Yesterday, I was reading an article on www.cnn.com by Jamie Gumbrecht on Savannah, Georgia’s First African Baptist Church. It is one of the oldest black churches in America, built by its members in the 1850s.
Gumbrecht writes that the church came about when a white congregation offered to sell their land and building to the First African Baptist Church for $1500, a considerable sum in those days.
And it was even more considerable in light of the fact that most members of First African were slaves, slaves who then had an important decision to make.
Use the money they had saved to buy their freedom, or combine their money and buy a church.
They bought the church.
It bears repeating.
They bought the church.
We’re moving into a time of year when churches start talking about stewardship, tithing and pledge cards.
It seems an awkward kind of dance to me because we don’t go to church wanting to think about money and the economy and whether or not our church can afford to keep its doors open.
So let’s take money out of the discussion completely and instead take a moment to think about First African Baptist Church and its founding members who gave their lives and their freedom because they knew the truth of salvation and grace.
They knew that tithing is not about how much you give, it’s about remembering where your heart resides and who it belongs to.
Tithing is about nourishment, about feeding a spiritual need that is far greater than any physical hunger.
Tithing is about trust and giving to God what is already His … you.
Tithing is giving you, yourself over to God to be put to use for His purpose.
The slaves who built First African Baptist Church gave up their freedom so others could be free. They built their church with a secret compartment in the floor that housed hundreds of fleeing slaves, escaping up the river.
Before joining Hope, I never gave more than a few dollars here and there at various churches I’ve attended over the years. Now that I’m a member of a church, I want to tithe and I’ve struggled with that question: how much?
Techinical definition of tithing aside--how much?
It helps me to think about First African in Savannah because instead of asking “how much,” I can simply ask myself “have I pledged my heart?”
Have I released my heart to this church and to God?
And if the answer is yes, then I have given enough.
