Tithe Stewardship & Church Tithing

Just remember that the greatest gift ever given was given freely, cheerfully, and gracefully.

I had received this comment below on the article, “A Look At Prosperity Gospel - CBS News“. I was debating in my mind whether or not to approve the comment in that post, because it looked like someone just spamming for attention to their site. But then i read the material in the links provided and i thought it was all very interesting and informative in the least. I want to hear your thoughts and intuition on the information below. Here’s the comment:

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Kenneth Copeland put on a excellent performance at his latest ministers conference held on January 22,2008 visible here , which has now gotten the attention of people all across the USA, and abroad. The message he was unmistakably sending, came across loud and clear on every subject he was addressing. From voicing his personal feelings about the senate investigation, to a multitude of other issues facing KCM. Surprisingly, Kenneth does admit to some element of truth in the letter KCM received from the Senate, but did not go into any detailed explanations. Also in his defense, he makes the accusation that the truth is being twisted a bit. A old saying comes to mind , what comes around goes around. Years of promoting the promises of prosperity, physical healing, and last but not least the twisting of biblical scripture for personal gain has returned to KCM full circle.

“I had a home“, “I had a life“, “I had faith“, “I had a family“, “I lost a loved one“, these are merely a handful of endless testimonies coming to light nationwide. Ranging from all walks of life, their heartbreaking testimonies can be found throughout the web, yet inconceivably, victims are being labeled as fools, ignorant, and basically downright blind for not seeing the truth behind the Prosperity Gospels falsehoods. Being only human, our quest for health and wealth, regrettably does lead some in the wrong direction. Promises and guaranties, made by the Prosperity Gospel ministers, give people that have not obtained these blessings on their own, a second chance at achieving their goals in life. An important discovery I made while reviewing testimonies, revealed the fact numerous victims had very little knowledge of the Prosperity Gospels dark side. These unfortunate victims, appear to be equipped with only a small portion of the web of deceit these ministers weave . For example, picture yourself being raised in a small country town, with a population of only a few hundred, the closest city, only a population of only a few thousand.

Computers, internet, cable, satellite TV, and other high tech gadgets are not needed or desired. This was my life, before KCM.
Prosperity Gospel ministers enter the homes of many victims though a thirty minute Sunday morning worship service on a local broadcast station. Myself, growing up in Jigger La., truly located in the middle of nowhere, I can testify to the fact that we only received on a clear day about three or four channels at most. Therefore warnings of the numerous dangers, and intentional deceit, associated with Prosperity Gospel ministries, being made by critics, ministers, and victims went unheard by many. The irony of this are the many warning labels we all encounter every day. From cleaning supplies to over the counter medications, labels posted on various products warn us of the dangers associated with that particular product. Regrettably Prosperity Gospel does not offer this, but should! Family’s have lost their homes, lifesavings, and some even their lives to the Prosperity Gospel.

Unfortunately my mother was not one of the lucky ones, her confidence, and faith in this false Gospel, ultimately cost her, her life. After more than a decade of programming her mind to believe and think the Prosperity Gospel way of life, she lost her battle with cancer. By refusing medical attention, she sealed her fate, but the programming she had acquired from Kenneth and Gloria Copeland proved strong all the way to her last breath. A diary she left behind revealed the horrific tale of her life from 1992-2002, the top of each page titled with Kenneth Copeland, Gloria Copeland, or BVOV. Some mistakes in life we can not undo, and good intentions don’t always go as planed, these victims are simply following misleading promises of health and wealth. Their use of miraculous healing confessions, and newly found wealth testimonies, are their sales pitch, my mother among others, are proof that their sale pitch does work. The possibility of certain Mega churches misusing contributors finances for their own personal luxuries is ultimately what brought this scam to the publics attention, not the loss of life, the financially bankrupt, nor the numerous homeless victims that have been left in the wake of this devastating hoax.

Knowledge, is the only discovery I found to be effective in this seemingly endless battle. Sadly for some our efforts will go unheard. As for my family, once again I am addressing another envelope to Kenneth Copeland Ministries, asking once again for a summery of my mothers (Bonnie Parker) contributions to KCM, and since they have bankrupt our family also due to the numerous expenses we encountered before and after mom’s death, and once more, ask them to purchase a headstone for mom. I believe they at least owe her that much.

