Rob, because as you know, the tithe is so central in what we hear and think about stewardship as believers. But in the article we list the twenty one richest chapters of stewardship teaching in the New Testament.
So, you got Jesus, you've got the apostles. They had so much to say about money and giving, but what was crazy to me. Is that they never once used the tithe as a framework for Christian stewardship in the New Testament church? And I recognize that's a pretty shocking statement. But the tithe is simply not a foundational stewardship framework in the New Testament.
Now, many people would point out, but the word tithe does occur in the New Testament. And yes, it's there four times. Each time, if you get into it, it's used incidentally. It kind of comes up as a side point in a broader conversation. And in fact, Jesus criticizes those who believe that their perfect tithing earns God's favor.
If their lives don't demonstrate true humility, justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
So as we look at Christ and the Apostles, they focus on gospel generosity. which is voluntary and sacrificial and joyful and regularly scheduled and brings glory to God. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. And I suspect there are a lot of people listening today that are surprised by what you just said about the lack of a foundational teaching around the tithe in the New Testament. You did, however, though, identify five key principles rooted in the Old Testament tithe that we can pull forward to inform our giving today.
Let's examine those. Perhaps we can start with the first two.
Well, that's right. And, you know, we can argue for years about how applicable is the tithe today. And I think that's an important conversation. But what's very interesting to ask for me is what is certain, what is universal about the ancient tithes, and what beauty can we find in them? There's so much beauty in them.
And here's one. We give to Christ as our priest and king. And that actually reflects the truth that we saw when Abraham gave to Melchizedek, honoring the spiritually greater person. In front of him. And then, secondly, we do give faithfully to our local church.
It is good and proper. To fund ministry and care for our spiritual leaders, and that honors the principle behind the Levitical tithe. Yeah. And I love this, that you're honoring those Old Testament tithes in how we give today.
So we give to Christ as priest and king. We give faithfully to our local church. What are those other principles? Sure.
So, number three, this one is surprising as well. It's to celebrate. You know, there was the festival tithe where we set aside resources for feasting and celebrating God's goodness and building a legacy of faith. But even it points out in scripture not to use debt to fund those holy celebrations or those legacy building memorable times. That's three.
Four would be to care for the poor faithfully, which honours the charity tithe by remembering the weak. And then here's number five. We recognize 10% as an ancient benchmark. It's a helpful starting point, it's very easy math. It may not be a legalistic yardstick in the church today.
And you know, even in the Old Testament, you talked about the complications of the calculation. The tithe was the tenth to pass under the shepherd's rod. What does that mean? If I had nine new sheep born, Well, that's no tithe. If I had 10 sheep, that's one for the tithe.
What if I had 17 sheep?
Well, that's one for the tithe.
So it's 0%, 5%, 10%, depending on how many sheep are born. And that's in Leviticus 27, for those who want to go look at it. But you know, you and I both have 10 fingers, and 10% is the easiest fraction for a human being to calculate.
So even if I'm not under the law, that's a very good ancient measuring stick if I'm going to think about generous giving. Yeah. Well, and to your point earlier, you know, we should, as New Testament believers, be giving proportionate and systematic, as you said, regularly scheduled. And so this 10% starting point, as Randy Elkorn says, maybe the training wheels of giving is an appropriate way to think about at least part of our giving.
Now, one of the other helpful ways that we can understand this is perhaps hearing it in the form of a story. In this article, you actually present a case study comparing two individuals. We could call them Jack and Cindy. I'd love for you to share and summarize their stories and explain why they make the point so effectively.
Well, sure. You know, and Rob, just like you, I have the privilege of talking to so many people about their finances and their giving. And I had these two real-life conversations almost just a week apart. And so it stuck in my mind. Let's call the first one Jack, and he tithes confidently.
And he said to me, and I quote, He said, I tithe on the promise of Malachi. I've heard teaching on this. I know it's true. If I'm tithing to my church, in fact, my personal income will never go down. It can't go down.
It will only go up because of the blessing I'm securing for myself.
Now by contrast, Other person about a week later, totally separate conversation. Let's call her Cindy. She's humble, she's concerned. She said, my giving has fallen down to 9%. I'm worried that I'm being unfaithful to the Lord.
But meanwhile, if you look at her life, she and her husband host a church small group. They faithfully volunteer every Sunday, and they actually had foster children in their middle class home. And the expense of that was one of the reasons their giving was stretched. And so if I go let's take a legalistic reading of ten percent giving. Jack wins and Cindy loses.
But if I honestly imagine that Jesus were here in the conversation, I think it's clear which one he might point to as living with the humility and faithfulness that he calls us to. I love that example, John. It really does change the way we think about this.
So on a practical level, for our listeners today, how would you encourage them to live out these principles then without drifting into pride or even guilt? Absolutely.
Well, you know, I think one of the key points here is to recognize that that Old Testament system, there was a lot of complexity there. And giving is not just one fixed calculation back then or today. Even beyond the tithe, if you go study the Old Testament, there were lots of different offerings involved.
So just a word of caution here. This may be a strong statement, but if someone is teaching that you'll be specially blessed if you give 10% of your money to their ministry or church. and even cursed if you don't. I'll just say, be cautious. That sounds maybe more manipulative than strictly biblical.
Be careful. That could be a prosperity gospel type of environment that you're in. And I'd encourage anybody to check out the Faithful Stewart article that has come out and study those 21 chapters in the New Testament that we list there. They all teach about joyful and sacrificial, scheduled, grace giving. which should flow naturally out of our lives as disciples of Christ.
Anyone listening, I'd say start today. Look at 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, 1 Timothy chapter 6. I mean, just beautiful. Teaching. And lastly, remember that Jesus Himself.
He values humility and justice and mercy over a perfectly calculated giving percentage. We see that in Matthew 23, Luke 11, Luke 18. Yeah. John, just about 30 seconds left. What's one takeaway, perhaps one practice that has been shaped by this study of the tithe in your own life?
Well, you know, every dollar is Christ. Every breath I take is Christ. Every dollar I have or spend, not 10%, but all of my life. And this whole conversation is not an excuse to give less. My wife and I personally give beyond 10%.
But let me just say this as we close. We don't give to get a special blessing from God. We get to give. In other words, we give because we've already received the greatest gift, which is our salvation and adoption into the family of God. That is well said.
John, so thankful for you, my friend. Thank you so much, Rob. That was John Cortinez, Director of Grantmaking at the McClellan Foundation. Folks, if you want to read the latest issue of Faithful Steward, we'd invite you to become a partner at faithfy.com/slash partner. We'll be right back.
As the leading advocate for the Christian financial industry, Kingdom Advisors serves the public by promoting the integration of a biblical worldview across every aspect of the financial services industry. And we serve a growing network of thousands of Christian financial professionals, equipping and empowering them to carry biblical financial wisdom to their clients, peers, and community. For more information, visit kingdomadvisors.com. That's kingdomadvisors.com. Are you looking to maximize your charitable impact this season?
The National Christian Foundation has a smart solution. It's called a giving fund, and it helps you give more strategically, grow your balance tax-free, and amplify your charitable impact. If you want a donor-advised fund that aligns with your values, open a giving fund today and start making a bigger difference for the causes you love. Learn how at faithfi.com forward slash NCF. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance.
It's time to take your calls and questions today. The number to call: 800-525-7,000. That's 800-525-7,000. Our goal in this program every day is to reverently approach God's Word, understanding that we are charged with a high calling, and that is to be stewards or managers of the King of Kings resources. We want to do that in a way that's wise, that is infused by God's Word, that's hopeful, to encourage you in your role as a steward and lead you toward faithfulness.
Well, we do that every day as we tackle your financial questions and hear your testimonies. And don't miss that. We love to hear when God is at work in your financial life and you have a story to share where that you've applied these principles and you've seen God at work and faithfully providing for you over the years. Share those with us as well. The number to call to be a part of the program.
Program today is 800-525-7,000. That's 800-525-7,000. All right, let's go to Texas. Robert, go ahead, sir. Hey, how you doing today, brethren?
I'm doing great. Thanks for your call. Yes, sir. Hey, I wanted to make sure or try to figure out, you know, on some investments for like retirement, future retirement. I'm fifty six years old.
I think I am standing in a pretty good position. I've got a 401k that's worth about 150K. I've probably got 50, 60 maybe in savings. I've got one rental property that makes a little bit of money. It still has a mortgage, but it does make a little bit of money a month, you know, profit, a couple, two, three hundred dollars a month profit on that monthly.
My mortgage, my home mortgage, it's paid off. My vehicles are paid off. All I've got is like your daily living expenses, your utilities, your groceries, your gas. Most of my earnings goes into savings. I plan on retiring in a few years.
So I just want to make some financial decisions. on which way to go or what to invest in For the future, when I do retire, say maybe four years, I'm 56, maybe around 60. I don't want to work my whole life and not be able to enjoy, you know, what I've got left. Yes, sir. I certainly understand that.
