Where Should the Pastor and the Pastor's Pastor and So On, Pay Their Tithe?
1) Direct Answer
- Every believer pays tithes to the storehouse where he is fed the Word—his own pastor.
- A pastor also pays tithes. He does not keep his own tithe. He sends his tithe to the minister who feeds him the Word, the one who pastors him, or faithfully into the Gospel work through a proven minister.
- The “pastor’s pastor, and so on” simply follows the same order. It stops where a man is actually being fed. Christ is our High Priest; the tithe supports His ministry on earth, not an endless ladder or a headquarters.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house” (Malachi 3:10). The tithe goes where the spiritual meat is served.
- “Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things” (Galatians 6:6). Tithe follows the one who teaches you.
- “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:13–14). God ordains the ministry to live by the tithe.
- “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine… The labourer is worthy of his reward” (1 Timothy 5:17–18). The preaching elder is to be supported.
- In the Old Testament pattern the Levites received tithes, and the Levites themselves gave “a tithe of the tithes” unto the Lord’s service (Numbers 18:21–28; Nehemiah 10:37–39). That shows ministers also tithe onward.
- Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1–8). That points to Christ, our High Priest, receiving tithes through His ministry.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Now notice: the tithe is not for buildings, boards, or programs first; it is for the ministry that brings you the Word. Where you eat is where you tithe.
- You see, a pastor is also taught and strengthened by ministry. So he pays his tithe to the one who truly feeds him or places it faithfully into the active Gospel ministry—not back to himself.
- There is no Scripture for a man tithing to himself, nor for sending tithes to an office that does not feed him. The Bible ties tithing to the storehouse and to the one who teaches.
- So the order is simple and consistent: the flock to their pastor; the pastor to the minister who pastors him or the Gospel work that nourishes him; and it all culminates in Christ’s service, not a human chain without end.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Keep it clean and biblical: tithe where you receive the Word. Let the laborer live by the Gospel, and let even the laborer honor God with his own tithe. That’s the order the Bible sets.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Position of a believer in Christ
55-0227A §57
If you don't watch... You'll actually... I feel sorry for a pastor, a pastor that's a real true pastor. Here's an element in the church wants to be a fanatic. Here's another one on one side that's so ritualistic till things cool off. And usually, the cold formal gets it, because of the educated, scholarly type, until both... Some has pastors not enough spiritual. And the first thing you know, your church freezes up. And if you don't watch, they'll both of them drag you in there. First thing you know, why, they'll t...
Adoption, part 4: Adoption
60-0522E §102
Did you know that God credited (Let's see now, what was his name?) Levi, to pay tithe when he was in the loins of Abraham, when Melchisedec met him? How many knows that? And let's see. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Levi---which was father, grandfather, great-grandfather. When he was in the loins, in the seed of his great-grandfather, the Bible credited him for paying tithes to Melchisedec. My, my, my, my, brother! Oh, I'm ...
Ordination
62-1104E §25
And we believe that when we come together... He said, "Tarry one for another." In other words, "Wait on one another." The word "tarry" means to wait. Wait on one another. Now, as it's been a custom to us, we take that scripture in this way: that when we do this, that we just bow our heads, and the congregation prays for we pastors; we pastors pray for our congregation. That's how we wait on each other, by serving each other, by praying. You pray, "God, forgive my pastor. If there's anything in his life that they ha...
Show us the Father and it will satisfy us
60-0731 §6
I've preached to big crowds and little crowds. It makes no difference what it is. I just held a revival in a church that held twenty. So, it was pitiful, down in zero weather, and they was standing outside. But I don't need money. We just have to pay the expenses, that all you're asked to do. I wish that I could pay them myself, I wouldn't ask for that. And I never took a offering in my life. I remember one time, that I got in a hard place. How many knows what that means? My wife sitting here this afternoon, she us...
Life
58-0519 §60
Did you ever take the crow and the dove? In the ark, they both sit on the same roost. One could fly just the same place as the other; but the crow was satisfied when she turned loose: went out and fly from one old dead carcass to another where the bugs and things was eating. There she'd eat on that it was all right. But the dove couldn't find no rest for her feet. She had to come back. She couldn't stand that old stink. You know, a crow is one of the biggest hypocrites there is. You take a dove; it'll fly down in a...