- The family of Bonnie Parker
E-MAIL - sis359@gmail.com

Photo, before and after KCM,
http://picasaweb.google.com/sis359/BonnieParkerDiaryPhoto

Documentary Suffer The Children, exposes televangelists lavish lifestyles ,
http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/suffer-children

Book recently published by Sara Posner, also looks into these subjects,
http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Profits-Republican-Crusade-Values/dp/0979482216

http://sis359.blogspot.com

I am not a scholar, nor am i a pastor. I don’t have a PhD nor do i have experience as a teacher.  I don’t know the “theological big word” definitions of hermeneutics, homiletics, or exegesis. I couldn’t even tell you if i just spelled them right. I am the normal, every day joe schmoe when it comes to theology. Most would put me in the category of laymen. I don’t think my opinion matters more than a man who has a PhD and has 30 years experience as a senior pastor, but i don’t think that my opinion matters less either. At this point i don’t know why i’m sharing my thoughts here about this, but it’s just something that came to my mind, so here we go.

I don’t know how many others out there feel left out when the Christian conversations start progressing towards the “theological big words”. I don’t think i get in many conversations with those words as much as i read these big words from the pages of scholars who write them. I’m not saying that there is no relevancy to understanding these definitions, but i think i appreciate the more practical communication. i like parables. i like applications. Its very simple, and very practical.

I couldn’t tell you that Jesus sat down with his pupils during a course study and spoke a lesson to his disciples about homiletics (is that even a word?).  There were no university’s offering a masters of divinity. There was no doctorate of theology. You were either a disciple or follower of Jesus, or you were not.

Right now, many random thoughts are just coming to my mind. Like why spend 10 years in college? Why spend many thousands of dollars on these degrees? How is all this practical? How does all this help? Well, if life is just a vapor, what’s your opinion? I realize that these questions have very legitimate answers, and i don’t want to belittle any of the causes here. I don’t know, maybe i’m just trying to comfort some self doubt in my mind right now, because i am just the average joe schmoe. My vast use of vocabulary comes from just a small little town in eastern Pennsylvania. It doesn’t come from any dictionary’s or theology courses.  I did graduate with a bachelor’s degree, and i consider myself more fortunate than most.

I didn’t feel like writing about finances, stewardship, or tithing in this post. I just wanted to share some of my personal thoughts that have been running through my mind recently.

How practical do you think theology is these days? i’m not necessarily talking about what your pastor thinks of practical theology, but i’m asking you about your personal life. What is your own definition of practical theology in perspective of your own experience and own knowledge? Do you think the majority of theology out there today is practical?

First, Choose your Edition

Moyce Jeyer Edition

Cope Kenland Edition

Dreflo Collar Edition

Henny Binn Edition

Now, Choose your game pieces

Finally, Start Playing

(+) Click the Board to See Details (+)

Official Rules of Televangoly
Object of the game televangoly of course is to gain as much money and property as possible. Players must choose their favorite game piece and roll the dice to go around the board. If you are caught for tax fraud, go directly to jail, do not pass go do not collect your million dollars. The first person to monopolize the game and take everyone’s money is the winner. Now remember that your opponents are just sowing their seed to you, so make sure you give them a 1-800 number to call and pledge.

If you land on community plate, this is an opportunity for you to capitalize on all of the gifts that have been pouring into your ministry. So pick a community plate card off the board, and cross your fingers. If you land on chance, you have an opportunity to pick a card from the “chance” pile. Remember these can be good and bad cards. But if you get a bad and owe some money, you can always hold a pimp-a-thon on the Total Baloney Network and make others pay for your misfortune.

One of the best spots to land on the whole board is the “tithing tax”. If you land on this spot collect 10% of all your opponents earnings. They do not have the option of giving freely or else a curse will come upon their finances and they will be forced into poverty.

The next spot on the board is the $10 Church parking. If you happen to land on this spot you are very fortunate. You get to collect all the money that’s been collected for all of those who have paid for parking. So grab that money out of that pot, and don’t forget to stop and smell the aroma of cold hard cash in the palm of your hand.

Last but not least. One of the most coveted places on the board are the private jets. What would a televangelist do without their jet? It’s almost like a circuit riding preacher without a horse. So go around the board and collect them all! These jets have been chose by many of the world famous televangelists around the world.

Well, that’s the end of the official rules. The number one rule is have fun and put on that smile even though you are robbing all of your opponents of their money.

Yesterday I presented the first 5 Myths About Church Building Projects, so today i continue with the final five myths that our pastoral leaders misuse in order to initiate an expensive building project.

Myth #6. Our renovated and upgraded sanctuary resembles the glory of God

- We act like we are recreating the holy of holies or the temple of Solomon! At one point I had the privilege of going to a church that had built a 96 million dollar facility. As a matter of fact, they paid cash for it! Let me tell you, it was something. It was beautiful! But once I walked out the doors on Sunday, what was it to me then? What was it to God then? God doesn’t sit up in heaven and just stare at all the beautiful churches, as if he were walking through a gallery admiring all the works of art.

Most people renovate their church out of peer pressure from so many complaints. I know of churches who have split over the color of the carpets or where the piano should go. What they’ve done is completely forget about their savior, who was born in some cave, placed in a feeding trough, and grew up a carpenter’s son.

Myth #7. We need to invest in more room to fit our congregation

-God is calling his church to disperse, not build our own civilization. A passage about the tower of babel in Genesis 10 says, “And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Now in the 21st century mankind is back to our old ways. We get so comfortable and are so afraid to break up the chemistry. We think that we can’t possibly start a new church or disperse the people we do have. Of course because we are carnal thinkers, when we are uncomfortable, we come up with a natural way to fix it, instead of coming up the spiritual way.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not talking about that we all should be worshipping under the open sky whether or not its rain or shine. Many churches do not make the right decisions when it comes to investment. Just because you built your church building on some property that is appraised higher than what you bought it for, does not mean that God looks at it as an investment.

This reminds me of the story in Luke 12 which states,
“Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’

‘So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.’”

Myth #8. The debt will be worth it

- There can be much said on this subject alone. The first thing that comes to mind is that our debts typically do not last for 10 to 15 years. Most of our church mortgage debts run for typically 30 years. Which means that these debts will not only be paid by us, but also by our children. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to pay for my parent’s debt. I don’t care if they think the debt was for my benefit. I don’t want to pay it. Why should children have to pay for the debts on the decisions that their parents have made?

Let’s not forget about what will be neglected because we have to pour so much of our money into paying off this debt now. Who will go hungry, what ministries and missionaries will be sacrificed? Are we neglecting the one good to do different good?

What will you have to sacrifice from your family so that your church family will have? Are you leaving an investment for your children or are you considering this church building your investment for them? Eventually they will move away from that area, so then what? 2 Corinthians 12 states, “For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.”

If I knew the end of the world was going to be next week, I’d be racking up all of my credit cards and going into as far debt as possible. I would only do that because I knew next week it wouldn’t matter. But the Church isn’t doing this because they are getting ready for the rapture, tribulation, or the end of the world; they are doing it from the desire to pursue the American dream. This country is in unprecedented debt, and why should we preach against it when our church’s debt is maxed out?

Myth #9. Our growth will allow us to birth more programs and functions

- If only we had more, then we could do more for those who don’t have what we’re gonna have.

Although I can say more, I don’t think I should. That said it all there.

Myth #10. This is the will of God

- There are many churches out there that have fallen into the path of a pastor who has been misled. For most churches, all it takes is the pastors to get up one day and say that God is calling them to initiate a church building project, and from then on, all the energy, time, and resources is poured into the pastor’s vision. I understand the role of the pastor. They are to lead and to shepherd, but God still created him as part of the body. The pastor is not the head or the cornerstone, he is a co-dependant organ, just like the rest of the body parts.

There are so many people out there that claim the will of God and His power over their life, but the repercussions do not show the power of God. I agree that it is hard to discern the will of God, but no man can do it alone. The pastor must operate as one of many.

What happens many times in building projects is that the pastor gets everyone all pumped up and on board with this goal. Then all of a sudden when bills hit and the pastors preaching his 10th sermon this season on giving, people now aren’t so on board with it all. You see what happens is that the pastors will was not the will of God. You do have some people that continue to stay on board, but he majority lose track of the excitement because they’ve realized that they’ve been pursuing the dreams and visions that a man, and not God, has placed on their heart.

As a simple illustration, this is typically how this same scenario works out with a teacher who is motivating kids to go to the museum for a field trip. The teacher pumps the kids full of excitement about the awesome dinosaurs, and animals that are at the museum. But when the kids get there, they are bored out of their mind. They are not interested at all. Yes, the teacher told the truth about a few dinosaurs and animals, but to a kid who can’t touch or climb on it, it’s dumb.

