That is an interesting set up.
We sought the leading of the Holy Spirit on this and this is what he came up with. The 12 baskets have Biblical importance and symbolism, that many miss...we never pass a plate or take a collection, our Worship Pastor reminds people if they want to give the baskets are in the back....many services we do not even say anything.....
I grew up in an arm twisting legalistic church that demanded you sign a covenant stating you would give 10% of ALL income and then offerings 4x a year...I saw the condemnation it placed onto my parents, who had very little to give. I saw it build pride in the ones who could. I also saw how financial giving could take control of the church.
I have had to counsel pastors of rural and small town churches how to part ways with families that give in abundance but not to see the kingdom advances, but rather their own agendas advanced.
Churches that scream for 10% will only receive 10% and not anything else. The modern tithe is working faith to meet needs right out of the church.
2 Cor 9.6-8 shows us this....
Now this
I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. [SUP]7 [/SUP]Each one
must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. [SUP]8 [/SUP]And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed
In the NT, We are commanded to give with a cheerful heart and what we are able to give..
2 Cor 8.3
[SUP]3 [/SUP]For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability,
they gave of their own accord,
2 Cor 8.7-15-look at verse 12 here....
[SUP]
7 [/SUP]But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you,
see that you abound in this gracious work also. [SUP]8 [/SUP]I am not speaking
this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also. [SUP]9 [/SUP]For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. [SUP]10 [/SUP]I give
my opinion in this matter, for this is to your advantage, who were the first to begin a year ago not only to do
this, but also to desire
to do it. [SUP]11 [/SUP]But now finish doing it also, so that just as
there was the readiness to desire it, so
there may be also the completion of it by your ability.
[SUP]12 [/SUP]For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. [SUP]13 [/SUP]For
this is not for the ease of others
and for your affliction, but by way of equality— [SUP]14 [/SUP]at this present time your abundance
being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become
a supply for your need, that there may be equality; [SUP]15 [/SUP]as it is written, “He who
gathered much did not have too much, and he who
gathered little had no lack.”
Paul himself is telling us that we give what we can, not what we do not have...many cannot even do 10%,. This also puts to bed those silly folks that "sow a seed" they do not have...any command to "sow a seed in faith" violates this passage..
A ministry of any kind should be making a deposit into people, not a withdraw....
The lawyers on this thread cannot give you a NT verse against tithing because there are none.....