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2.5
Tithing: Test Me in This (Ancient Practices)
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesTithing: Test Me in This (Ancient Practices) Reviews
2.5
“I will be giving a talk at church about tithing soon, so I was excited to get a free copy from Book Sneeze of Tithing to review.
The author shares his experience going around the country to interview different people (most are leaders of congregations) who are tithe payers. He shares their experience and thoughts about tithing.
He never says if tithing should be required, rather shares their experiences and lets you come to your own conclusions.
Some interesting insights I came away with that I will incorporate in my talk:
* In Malachi 3:6-12 it is the only place in the Bible where God says “Test me in this”
* I love the story where a preacher was looking for some land to establish his church. A family sells him their farm land very inexpensively. The family let him know that their father had always paid tithes and felt that it was honoring their father to give their lands to a church.
* I like the idea of tithing being like a stewardship.
“It is a deeper level of stewardship. It means asking, “What is my money doing to the planet and to the people.”
* A lot of the people spoke of the idea of how they are spending their money in general can demonstrate their values and beliefs.
“His father said that your checkbook tells the story of your priorities.”
* By donating money to local and world wide organizations we are linking ourselves together with humanity.
I enjoyed reading this book and it gave me a lot of good insights and ideas to add into my talk. It also made me think more about tithing and how I apply that in my life.”
“I recently read through Douglas Leblanc's book, Tithing: test me in this from Thomas Nelson’s Ancient Practices series. Overall, I liked the book, and found it to be an easy, engaging read.
Leblanc, a journalist, filled the book with interviews he conducted with people representing a wide swath of the Judeo-Christian faith traditions (and it's important that I emphasize traditions, plural, there because Leblanc's list of interviewees includes a Rabbi as well as representatives from nearly every point on the spectrum of Christianity, not merely or even mainly the evangelical "camp"). All of the interviewees speak favorably on the topic of tithing, sometimes offering reflections on the words of Scripture, in other times presenting testimony of their own experience.
The interviews are well-presented, offering a brief introduction to the interviewee and his/her background, as well as comments about goings-on surrounding and even during the interview. They felt more like magazine articles with a common theme than chapters in a book-- indeed, any given chapter could easily have been in Christianity Today or perhaps even the New York Times, if the Times would willingly carry a piece so openly acknowledging the validity of a biblical teaching.
Somewhat because of this journalistic approach to the topic and the various perspectives on it, the book struggles to offer any didactic value. If you're seeking biblical insight into why a Christian might consider tithing, or for that matter any further Scriptural discussion on giving, you'll be disappointed in this book. What little teaching on tithing it does present is indirect and more a matter of inference than exposition.
This fact leads me to question whether I have been asking more of this series, Thomas Nelson’s Ancient Practices titles, than I ought. My first introduction to the series was with Scot McKnight's excellent Fasting, and while offered just enough first and third-person accounts to enrich his explanations, there was also a satisfying amount of instruction from Scripture and from other historical sources (like the Church Fathers). The second title I read in the series, Joan Chittister’s The Liturgical Year, was a great disappointment-- both because of a theologically-liberal approach to anything and everything related to the Bible, Christianity, and the Church, and because of the fact that the book was very little more than just a recounting of experiences and personal testimonies.
I have been assuming that Chittister's exchange of substance for sentiment was surely anomalous-- atypical of a series devoted the Ancient Practices, which are so firmly grounded in Scripture. Having read a third title, however, I wonder if I've mistaken the aim of the series; maybe McKnight's title is the anomaly. If that is so, it's a shame, and the series should be re-titled the Ancient Experiences.
This is ultimately what leads to my doubt in the real value of this title. All of the interviews are well-written, the stories are interesting, and the subjects remarkable in their experiences. But much of what we are told is only marginally related to the subject of tithing. It seems the thesis of the book is, "look at all of these people that God has blessed wonderfully, often in spite of great financial trial-- and look! They all tithe."
We live in a time when experiences count a great deal, and theology divorced from "story" is questionable in its authenticity. The danger is in making it more about the story than the theology; in this case, I wonder if Leblanc didn't lose his way.”
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