Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday .

The stewardship committee at my church has hatched a brilliant plan to end all our financial problems. I hope you'll join us, for it could make you personally rich, too. We think the Lord must have given us this plan, because it is a win-win situation... our church gets all the money it needs, while, at the same time, our members get rich.

We call our new system the *Give-and-it-shall-be-given-unto-you* campaign. It is simple and beautiful. You've heard of the idea of 'Tithing' I'm sure. It's the notion of giving 10% of your net income to the church. Sure, that sounds high at first, but what if you could get more than ten times that amount back -- and keep getting it for years in the future? Sounds too good to be true, but think of all the things your family could use. That's where multi-level tithing comes in.

Here's how it works. Besides tithing yourself, our stewardship committee is prepared to pay you a premium of 1% of net income from every tither you personally recruit. And, we'll keep paying that 1% as long as they keep tithing. That could produce a reliable revenue stream for your family for decades!

For instance, if you recruit a tither who makes $50,000 a year, he or she will tithe $5,000, which means you get $500 as your 1% 'Finder's fee' -- and you keep on getting that 1% every year your recruit keeps tithing! And when your recruit raises his or her giving (including mission pledges) you get a raise too. (See how this will add up to big buck$ over the next decade?)

But it doesn't stop here. It is a *multi-level* system, meaning you also get a cut of the tithe from all those your recruits recruit too! This means that, besides the 1% kickback from your own recruits, our stewardship committee will pay you 2% fee -- that's right, Double the rate! -- for every tither your recruits get on board! Why do we double the percentage? Because, 'it's better to teach a person to fish, than give them a fish.' Or, in our case, 'it's better to make a person a recruiter of tithers than just a tither. This means, you not only get $500 a year from a $5,000 tither, but you get $1000 a year off of any $5,000 tithers your recruit recruits. Nifty, huh?

But, hold on to your chair, it gets even better! In order to motivate our tither-recruits to 'go deep' in the multi-level approach, our stewardship committee will pay a full 3% -- yes, that's a triple rate!-- on all third-level tithers your ministry produces -- that's $1500 on any third-level $5,000 givers, (plus the combined $1500 from the first two levels producing a $3,000 total for recruiting three deep!) You can readily see how important it is to not only recruit tithers, but to recruit tither-recruiters! With just a little work in the evenings and on weekends, you could be pulling down six figures a year, all while you are doing the Lord's work! And, don't worry about the 'cost' of all this to our church, the whole program only 'costs' us 6% of our new income, low by any fund-raising standards. And, of course, you'll be paying tithe on this new income, so the church wins out on that too.

I'm sure, after hearing about this plan, you'll want to sign up right away. Of course, the sooner you get on board, the faster you'll start getting those nice fat monthly checks. All I ask you to do is remember to write the number 46953 on your sign-up card (so I can get credit for recruiting you).

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I'm just kidding, of course. So, how do you handle the hoard of multi-level recruiters trying to draft you into the latest opportunity in sales, phone services, travel or whatever? Why does this spirit especially plague evangelicals?

So what do you think?

To contribute to the thinking on this issue e-mail your response to Tuesday@indwes.edu