Some Personal Thoughts on the Faithful Tithing Qualification

At the 2025 General Conference Session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, delegates approved an addition to the church manual that established faithful tithe returning as a qualification for holding local church office.

My previous blog post (check it out here) takes a practical approach on how a church could implement this new requirement in a way that hopefully demonstrates grace and helps to protect from possible abuse of this requirement. After all, the addition to the church manual has been approved. So no going back on this unless it is voted to remove it in the future.

But what about me personally?

Here’s the deal. I believe it is good for a Christian to faithfully return tithe with a cheerful heart. After all, it’s all God’s anyway!

With that said, I have some concerns about formalizing this policy in the Church Manual.

The Adventist church started out as a movement – a movement to share the good news of Jesus’ soon coming with the world. As time has gone on, the church has grown significantly. Probably much like many businesses and other organizations, as the church has grown it has become more “corporate” in how it is operated. This is not all bad. I believe that God wants things to be done decently and with order. The organization can help to avoid chaos and haphazard work as we seek to fulfill the mission that Jesus gave us. But as the church becomes more “corporate” (and when I use that word here, I am not targeting the church’s 501(c)(3) status in the United States – so don’t try claiming that I am going down that rabbit hole here), it seems to lose more and more of the sense of a bottom-up organization. While the local church should be seen as the top of the Adventist hierarchy, it feels as if more and more of the control is coming from other levels of church governance – like the General Conference. It seems that way with this policy that has faithful tithe paying as a prerequisite for nomination for local church office. It is possible that some local conferences may have already had a policy similar to this. But now it is enshrined at the highest level.

In addition, there are those who may feel convicted to return their tithe to another conference or ministry. I’m not here today to argue about whether or not that is truly a faithful tithe. But this policy seems to really discourage that practice as those individuals may not be considered by the local church treasurer to be returning a faithful tithe since that money doesn’t go through the financial records of the local church. Do we really want to formalize such a narrow view of what constitutes a faithful tithe at the highest level of our church? When something is clear in the Bible, I’m okay to some degree with that being formalized as a belief of the church. But I feel that the Adventist view that the conference/mission is the storehouse (equivalent to the Old Testament temple/levitical system) where all tithe should be returned may lack clear support from the Bible. It is not necessarily wrong to return tithe to the conference, but is that really the only place allowed according to the Bible?

On a related note, I feel that the timing of this addition to the church manual may be a little suspect. Last year, Conrad Vine spoke at an event and apparently suggested that the time may come when the faithful may need to return their tithe to a parachurch organization that would then send it to conferences that uphold traditional Adventist belief in freedom of conscience. Vine’s presentation was not received well by some sections of the Adventist Church. I’m not here to discuss the merits or dangers of his suggestion. But I believe that he has the right to speak freely. I don’t know if the Vine situation had any influence in the recommendation and subsequent adoption of this church manual addition. But the timing feels a bit suspect.

Additionally, I have concerns about the implementation of this policy. It doesn’t give much in the way of detail about how to implement the policy properly. And I believe there is room for misuse and abuse of the policy.

I believe that there are many pastors who choose not to know the details of what their church members pay in tithe. I believe that distancing himself or herself from this data can help the pastor to shepherd the flock with less bias or favoritism – those who give more money to the church hopefully are less likely to be treated with special favor because of this. The new church manual addition specifies that the pastor or nominating committee chair should work with the treasurer to come up with a process to ensure that only faithful tithes payers are nominated for church office. While the new policy does not require that the pastor know the details of how much someone is giving, it may cause some pastors to feel more license to try to get involved in knowing the specifics of what their members pay into the church.

In addition, if it is only the treasurer giving the pastor or nominating committee a yes or no regarding whether various individuals are eligible for nomination to church office, how do we know that treasurer is being fair and impartial in their assessments of members giving? What if the treasurer doesn’t want a certain individual to be in church office? Could it be a temptation for the treasurer to find a way to justify non-eligibility for a specific individual?

What about churches who decide to go crazy with implementing this policy and ask members for proof of income or tax returns, and then do the math to determine whether or not they are actually paying 10% of their income? Could this violate privacy laws in certain countries or states?

And do any of the concerns raised above just zap the joy out of giving for some people?

So yes, I believe we are called to give back faithfully to God. And I agree that those in officially nominated church offices should ideally be living faithfully. But I don’t think making this addition to the church manual is the right way to encourage that.

But what has been done has been done. So read my previous blog post for some ideas about how to implement this in your church in a way that hopefully will minimize abuse and misuse.