I thought he was joking, but many years and many life-miles later I realize that not only did he speak sincerely, he spoke accurately. He’s Don Tipton, Tip for short. He and my father worked at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina when it still produced essential parts of nuclear weapons. Dad worked there until retirement. Tip didn’t. Somewhere along the line, he felt God was calling him to preach and took the pastorate of a Baptist church in Augusta, GA.

    As I recall the conversation, one of the sisters at his church had just informed Tip that she was sending her entire tithe to a television evangelist. She felt that his ministry, though it took in millions of dollars each week, needed her tithe more than her church, which seemed to be doing just fine financially, thank you. Tip related her words and his response in his usual animated fashion.

“I told her that giving money to that ministry was alright if she wanted; it’s hers to do with as she pleases. But then I asked her if that evangelist was coming to town to officiate at her daughter’s wedding, to teach and baptize her son-in-law, to visit her family when any of them was in the hospital, or to offer her eulogy when she dies. I tried to get her to understand that a ministry that comes to our community only on the tube isn’t nearly as important to her life as the ministry done by her local church. I finally asked her, ‘What will happen to this church if all our members do what you do with their money? How will the church survive? Who will be here to minister to you and your family then?’”

How will the church survive?

    Young and naïve, I figured either he was heading for a punch line or overreacting. I know much better now. For fifteen years of my adult life I served as a minister for local churches. I experienced the need for funding and for volunteers if the church was to minister places other than within its own walls on Sunday morning. To get into people’s lives and work with them through their obstacles and problems requires many resources. And someone always has to pay for those resources. Some folks seemed to feel that a local church didn’t really need money, that the church must have hidden away hundreds of thousands of dollars. Maybe some churches hoard money and are skinflints about spending it. But I’ve never been involved in a growing church that hoarded money. Nor did they ever have enough. Yet again and again, I saw members of those very churches get excited about some highly visible cause and send their money there rather than giving it to the daily involvement in local lives done by their local church. They could see the need in the highly visible ministry, but didn’t seem to have the same clarity about their local ministry.

    So what’s my point?

    Many thousands of people are sending multiplied millions of dollars to New York right now. Am I decrying that? Absolutely not. Praise God for the generosity and compassion not only of the American people, but of American businesses and corporations. What we are witnessing is wonderful. But what about the ministries already in existence that suddenly are ignored? What do you think is happening to them right now when America seems focused on one cause and one mission? They are suffering. Between the hit many of their supporters took in the recent stock market and the money being diverted to the national cause, some of these ministries may even die. Their deaths won’t get much attention now. But they will later, when people need resources or tools those ministries provided. Those resources and tools won’t be there. And the folks in New York, suffering from their own needs, won’t be able to send any money back.

    I urge that you continue to pray for the situation in New York. If you are willing, please give to their needs. But do not forget your tithe (or whatever measure you use) to your local church. And don’t forget that ministries who depended on you to support them in their missions need your help now more than ever. After you give to your local church, don’t forget them. Especially the ones who come to your city or town in more ways than TV.

    But we beg you, as you give, please give wisely, and please don’t forget the needs of your own community — especially the ministry to marriages and families.

© Copyright 2001, Joe Beam, Chairman and Founder, Family Dynamics Institute.

Title: "Help Where You Are"
Author: Joe Beam
Publication Date: November 8, 2001

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