Should a College Ministry Tithe it's Budget?

Should a College Ministry tithe what is given to it to do ministry? In other words, if you have a $10,000 budget for your ministry, should you give $1,000 to a less fortunate ministry?

This is a thorny question. Some would say, "No; if the money was given to you by individuals for your ministry, then you do not have the right or ability to give it to another ministry....that's mis-use of funds.". But, if we are trying to teach students to give and give sacrificially, shouldn't our ministry model that?

Almost all of us would say our ministry never has enough..,there's always something else that needs doing or more scholarships to be given to students to attend worthy events. But, what if a College Ministry with a $100,000 budget(yes; there are some.) gave $10,000 to a ministry that had next to nothing?

Let me admit that I don't know the answer. I think there are good points on each side of the discussion. BUT, I do think ministries should help other ministries. Many years ago I was in Nashville for a committee meeting. Many may not realize that Nashville is a Greek word that means committee meeting, if you are a Southern Baptist. I was riding to the airport with a College Minister from California. We got to talking about his ministry. He had ministries on different campuses and he said he tried to do something special for each once a month.

I asked what the monthly something special was. He said usually iced tea. I gulped hard and I thought about how much I had spent on pizza recently. So, I said, "I will send you some iced tea money each month.".

A few years later our Student Leadership Team was talking about helping the ministry at Princeton. We had already set our Missions Goal and it was already committed to different things. One of the students said, "If we go over our goal, why don't we give half of that overage to Princeton.". Good idea! That could possibly get them a couple of hundred dollars.....crazy thing....we went over our goal by several thousand dollars that year!

I don't know if a College Ministry should tithe it's budget...but, I do think we all should be helping other ministries. I promise you there is someone who has less than you do.