A Different Kind of Tithe

In Christian circles, it’s difficult to talk about giving without talking about the tithe. And, whenever the tithe is mentioned, it’s inevitable for questions to follow:

Should I tithe off my gross or net income?

What if I can’t afford to give a full 10% right now?

Why did God instruct the tithe in the first place?

Isn’t that an Old Testament thing that doesn’t apply now?

The tithe is certainly a loaded topic of conversation. Because so many questions surround it, it can also cause a lot of angst. While we don’t want to ignore these questions or overlook some of the anxiety this topic can create, there’s an offshoot tithing concept that is quite compelling.

It’s a practice called the Time Tithe and is adapted from Ryan Skoog, Peter Greer, and Cameron Doolittle’s book Lead with Prayer. In this book, they highlight a foreign ministry worker, simply known as Rosebell, who serves victims of genocide in war-torn countries. When Rosebell was young, she did not have any money, but she wanted to give something back to the Lord that was of value, so she decided to tithe her time to God. Every day, she would give 10% of the day (that’s nearly two and a half hours!) to God through scripture reading, prayer and worship. For the 40 years since Rosebell started this practice, she has been able to build and lead an impactful ministry in one of the toughest areas of the world. She attributes this work and its sustainability to her commitment to spending so much time with God each day through her Time Tithe.

This is something all of us should pay attention to in our own lives. While we may not be able to give a full 10% of our day to undivided time with God, we can all probably stand to create more margin in our schedules for prayer, scripture reading or worship, even if it’s time accumulated in small blocks throughout the day. Perhaps it’s waking up 15 minutes early and spending some extra time with God to start the day. Maybe it’s setting occasional alarms on your phone that can prompt you to take breaks from each day’s hustle to pause for prayer. Or maybe it’s adjusting your nighttime routine to include reading a devotional or meditating on scripture prior to going to bed.

There’s no better time to start some version of a Time Tithe than during these early days of Advent. Advent is a time that is marked by waiting and anticipation for the Lord to arrive in our lives, and for Jesus to come back again. It’s about preparing our hearts to receive the King in new and unexpected ways. What better way to do that than to prioritize extra time in our day that is devoted to the Lord through the Time Tithe? We might just be surprised by how God shows up, just like he did to shepherds keeping watch over their flocks at night!