Bible Question:
Hi EdB Thanks for responding. I must say that it would take awhile to find all the local pastors 'that speak most about money'! LOL That would mean I would have to visit each local church several times and compare one with another. Then I would have to observe each congregation to compare them with their pastor. WHEW! That could take a long time. I think my own pastor would wonder where in the world I am each Sunday. :) (this paragraph was typed in humor) But I will share this. My pastor has an SUV, a Mercedes and I believe he still has a pickup truck. His wife has a Toyota (not the Camry, but the other one (the name escapes me at present) ). He wears nice suits and his wife dresses nice also. I've never seen his house and never looked up his local property tax records. But I do have his address and phone number and can find his home if I choose to. Our congregation is a mixture. We have state workers, lawyers, doctors, professors, teachers, business owners, college students. And comparing the members of the congregation with the pastor, I see equity for the most part. Now... :) No, my church is not labeled WoF. In fact, we are labeled 'Baptist'. My pastor usually picks a passage of scripture and preaches on it and I don't recall the last time he preached specifically on the subject of money other than reading a scripture(usually Malachi 3:8-10) at offering time. My pastor is paid thru tithes given by the congregation, so I guess he too lives off what is given by his listeners. Given the following scripture, is it wrong for 'preachers (to) live off what is given by their listeners'? Gal 6:6 Let him who receives instruction in the Word [of God] share all good things with his teacher [contributing to his support]. Amp Those who are taught the word of God should help their teachers by paying them. NLT Oh and please... please... please I beseech anyone who may raise a brow at the number of autos my pastor has... please... please... please I humbly beseech you: I can not and will not defend why he should or should not have them, so please, if you have a problem with it, just leave a scripture reference and I'll pass it along :). Whew! How did this post get so long?!! Abba Father bless and keep you... :) |
Bible Answer: Mbooker I'm sorry I think your being left in the dark. In the Word of Faith movement a main teaching is God HAS to reward your faith. If you want something you have to claimed it by faith then God HAS to honor that faith and give it to you. Much like a genie that you freed from the bottle. There is no consideration for God's sovereignty or that if you are given everything you want you quickly become spoiled. They also teach if you give God has to repay as much as a 100 fold. Forgetting the scripture God’s owes no man and the other scripture that says God does he pleases. The idea is you give to their ministry and God will then give back to you 100 fold. That presents a problem where is this money going to come from? Very simply they take the scripture out of context that says God is going to take from the unrighteous and give to the righteous. Now that they have the “where is coming from ” problem solved they can now press the issue of your sowing and reaping. Amazingly the aren’t depending on God doing the unrighteous to righteous swap. No, they have their money from the listener that is sowing into their ministry so he will get back 100 fold. Many of these so call humble servants of the Lord are receiving 7 digit incomes while the people that are sending in the money are living on 20,000 or less. Many of these humble servants actually brag about how much they make and how much they can raise during an offering. I truly believe this to be stench in the nostrils of the Lord. Your right a pastor is to receive his support from the offering, no one is denying that. His income should represent a rough average of the income of the church give or take a little. A workman is worthy his hire and any man or woman that faithfully fulfills the call of God upon his or her life should be cared for by the people that they care for. As Paul said “I feed you spiritually should you not feed me physically?” That is not the problem, the problem is manipulating people to give by promising them God has to give it back 100 fold. God doesn’t have to do a thing. EdB |