The CHURCH & MONEY
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
fastest-growing businesses in Kansas City. Yet God has led
him to continually give as much as possible away to Missions
and the poor. He has some VERY strong things to say to the
church in regard to MONEY.
**********************************
From: "Doug Perry" <doug@acrosscountries.com>
[Excerpted from 'Christian Family Journal']
"The BOTTOM LINE"
-by Doug Perry.
If you want to put your finger on what's wrong with the church in
America today, just follow the money. Always follow the money.
See ... God gave a businessman a successful business and much
money. God gave the man savvy and shrewdness and management
skills. God taught him how to be a good steward and build something
strong. God placed him in a church where he could contribute his
talents and skills.
Then ... the businessman checked his brain at the door and handed
over all his treasure to those least educated and trained in the
management of money. They have no experience with it and it's
potential dangers. But they got a seminary degree. So before you
know it, they offer to let the businessman put his name on the new
wing, they spend his money like crazy on any fool program that
looks like fun and their other pastor buddies are doing, and if they're
really lucky and play by the rules, they get offered a chance to go do
the same stuff at a church with twice as many businessmen.
Who is God going to hold most responsible? Clearly the pastor is
guilty for not leading the sheep correctly and maybe even for
harming them and being prideful. But to some degree he's just doing
what he was trained and learned in seminary.
But the businessman was given many gifts and he didn't ask ANY
of the questions he had been trained to ask of a business venture
looking to spend his capital. He didn't ask about Return On
Investment or look to cut back or contain costs like he would in his
own business. Particularly if you're trying to be Christ-like. The
largest waste of useable space in this country is all the big buildings
being used a few hours a day, twice a week!
Businessmen didn't go to seminary, but they can interpret the model
of Christ and his hope for us same as anyone else. Businessmen
should be able to prioritize and meet urgent needs and problem-solve
and be entrepreneurial - or at least think about risk-management.
But they haven't been, even though they're Chairman of the Deacons
and head of the Finance Committee (all worldly structures, by the
way). Mostly they've just been checking their brains at the door for years.
I think consciously or subconsciously the reason American
Christians only tithe 2% is because they know that if they were
obedient and gave FIVE times as much there would be gold plated
mega churches on every corner and every pastor would have his
own TV show. There'd be Jesus theme parks in every big town.
Everything EXCEPT raw, effective evangelism and care for those in
most need.
I can't begin to tell you how badly we've managed the money. It's
awful, AWFUL! Horrifyingly bad. I'm still just trying to get my head
around how bad it is. It's no wonder the secular world hates us.
We're all hypocrites of the highest order. More than any other part
of the church anywhere ever! The Catholic Church during the
Inquisition wasn't as bad! For what we could have been with our
blessings, we've let hundreds of millions of souls go to hell and
millions of Brothers and Sisters starve to death. So that we could
have padded pews and new carpet.
I know of one Evangelical church that believes in the imminent
return of Christ with a chandelier that cost $1,000,000!! The pastor
didn't pay for it out of HIS pocket! It was the folks with the big money
that played along. They're going to have to account for the decisions
they made as stewards of God's blessings. When they "stand"
before Jesus to account they're going to be wishing they could get
UNDER the ground.
I'm telling you flat out, the folks that did the worst damage need to
be crushed - and then they need to go see to it that the church
changes it's ways. Look at it the other way - if you DON'T get the
businessman to repent, he'll see to it that they find another pastor
before he'll give up the shiny buildings he donated.
Until they are a great crushing weight pressing against the souls of
the guilty, the massive piles of money in this country will not be
liberated to go be a blessing to the unreached, the widows, and the
orphans as we're commanded. We'll never live according the the
model of Jesus and we'll always be hypocrites. There's going to be
some serious heart-crying when this message finally sinks in. We
have a lot to atone for.
Clear enough?
-Doug Perry. [Visit his website at- http://whathavewedone.org/ ]
**************