Hey Globulus,

Glad you are still around :)

In my opinion Tithing was an Old Testament practice for the Israelite community.
It never involved giving money.
They had to take the first 10th of their crops and livestock and keep it aside as a tithe to the Lord.
This tithe was to be used in several ways.
1. it was to be taken to Jerusalem once a year where it was to be used by the family to have a great celebration feast in honor of God. This was to be shared with the Levites (the priests) and the poor. If Jerusalem was too far away to take all that stuff you could sell it locally and take your money to Jerusalem and buy the stuff for the feast there.
2. It was also given to provide for the priests (Levites) who had no lands of their own.
3. Abraham gave a 10th of all his possessions to Melchizedek who was a King and priest of Jeursalem. This appears to be a once off offering.

There is no Tithe commands for the New Testament church.
in the NT giving was very generous and served two purposes.
1. To support people who were spending their time ministering the gospel.
2. To help the poor.
The command is to give what you can willingly and cheerfully. No percentage is put on it. In Acts many Christians gave all they had and it was distributed amongst everyone as they had need but this was not "required".

Finally, I agree with Blackstone. Getting into a church is a more pressing concern than how much money you are giving.

Blessings
Cat.