Tithing: Require Your Staff?

So last week I did a series on preaching about tithing for an “audience” of non-Christians and someone left a comment basically saying, “You’re not one of those people who require your staff to tithe, are you?!?”

My answer? Absolutely.

Are you serious?! I have no interest in working with people who aren’t sold out to Jesus and advancing His Kingdom. God commands financial generosity towards Him in the New Testament and, as I’ve been saying the last two days, I believe generosity begins somewhere above ten percent. So why would I want to work with someone who isn’t generous towards God?

And advancing the Kingdom of God is the only thing that matters, so we should all be trying to figure out how to give more and more to the work of God. And so why in the world would I want to work with someone who invests less than ten percent in God’s Kingdom?

Seriously, how stupid am I if I waste my life partnering with people who aren’t radically sold out to this? The person who left this comment seemed to imply that there’s something defective about my theology, or inferior about my character, if I require my staff to be generous towards God and really invest in His Kingdom. That makes me laugh…