If you've recently become a Seventh-day Adventist, you may be surprised to learn that, unlike most other denominations, your tithe doesn't stay in your local church, and your pastor's salary isn't based on how much you give.

Our pioneers saw the wisdom in organizing our church after the biblical model. We are just one part of the whole body of Christ. If the heart were to say, "I’m going to keep my life-giving resources for myself," how long would the rest of the body live?

The same is true with church finances. A church in one place may have enough resources to hire a staff of pastors, build a state-of-the-art worship center, and fund its own school and summer camp. But what about the people with limited resources in an economically depressed area with an active mission to their community? What about them?

Adventist churches are blessed as they have followed the biblical mandate to "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house … " (Malachi 3:10). God’s storehouse is intended to serve the whole world. When God's people gather their tithes into one storehouse, all God's children can be assured they are included in the distribution—not just the privileged ones. This system helps churches share the load.

"So," you might ask, "if my tithe doesn’t stay in the local church, where does it go?" Every tithe dollar you put in the tithe envelope goes directly to the local conference treasury. Out of that dollar, 75.41¢ is used by the local conference to provide pastoral care to the local churches and to assist with evangelism, camp meeting, summer camp, various ministries, leadership training, and more.

Your local conference then shares 24.59¢ of your tithe dollar with the wider church body. The union conference retains 2.59¢, which provides for K–12 curriculum and supervision, higher education sponsorship, institutional administrative support, auditing support, evangelism, technology, trust services, religious liberty, revolving fund administration, ethnic ministry coordination, and your Lake Union Herald.

Only 1¢ goes for the operation of the North American Division, and 3.13¢ goes for the operation of the General Conference. The rest is distributed by the General Conference for retirement benefits, missionary expenses, overseas division assistance, and institutional support.

Can you imagine your local church providing all those services? Like the little lad who shared his barley loaves and fishes with Jesus, God takes our tithe and multiplies it to bless the whole church family. Each level of church organization is responsible for its specific duties, and when we share our resources and work together as a team, there is no limit to what God can do through us.

Ann Fisher writes from Walla Walla, Washington.