A missionary gives his offering to:

It seems to me that it is counter-intuitive to send money back to the home church. For example, if the home church is sending money to support the mission, what sense does it make to have the mission send money back? I say the missionary could give money to the mission church, which is being supported by the home church. This would be the functional equivalent of giving money to the mission through the home church.

 

I like this!

Our church is not like this, though, so we send our tithes, offerings, and missions back to the Home Church.

 

We tithe to our local church - the church we started in Ireland, and have since its inception.

 

This is interesting.

Where in scripture do we see a missionary giving any sort of tithes or offering (by this I mean money)? They have pledged their entire lives to the spreading of God's word, is that not enough?

 

God calls us to giving regardless of our circumstances, and if the missionary is led by God to give, then he should.

As for tithing, I do not believe in the practice, so I'm not going to worry about that one.

 

I'm not arguing either of these. What I asked was do we have any example of a NT missionary who gave an offering of money to a local church or sent such back to Jerusalem. I can find several examples of money being sent for the support of the missionary, but none of the missionary sending back an offering to the church/a church/any church.

 

Well, then I agree with you. I see no NT example, either.

 

Salt Lake City Baptist,

Nobody can participate in the thread you linked to. It has been archived, which means its closed.

And the only form of giving for Christians is what you called "grace giving".

The Tithe has no part of Christian teaching or giving.

Each Christian is to give whatever they choose to give, with no compulsion, or required amount of any kind....

:godisgood:

 

We have a different situation where we give more Home than we are given. It's a small church and if we didn't help with the missions fund, others would be dropped so that we could have (the church puts our part first).

It does seem like we are supporting ourselves, though...

 

I find the idea that a missionary must tithe back to his sending church to be ridiculous. If he wants to he may, but occasionally a church requires it and that's just plain counter-productive. If I could not tithe here in Japan there is so much we could not do for the Lord.

Here are my reasons:

​

Theological Considerations​

1. There is no evidence in the book of Acts that the missionary/apostles tithed back to the church at Jerusalem.
2. There is no evidence in the book of Acts or the Pauline epistles that Paul and Barnabas tithed back to the church at Antioch.
3. On the other hand, Acts 14:26 says the Antioch church commended them. The original for “commended” is paradidomi, a strong word which is also used for “cast out,” “deliver” or even “betray.” In other words, the Antioch church, though obviously not cutting all ties with the missionaries, very definitely relinquished control over them.
4. In the 0ld Testament “the tithe is the Lord’s” (Lev. 27:30-32), not the temple’s. Even accepting the interpretation that in the church age the storehouse of Malachi 3 is the local church, it is still difficult to maintain that one’s tithe belongs to a particular local church.
5. There are no commands in the New Testament regarding tithing to a church other than that which one is currently attended. On the other hand, there is a difficult passage in the Old Testament regarding what to do with the tithe when one is far from the Temple, and the passage does not teach sending it to the Temple (Deut 14:22-29).

Practical Considerations​

1. If the missionary’s tithe is sent back to the sending church, a vital source of ministry income is denied the use of the church on the field. This is especially true in an expensive country like Japan. This is especially important at the start of a church-planting effort, when start-up expenses (rent, Bibles, hymnbooks, etc.) are high and the only tithers are the missionaries.
2. The pastor is to be an example to the flock (1 Tim. 4:12, Phil. 3:17. 2 Thess. 3:9. 1 Pet. 2:6). If a missionary must tithe to his sending church, he cannot be an example of tithing to the believers in the church to which he ministers.
3. If the missionary’s tithe is sent to the sending church, some or all of the sending church’s support for the missionary is negated.

 

If I were a full-time missionary and I attended a church in my mission field on a regular basis that is where my tithe would go. If I started a church and served there I would tithe there. If I traveled from one place to another and had no church to call home where I served then I would probably send my tithe back to the church where my membership last resided.

 

I agree with you John.
From a practical standpoint in many places it is almost impossible.
People are sent to remote places where just receiving their support is difficult.
Sending anything back is nigh to impossible. In a country I was once in, the money received was immediately converted into the currency of the nation one was in. The currency was restricted. In other words it would do no good outside of its own country. To send any money back, you would have to "buy back" your own currency. That defeats the purpose of the people supporting you, or is in the very least a waste of the money that they are supporting you with.

 

Very true. Add to that the fact that the dollar is so weak around the world right now. Many missionaries are struggling financially--I know we are. And then does someone expect us to send back funds that could be used in the church we are planting here? Not going to happen.

 

SaltCityBaptist...


Hmmm.

For some reason when I tried the 1st time to click on the link you provided it didnt work, but now it does.

Strange creature, this internet. :laugh:


:godisgood: