It's true. I was guilty of this Sunday. For the past two weeks, the congregation at the Brownwood Housing Authority has been giving tithes and offerings. At the present time, we have no overhead as far as church operations go (no building, no utilities, etc). So, I recommended that we begin giving 10% to missions and spend the rest on Awanas. Several in the group were quite puzzled. So, I dropped the issue and told them we would work toward establishing an Awanas program by January.
I realized after services that my mistake was just assuming that everyone understood the purpose of a church and understood that a church should give to missions. We are still at the basics in this situation and I pushed just a little farther than the group was ready. So, in the weeks ahead, I'll continue discipling this group and working with them. As time goes on, I am confident that they will come together and function as a church.
That's the real challenge in organizing churches, btw. It's not getting people to show up and give tithes, it's getting them to understand why they are there, the role of the church and why that's important.
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