You see, the teacher wanted to go to the museum, and then all he had to do was excite the children into going. There was no consensus made nor was there a proper perspective painted about the actual experience.

When I am facing some open doors for my family, it would be foolish for me to just excite my wife about the decision that I’ve made without actually consulting her first. When you are a body, you breathe as a body, you think as a body, and you open doors as a body. It is designed this way by God because he knows that 1 man(one body part) has difficulty discerning the decisions for the whole body.

Tithing and Offerings main page

In my opinion these are 5 of the top 10 myths that people use to promote the initiation of building projects in the church. This list is the first five, and tomorrow i will post 5 more myths about church building projects.

Myth #1. This building will be used to reach the next generation of young people

Buildings do not reach the next generation. People reach other people. The reason why you cannot neglect this truth is because, the next generation rarely ever fills the pews of the previous generation. The next generation will have their own agenda to build, and I will guarantee it will differ from what the previous generation has visioned.

This reminds me of a story of a carpenter and his son. As the son was young, the father invested much time and money in training his son about the carpenter business. He bought lots of expensive tools and invested a lot into his business so that his son would have the best opportunities possible whenever he took over the business. But as the boy got older, he wanted to do something else besides being a carpenter. Of course you can see that much of what the father had envisioned in his boy would not come to fruition.

Myth #2. Once we build this, more people will come

I think we get fooled by the old cliché that says, “If you build it, they will come”. As if it’s a magnet or something? More or less what I think the premise behind that statement is, “once we upgrade our facility I’ll be more proud to invite people to this church”. Another thing that I don’t understand is that our encounter with God is not show and tell.

Remember when Elijah met God in the mountains? There was a fire, an earthquake, and mighty wind, but God was found in the spectacular display. He was subtle, and non-abrasive. God does not need a banner. What do we think? Don’t you think that the creation of heaven and earth is a good enough banner to advertise God?

Myth #3. This will help us reach our city

I understand that God gives us all things to use as tools to evangelize, but when you are “out there” reaching the city than that means you are not “inside” your building. So, in essence it’s not even helping you reach the city that is “out there”. The city will not reach for you.

Of course we are all familiar with the great commission, “Go out into all the world”. Need I say more? A church building is not mobile. It cannot get up and move, (not unless its on wheels) and start evangelizing and ministering to those in your city.

In conclusion of this point, how will your building and its facilities help you reach your city that cannot already be facilitated elsewhere?

Myth #4. This is God’s Storehouse

The storehouse in the Old Testament was the place where the Levites had stored what they had collected in tithes and offerings from the nation of Israel. Somehow in the New Testament, we’ve come up with a transferable analogy that the storehouse in the Old Testament is a picture of the church building in the New Testament. I have no clue where this idea stems from, because clearly these people haven’t read the verse that talks about our eternal storehouse. “Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven”, is the proper view of what our storehouse is today.

We need to stop dignifying the perishable church building as a religious icon. The world doesn’t need another icon. It only needs Jesus.

Myth #5. God wants us to build his kingdom

This is for those of you who think that God meant building his infrastructure on earth. Of course most of us agree that we need to be multiplying the number of saints rather than building real estate here on earth.

Outside of that thought how much of the Church body today really understands the concept that God is not trying to build an empire the size of your city’s zip code? For example we can look at the Mormons. They practically have downtown Salt Lake City, Utah under control of their regime.

This is kind of a rabbit trail, but there’s one thing that bugs me about churches locking their doors. I’m not talking about leaving their doors open at night for thieves to steal, but I’m talking about the churches who have 10 entrances and they only open 1 of the doors so they have better crowd control or that they are lazy to open all of them. I guess what I’m trying to see if how many of you went to walk into your church and then pulled onto the door handle and found out it was locked. This is just my opinion but what kind of message is that? Really? On the Sunday morning that it happens to a visitor, I hope the pastor doesn’t read the verse that says, “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice”. Also in the back of my head, I’m curious to the churches that even have their doors open at all during the week. So all that time, the building is just sitting there literally wasting away.

Tomorrow i will post an addition to this entitled, “5 More myths About Church Building Projects”. Feel free to comment on these five or add your own myth’s yourselves.