Tithing Settlement

At this time of year many already busy Bishops in the Church are asked to meet with all of the members of their ward for yet another meeting: tithing settlement.  Why do we do this?  Is the meeting really that important for members to attend?  I know of no official answer as to why this is required, and I don’t believe there is any direct commandment for this particular meeting in the scriptures.  A search on lds.org brings up this Ensign article with a few suggested reasons that we have this meeting.  One reason is that it gives the opportunity to be able to officially review your contributions as “part of the Church’s audit procedures.”  Another proposed reason is that is allows those who are not full tithe payers to commit to such a course in the coming year.  A third suggested reason for the meeting is that it “allows all members the chance to demonstrate their obedience to the principle of tithing” and gives parents the opportunity to teach their children about tithing.  These all seem like valid reasons one might want to participate, but even with these potential explanations I think many would still say, “Look, I pay a full tithe—why do I need to bother telling the Bishop?”

                I think that the first reason given in this article goes the furthest in offering an explanation of why we should go to tithing settlement.  It says this: “We are accountable for what we have been given by God. And we shall be judged ‘out of those things which [are] written in the books, according to [our] works’ (Revelation 20:12; see also 3 Nephi 27:26)....  At the end of the year, the bishop or branch president is asked to record on the records of the Church the tithing status of each member in his unit. It is our privilege to exercise our accountability by declaring to him our own tithing status.”  Every year a permanent record is made for each member of the Church as to whether they were full tithe payers, and our opportunity is to declare for ourselves and ensure that this record is accurate.  When the Savior was teaching the Nephite disciples He told them this, “Write the works of this people, which shall be, even as hath been written, of that which hath been.  For behold, out of the books which have been written, and which shall be written, shall this people be judged” (3 Nephi 27:24-25).  There is clearly something significant about an actual record being kept of our works in relation to the judgment we will one day receive.  The Lord knows all of our works, and yet still He requires a record to be kept from which we will be judged.  Surely when these disciples heard this command from the Lord they thought of their recent experience when the Savior had examined the records they had been keeping.  When He found out that they had not recorded the fulfillment of a specific prophecy, He questioned, “How be it that ye have not written this thing?” (3 Nephi 23:11)  Jesus was very interested in the records that they were keeping and thought it important enough to personally assure that everything of necessity was recorded.  So clearly the requirement of physically recording our tithe payer status is not without precedent in the scriptures.  When we get to our own judgment I’m sure we don’t want the Lord looking through the records and saying to us about our tithing, “How be it that ye have not written this thing?”—it may be hard at that point to try to explain why we didn’t think the meeting was important enough to attend.

                The other scripture that comes to mind as I think about this need to record our works in general is D&C 128.  Joseph went to great lengths in his letter to the Saints to ensure that a recorder would be present for the proxy baptisms that were being performed.  It was not enough that the action take place (i.e. performing the baptism), but it had to be written as well.  After a detailed description of what needed to take place, Joseph wrote, “You may think this order of things to be very particular; but let me tell you that it is only to answer the will of God” (D&C 128:5).  Perhaps, in the end, that’s the best answer to why we have tithing settlement: “it is only to answer the will of God.”  The Lord wants accurate records to be kept, and tithing settlement is our opportunity to ensure that the annual record with our name on it is correct.