Thanks everyone for the responses.
This is a controversial issue for a lot of people and there are a lot of opinions about it.
I was on the finance team at church for a long time.
I struggle with the fact that there are people in my church who make much more than I do and give far less. They have nicer cars, houses, better jobs, etc.
Some give but don't "tithe". Others don't give at all.
Then there are poor people who give proportionately more than all of us.
Every church has this mix.
I read articles on the internet about how the "tithe" was part of the old law and that law, as we all know, has went away. The articles still say that we are to give but is that bogus?
For the record, I don't believe what we are doing is frivolous. We are literally just trying to stay afloat. If we were buying some million dollar mcmansion, I think it'd be different. We are trying to stay well within our means and buy only what we can afford so that at some point we can resume giving at the level we were before.
It's more the fact that we need as much cash as we can muster right now, in the short term, to get this deal completed then go back to a regular giving schedule.
Does that make sense?