Tithes, Power & the Real Church: Finding Spiritual Clarity When Tradition Shakes

Spiritual clarity often comes when familiar ground feels shaky. That’s the tension running through our conversation with Tom Snow, whose central claim is simple but weighty: test everything against scripture like a Berean, even if it unsettles long‑held church habits. We explore the uneasy intersection between tradition and obedience, where topics like tithing, paid leadership, denominational identity, and spiritual warfare are not abstract ideas but daily choices that shape how we worship, give, and forgive. Tom insists the standard is not institutional convenience or cultural comfort but the Word and the Spirit—Christ in us as the living center, not a system, brand, or structure. The goal isn’t to be contrarian. It’s to be faithful, even when faithfulness means letting go of what looks safe.

One of the most provocative threads is money and meaning. Tithing, Tom argues, is not a line item for buildings or salaries by default; he urges believers to bring their tithe to God, ask for guidance, and then direct it where the Spirit leads. That might be the local church this month—or a widow, an orphan, a missionary need, or an overlooked neighbor next month. The point is not to starve churches but to re-center giving as worship, not autopay. He cites Paul’s tentmaking as a posture of freedom, emphasizing that needs can be met without constructing a top‑down economy that breeds dependence, spectacle, or excess. This is where many listeners feel the rub: how can leaders shepherd well while working other jobs? Tom’s counterpoint reframes the pulpit as one voice among many, a body ministry where multiple, Spirit-led voices share the Word, and where shepherding is presence, protection, and equipping—not performance, branding, or constant content production.

From there we climb into the architecture of authority. Tom laments how quickly genuine moves of God calcify when power collects at the top. He recalls the charismatic movement’s vitality—worship that felt like minutes and lasted hours, a shared expectancy that God would speak through more than one person. The shift from flow to control, he says, split communities, multiplied labels, and distracted us from unity in Christ. He challenges denominational pride as spiritual bait—clever, organized, and comfortable, but often thin on surrender. The call is not anti-structure; it’s anti-idol. Structures should serve the Spirit’s work, not replace it. Unity isn’t sameness; it’s submission to one Lord, one faith, one baptism, expressed through a people who prize truth over tribe and obedience over optics.

We also step into origin and awe. Tom’s view on creation is not an attempt to retrofit science into the Bible but to widen our wonder: God speaks, matter obeys, and reality holds together by the word of His power. The language of elements and collapse is not meant to litigate textbooks but to right-size our posture—creation as a theater for God’s voice, not a canvas for our certainty. Whether you bristle at the word “bang” or embrace it as metaphor, the thrust is the same: everything we see is contingent, contingent on Him, and that should humble us. Humility is not an escape from questions; it’s the only way to ask the right ones without losing the plot. If God can form and un-form by a word, then every breath, gift, and dollar is stewardship, and every conviction is held with open hands.

Then comes the heart surgery: unforgiveness. Tom calls it spiritual cancer, and he doesn’t say it lightly. He shares a raw story of guilt, grief, anger, and, eventually, obedience—a choice to forgive a father and, harder still, to forgive himself. The crucial lesson is that forgiveness is a decision made in the presence of God, not a feeling we wait to arrive. When we withhold, we surrender mental real estate to resentment. When we release, we let the Healer in. This is not cheap grace or moralizing; it is survival and freedom. You do not excuse evil by forgiving it; you evict it from ruling your inner life. The moment you forgive, you stop paying rent to what wounded you and start breathing again, because mercy moves in where bitterness once camped.

So where does all this leave us, practically? With daily dependence. Ask God what to do with your tithe this month; then do it. If He directs you to your local church, obey with joy. If He nudges you to meet a need no one sees, give quietly and completely. Reassess leadership through the lens of service and equipping instead of celebrity and control. Welcome multiple voices that carry the Word, and weigh them by scripture. Watch for the subtle drift from devotion to brand maintenance. And when resentment surfaces—toward leaders, systems, family, or self—don’t wait for a feeling. Forgive by choice, in prayer, and let God clean the wound. This is not a program or a model; it is a posture of honest Christian conversation before a holy God. Test it all. Hold fast to what is good. And let Christ, not comfort, define your next step.