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“Proportional giving” is a new way for many of us to look at our financial contributions to the church. Biblical tithing is at the base of this concept—giving back to God a proportion of what he has given to us. But for many members, the traditional ten percent tithe to the church is just not a realistic goal.
Rock Spring supports the concept of a “modern tithe” in conjunction with proportional giving. Modern tithing acknowledges the changes that have occurred since biblical times, when all social service and charity work was provided by the church, and suggests that you divide your financial gifts, giving five percent of your income to the church and five percent to worthy charities.
The first step of proportional giving is an eye-opener for many of us: Compute the percentage of your income that you gave to the church last year. The second step is to thoughtfully consider the role of the church and God in your life and to establish the percentage level at which you would like to be giving. The third step is to make incremental increases to this percentage each year, so that your gift will move gradually closer to your personal goal for giving back to God.
Many feel that proportional giving is a “fairer” method of supporting the church. By considering giving as a percentage of your income rather than, for example, comparing your gift to the average pledge amount or average pledge increase of the congregation, it becomes a more personal and meaningful commitment. Giving five percent of your income may mean a $500 gift or a $5,000 gift based on your income, but both contributions are of equal significance and commitment to those households.
Of course, the church must still consider statistics such as average pledge amount and average pledge increase for planning purposes, and this information may be shared with the congregation, but our hope is that these facts will be just one part of your overall consideration.
Based on available statistics, we estimate that the total pledged dollars for 2007 represents two percent of these households’ income. We ask that you consider increasing your proportional giving percentage by a one percent increment each year. When as a congregation we reach the modern tithing goal of five percent, we can then truly fulfill the promise of the church. We applaud those at Rock Spring who do pledge in the traditional way—giving 10 percent of all they receive to the church.