Ellen G. White Comments on the Use of Tithe Funds

Chapter 4—Considerations and Conclusions

Ellen White states that the tithe should be used for “one purpose—to sustain the ministers,” and that it is to be devoted “solely to support the ministry of the gospel.” These expressions would seem to indicate that tithe funds should be reserved exclusively to pay the salaries of pastors and evangelists. However, it is evident that Ellen White did not interpret her own writings in such a limited way. EGWCUTF 24.1

As legitimate recipients of tithe funds she included publishing department directors, minister-physicians, Dr. Kellogg’s medical missionaries, a church treasurer and clerk, and, apparently, literature evangelists with especially difficult territorial assignments. EGWCUTF 24.2

Ellen White’s rather broad understanding of the question of tithe usage is further underscored by her willingness to make exceptions to the rules under certain circumstances. As noted, she agreed that, in cases of dire poverty, tithe funds could be used to secure houses of worship. True, this was an exceptional—not a regular—use of the tithe, but it did, in fact, receive Ellen White’s endorsement. EGWCUTF 24.3

On the other hand, Ellen White named several causes for which tithe money was not to be appropriated. In specifying that the tithe should not be used for church expense, care for the destitute, colporteur salaries, or school purposes, she was not labeling these causes as undeserving. Rather, if the tithe should be used for these and other similar, good programs, there would not be enough money left to support the gospel ministry. EGWCUTF 24.4

The basic rationale for giving top priority to the gospel ministry in the use of tithe funds must be that pastors, evangelists, and conference administrators have no other adequate source of income available for their support. This is also true of other conference office personnel, such as secretaries, accountants, custodians, etc. Colporteurs, teachers, medical institution workers, and publishing house employees all generate an income from their labors. This is not true of ministers or conference office personnel. Hence, if the tithe is diverted to other enterprises, the gospel ministry will suffer and, in consequence, the church as a whole will suffer as well. EGWCUTF 24.5

Question may be raised as to why Ellen White approved of paying the Battle Creek church “tithe collector” (treasurer) from the tithe when he was not a minister and was not engaged in ministerial work. The answer probably lies in the fact that his work led to a much larger tithe income for the conference, even after his salary was paid, than would have been the case had he not been so employed. EGWCUTF 24.6

Question may also be raised as to why Ellen White urged local congregations to meet their operating expenses (utilities, maintenance, office supplies, etc.) from free will offerings, while she did not give similar counsel concerning conference office expenses. In other words, if it is proper to pay the electric bill in the conference office from tithe funds, why not pay the local church’s electric bill from the tithe also? EGWCUTF 24.7

The answer to this question may be that conference office expenses are incurred in order to provide a support center for the conference leaders. These expenses become part of the ministerial function. On the other hand, the same expenses in a local church provide a support center for the laity and are not exclusively connected with the work of the pastor. EGWCUTF 24.8

There is still one other matter that deserves attention. A practice occasionally encountered over the years is that of a few church members assigning their tithe to projects of their own choice. Ellen White opposed this procedure. She stated: EGWCUTF 25.1

“Let none feel at liberty to retain their tithe, to use according to their own judgment. They are not to use it for themselves in an emergency, nor to apply it as they see fit, even in what they may regard as the Lord’s work....

“If our churches will take their stand upon the Lord’s Word and be faithful paying their tithe into His treasury, more laborers will be encouraged to take up ministerial work. More men would give themselves to the ministry were they not told of the depleted treasury.”—Testimonies for the Church 9:247, 249.

The “treasury,” in Ellen White’s view, was the conference. She was pleased that Dr. Kellogg was paying all the sanitarium workers’ tithe “into the conference” (see p. 23), and she revealed great distress at the thought that this plan might be discontinued. “For him to separate the tithe from the treasury,” she wrote, “would be a necessity I greatly dread” (Letter 51a, 1898). EGWCUTF 25.2

In Ellen White’s view, then, the various conferences should bear the responsibility of authorizing the expenditure of tithe funds. And this should be done through representative groups of church leaders who form our local, union, and general conference committees. Ellen White objected strongly to the “kingly power” exerted by a few men who controlled all General Conference funds through the 1890s. At the General Conference session in 1901, she admonished the delegates: EGWCUTF 25.3

“It is not in His [God’s] order that two or three men shall plan for the whole conference, and decide how the tithe shall be used, as though the tithe were a fund of their own.”—1901 The General Conference Bulletin, 83. EGWCUTF 25.4

If the various conferences are to decide how tithe funds should be used, some may wonder why Ellen White at times appropriated her tithe to causes of her own choice. The answer to this question is given by Arthur L. White in The Early Elmshaven Years, 389-397. EGWCUTF 25.5

A fair consideration of the complete spectrum of Ellen White’s comments on this subject leads to the following summary of principles to be applied in the appropriation of tithe funds: EGWCUTF 25.6

1. The tithe is the Lord’s and should be returned to the storehouse, the conference treasury, through the member’s home church.

2. Gospel ministers and Bible instructors should have first call on the tithe, and they should be remunerated adequately (pp. 17, 18, Sections 1, 2).

3. The conference should share the tithe with the world church (p. 18, Section 4).

4. Church members should give offerings for the operating expenses of the local church (pp. 20, 21, 22, Sections 1, 2, 4).

5. Some aspects of the gospel, even though they are important, should not be supported from tithe, as other sources of funding are available for them (p. 22, Section 3).

6. Exceptions to these principles may be made only in cases of dire poverty or under extraordinarily unusual circumstances (See C. Tithe Usages in Unusual Situations).

June 1, 1986
Revised February, 1990