Dave Ramsey has urged pastors to refrain from preaching sermons about tithing “to broke people” — unless they first address debt and budgeting from the pulpit.
During a recent interview, the CEO of Ramsey Solutions and author of Financial Peace University, said that he regularly tells pastors to stop stressing the importance of tithing to congregants who aren’t good stewards of their money.
“Unless,” he clarified, “you’ve done two sermons on … debt — one on getting out of debt and one on getting on a budget.”
“That’s the ratio for me instead of just tithe, tithe, tithe,” he said. But when pastors fail to address debt and setting a budget, he said, the reaction to a sermon about tithing is often “yeah right, I’ve got a light bill. That’s a great spiritual concept. Maybe someday I’ll get around to that.'”
Getting out of debt leads to giving, the financial expert said, “Because if you’re out of debt and on a budget and you love Jesus, I think tithing is a natural thing that occurs.”
Still, Ramsey detailed his “incredible love of pastors,” describing most of them as “underappreciated” and “underpaid,” adding that pastors “could take that same skill set in the marketplace in most cases and make more money.”
In an address delivered at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in June, Ramsey told pastors: “When you stand up in front of your congregation, you’re looking at a large number of people who do…
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