i was reading the early chapters of isaiah and was struck by the similarities to our christian subculture here in america. the LORD condemns Israel for their pride and their wealth, while they ignore the widow and the orphan.
i commend the churches that are doing things differently, as i know there are quite a few. but for the most part, we are doing just this. we are living in luxury, and the orphans are starving to death. maybe they arent physically starving, but they are cooped up in foster homes and orphanages where they are physically and emotionally being abused every day. we send our elderly to senior living homes, instead of welcoming them into our homes. and the list can go on.
but it is interesting, because the biggest offense that the LORD comes to is that the leaders are the worst at this.
today, sadly this is no different. i participate in a body where our head pastor is paid a low salary, as far as pastor salaries go. but in comparison to the church body, he makes more than most of the individuals. and as i said, our church is better than many. i have been to churches where the pastors own million dollar homes and drive luxury cars. granted this isnt true for all pastors, but what about the ones who own multiple late model cars (assume they cost at least 15K apiece) and they have a 4000 sf house. even in the cheapest part of the country, they have to be making a substantial amount of money to afford such a house and such cars. meanwhile, there are people in their congregation barely making month to month, not to mention day to day.
these people are to be leading their congregations in the way of the LORD. no wonder Israel has become proud. no wonder the widow and the orphan are neglected. if we as leaders of the church are living in luxury, if we arent willing to live as poor in this world, why would our body do any differently??!!
may we shed of the cumbersome wealth that entangles. may we lead the church to love our neighbor as ourselves, not just the rich and popular neighbor, but the rude, ugly, hungry, socially-inept, obnoxious, clingy, and poor neighbor. may we seek out those who need us the most. may we, like martin of tours, cut off half of our coat to give the other half to one who has none.
may we find true wealth, in heaven.
Filed under: Christianity, Religion | Tagged: pastors
Might be a good idea to ask your pastor how much of his income he gives. That might tell you more about the situation than simply knowing his income.
Hopefully his answer will be a God-glorifying and pleasant surprise!
At the level of say… Joel Osteen, yeah, I’d say we’re getting ridiculous. I love seeing what guys like Rick Warren have done. The guy made millions off his books, so he paid his church back every dime they paid him as a pastor over the years, and reverse-tithed his income (keeping 10% and giving 90%). He’s still not too bad off, but wow….
lance and brad
thanks for the comments. yeah, you make a good pt about the giving. that is certainly the point. i love that rick gave 90%.
unfortunately, when a pastor is driving a new car and lives in an expensive house, then i know they arent giving as much as they are able. i am not criticizing all pastors here, but i know quite a few from my past experiences who have all kinds of expensive things, but where do they get it from? from the people who are barely making it. from the people who they are supposed to be leading.
if yall havent checked out the first few chapters of isaiah, i encourage you to.
shalom
peter
No new posts in a while…
Isn’t this an issue that local vestries, presbyteries, or boards of directors should be dealing with more aggressively then?
Isn’t this an issue that local vestries, presbyteries, or boards of directors should be dealing with more aggressively then?
yeah, unfortunately, many churches dont have such checks and balances because they are “non-denominational”, etc. so the pastor is the person who pretty much decides anything. besides there are many pastors today that teach that God rewards us on earth with riches. (health and wealth gospel so called) so when there is a check and balance like a council, they believe they are supposed to shower wealth on their pastors.
peter
Even non-denominational churches can have vestries, though. The one we go to does. I guess if some dude goes off and starts his own church, he can have it be vestry-free and thus his own personal spiritual dictatorship if he wants, but I wouldn’t go to a church that didn’t have that kind of safety system built in. I spent too many years in the unreasonably hierarchical and authoritarian LDS church, I guess.
I would like to say that there are a lot of pastors out there that have sent me emails. The one that really took the cake today was from Rod Parsley. He said that he felt God had given him a vision about our last days that he believes we are currently living in. He would send everyone this information if they would make a donation. I wrote him back and told him that I didn’t feel God would want someone who had a true vision of what we are facing and hold it back from us unless we pay him for the DVD. I guess I’m a little upset over the fact that my family fell on hard times about a year ago and I wasn’t attending church as often as I had been. I previously had been helping with the children and always attended everything they had going on. I also had previously tithed weekly and felt that I helped the church with things they needed, but when I fell on these hard times I attended one of the church garage sales and the pastor’s father told me that if I would just get back in church and tithe like I had previously things would work out. I felt like I had been slapped across the face! I’ve really taken the time to look at how churches and pastors preach on money and I don’t feel that Jesus was walking around telling the poor and needy that he would help them if they would just give him some money. I have started attending a different church and read my Bible and pray. Prayer is the real answer.