THIEVES AND LIARS

There's a statistic that I have mentioned the past couple of Sundays that I can't get out of my head. According to the Barna Research Institute (albeit back in 2000) -

37% of Christians say they tithe

12% of Christians actually tithe

Forgetting the 63% of Christians who live their lives with themselves in the pole position and tip God when they get the inclination, those figures show that 25% either lie about their giving or don't know what they give.

As I have bounced this thought around, I have benevolently come to the conclusion that we are probably looking at the latter rather than the former. I know for a fact that there are a heck of a lot of people around who are totally disorganized when it comes to their finances and it's likely that many of those Barna interviewed fall into that category.

But since we're stewards of what God entrusts to us, we really do need to have our act together. So if you think you're tithing, check the paperwork you went through with your accountant recently, or will go through in the next few days. It'll be there in black and white.

And if you need to get organized and you live in reach of Patchogue, you could really benefit from the six weeks class we have starting on Thursday evevning.