You know, I think at around 55, I mean, you know, we used to use the rule of 100.
Now we use the rule of 110 because people are living longer.
So you take 110 minus your age.
So you're 56, round numbers, let's go 55.
So the answer is 55.
So that would mean that's the percent you would want in equities, stocks, and then the balance. And in your case, it'd be 45% you'd have in fixed income or bonds. And the idea is that as you get older, as you age, you're going to get more conservative. And that means you move more away from stocks and into fixed income type investments, bonds, CDs, you know, things like that, government treasuries. And that's going to be more stable.
It's going to provide income. But you've still got this stock portion that provides some growth. Because, you know, at 55, I mean, potentially you need this money to last the next four decades, you know, well into your 90s. And that means we've got to outpace inflation. We've got to keep it growing, even though.
We want to get more conservative over time.
So, I think what you want to do is probably find an advisor who can help advise you on this $150K. If it's still in the 401k, you're probably not ready for an advisor. But if you're ready to roll it out and you've separated from the employer, you know, at that point, you'd want to hire an advisor and you could find a certified kingdom advisor on our website, faithfy.com. Just click find a professional. But if not, then you'll pick from your investments inside your 401k.
And I'd look for either a target date fund where you can pick the target date for your expected retirement. You know, let's say that's a, I mean, here we are 20, maybe that's a 2035 fund, 10 years from now. And then that will just automatically get more conservative as we approach 2035 or 2040. Otherwise, you'd probably want to pick among the funds so you have roughly a 50-50 or a 60-40 portfolio stocks to buy. Does that make sense?
Yes, it does, 'cause I am still continuing to invest in my 401k I'm still currently employed and I plan to be until maybe the day I re decide to retire.
So there's a pretty good sum still going in there on the weekly basis, the percentage.
So it is still growing.
So it still has time to grow. You know, in the next few years.
So that's just what's in there now, but maybe in a few years, because it it seems like 'cause I check it on a regular basis. And it seems to be growing pretty some substantially in in a s in a Well, the market's been doing really well, and that's why.
So it sounds like you're on the right track here. When you get ready to retire, you'll want to roll it out to an advisor. But I just say keep up the good work. Thanks for your call. Quickly to Florida.
Tom, I've got just a minute left. Go ahead.
So I kind of piggyback on the last caller. My relative seems to be passing away at mid seventies, maybe eighties. Do we really need that much of a IOA for a good Yes, retirement. Yeah, it's a good question, Tom.
So, you know, here's the question at the heart of what you're asking about: what is the right amount? for me to have as a savings goal. And none of us know the day of the hour. The Lord will call us home. We always need to balance how much is enough against whatever God may lay on your heart with regard to your lifestyle, the giving you wanna do.
and how much accumulation you want to have. And so I think it starts with a retirement budget. And so you could back into that budget. Most people live on 70 to 80 percent of their preretirement income. And so let's say you're making $75,000 a year.
And 80% of that is 60K.
So, how much do you need in the bank to cover $60,000 a year?
Well, if Social Security is gonna cover half of that, you need $30,000. And so, if you had 250 grand saved up. 4% a year would be 10,000.
So you'd need about 750,000. But that's if you want to have it last indefinitely. If you want to plan for a shorter period of time, it brings that number down. But it really all stems from your retirement budget on a monthly basis. Thanks for your call.
Well, folks, we're nearing the end of the program today. You know, as we think about applying God's wisdom to our financial decisions and choices, we want to look back to God's word. And here's what we will find. You know, apart from the big idea that we're stewards and God is owner and He gives us the power to create wealth, I think we need to remind ourselves that there are plenty of admonitions in scripture around how we should handle money, the fact that we should avoid debt, the importance of goal setting, the importance of paying our taxes, the fact that we should be training the next generation, our kids, in these principles and a biblical worldview of money management, and certainly living within our means. And we want to remind you of the Those principles and ideas that are very practical but rooted in God's word each time we gather together.
And by the way, and speaking of living within our means, if you're struggling with that like I am and so many of us are in the midst of high inflation, check out the FaithFi app. It's what Julie and I use to manage our budget every day. And it's really helpful to know what's left in each envelope when you take a look at that app in real time. You can download it today at faithfy.com. Just click app.
Big thanks to my team today, Pat, Taylor, and Devin, plus everybody here at FaithFi. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Faith in Finance is provided by Faith By and listeners like you.
