What if the church didn’t need your money to survive?

In this episode of More to Church, we take an unflinching look at one of the most sensitive—and least examined—assumptions in modern Christianity: that church requires compulsory giving to function faithfully.

From a North American context, this conversation traces the staggering financial realities of the modern church, unpacking what Scripture actually says (and doesn’t say) about tithing, budgets, buildings, and pastoral pay. Drawing from biblical texts, historical developments, and contemporary financial data, this episode challenges the idea that money is the engine of God’s kingdom—and asks whether we’ve quietly replaced generosity with obligation.

You’ll hear:

• Why the modern tithe looks nothing like the biblical tithe
• How voluntary generosity in the New Testament became compulsory giving in church history
• What Jesus affirmed under the Law—and what He never commanded of His followers
• How fear, guilt, and spiritual manipulation often replace transparency
• Why the early church thrived without budgets, buildings, or fundraising campaigns
• And the unsettling question: If your church disappeared tomorrow, would your community even notice?

This isn’t an attack on church buildings, paid pastors, or organized ministry. It’s a call to honesty. A call to rethink stewardship. A call to ask whether our structures are serving the kingdom—or quietly competing with it.

Because if church is reduced to budgets, benefits, and buildings, it stops being the church.

There has to be more to church than money.

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