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.
Identification
64-0216 §90
Now, every pastor in here that believes in divine healing, and wants to stand with us here, will you come and take your stand with me here, while I'm praying for the sick? Any of you pastors that wants to come---this group of pastors, sponsoring pastors---I asked them there. Said it makes no difference what the pastor is, what church he belongs to. If you're a Presbyterian, Lutheran, or Catholic priest, come here and stand with us if you believe the message of Christ, that you believe in divine healing. Come here a...
We would see Jesus
58-0612 §10
"Can anybody see God?" That question was asked in a Sunday school in my city. A little lad had been in Sunday school and he said to his mammy, he said, "If God is so great, why can't somebody see Him?" Said, "Can we see Him, Mama?" Said, "Well, why don't you ask your Sunday school teacher?" She said, "Ask the pastor." The pastor said, "Certainly not, sonny. No one can see God and live." And the little fellow was amazed at the pastor's statement.
Doors in door
65-0206 §94
One more little story---have we got time? Yeah, then I'll go. There was an old darkie down there in the South, and his pastor. I knew him, a nice old fellow. We called him Gabe. His name was Gabriel, and we just called him Gabe. He always... Pastor and I, we went hunting a whole lot. He was an old colored brother, and we went out hunting. And so, old Gabe liked to hunt better than anybody I ever knowed, but he was a poor shot. So one day his pastor and him went hunting. And we could never get old Gabe to line up to...
Church Order
63-1226 §55
Now, if you got an evangelist, of course, in here preaching, then you take ... you ... that's understood before he comes, you know, that you'll give him an offering, or pay him salary, or whatever he wants to do. But then if this person is here, and it's for a just cause, and the pastor ... and the board would want to agree and tell the pastor upon it, then let the pastor say, "A certain-certain person is sitting here, we don't know the man, he come in and he asked us for ... he says his children are hungry. We hav...
Abraham's seed
59-0423 §47
Listen here. That's what America's done. Look at these... Way back a long time ago, the old flapper of long ago. Her daughter today is a chorus girl. What's her daughter going to be? See, what you do bears something upon your generations to follow you. Sin goes to three or four generations, and righteousness does. For there, He allotted that to Levi, paying tithes, when he was in the loins of his great-great-grandfather. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Levi. There you are. Great-great-grandfathe...