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.
Faith in the Son of God
52-0715 §13
Now, here comes a man up here, maybe, that's sick. He's standing here with a... The doctor says he's going to die. He's filled with TB. Here he comes up to the pastor, he says, "Pastor, I--I'm... The doctor tells me I'm going to die. I--I'm--I pray, you pray with me, pastor." The pastor says, "All right." Now, the pastor, if he's not a gifted man, or so forth with understanding he'd better anoint the man with oil, because that's what stands between him and the sickness (See?), or he could take it hisself. Now, he t...
As the eagle stirreth up her nest
60-0804 §75
This little old eagle... The mother, after she got him off the nest, you know, he'd kind of puttered along behind. You remember how out of place you seemed? "My, my," said, "this don't seem right." Walk in that old dusty yard, where the cows has walked, and the horses, and that old dust flying up. Hmm, what a stink! Said, "This don't seem right." He looked up like that and said, "Say, what about up there? And the old hen said, "Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck: days of miracles is past. No such thing as flying up...
Church Order
63-1226 §52
Now, but when it comes to like a stranger come in, a stranger come in like he's... A man comes in and says, "Well, you know what? I'm on a journey and I blowed out a tire, and I want a new tire. Take me up an offering tonight for a new tire." Now, that shouldn't be done. No, that should not be done. And if it seems to be a worthy thing, of somebody that you know, the board could meet and designate a certain amount of money from the treasure to buy that man a tire or whatever it was. Or either if the church treasury...
Show us the Father and it will suffice us
50-0819 §37
Now, notice. The pastor... First, the little boy asked his pastor, said, "Pastor, I have heard you speak so much of God, could anybody see God?" Well, the pastor said, "No, honey." Said, "Nobody can see God and live." Well, he was just a boy. And he asked his mother, and his mother didn't know. He asked his Sunday school teacher; she didn't know. Said, "No one could see God." He was so disappointed. He used to stay up on the river near the six mile island up there. There's an old fisherman there that had long white...
Questions and Answers
61-1015M §85
QUESTION: "Would it be wrong to use tithes on church building funds?" Well, now, here's a touchy little thing for the church now. No, correctly, tithes is to go to the minister. That's right! In the Bible they had a box they'd set at the door in the Old Testament when the ... building. This box was a fund where the people put in there for the repairing... You've read it many times in the Old Testament. They kept up the buildings and things like that... All the repairs on the building was taken care out of that fund...