Posted on 10/11/2014 9:11:03 PM PDT by servo1969
Last Thursday evening I had my pastor over to Casa de Giles to enjoy one of my fine cigars with the family and me. During the course of catching up, I found out that several new families from a local South Florida mega-church had left that zoo and had joined our church. The reason why they said they absconded had me gobsmacked – and I’m a hard critter to shock.
Having been in the ministry for twenty-five years, I’ve pretty much heard it all and have seen it all, but I wasn’t ready for this curve ball. This time it wasn’t because the “pastor” was an impenitent adulterer or heretic or because he was going all Rob Ford and stuff down on South Beach or that he was squat-humping altar boys.
No, the reason they fled Babylon was because they found out that their pastor had an elder-approved clothing budget of $60,000 a year built into his financial perks for pastoring. What a dandy. Sounds just like the lowly Nazarene, eh? Five grand a month? Really, dude? Oh, and I almost forgot, he also never wears the same clothes twice when he appears on stage on Sundays. Who does he think he is? Mariah Carey?
As I was listening to my brother line out what these refugees had told him was their reason for leaving, I couldn’t help but contrast that crap with another minister whom I had met with the week prior who runs a massive ministry providing the basics for Iraqi Christians being slaughtered by the Islamic State in northern Iraq. His ministry is a real front-line-life-or-death works in one of the most anti-Christian hot spots on the planet. Oh, by the way, he takes no salary for all the hard work he churns out helping thousands under Islam’s heel.
As a 51year-old I’ve had it with the Christian Glitterati obsessed with “success” using ministry as a means to get rich, wear Rolexes and play like they're Ryan Seacrest. Our world is going to hell and the last thing we need is a preening pastor with a histrionic personality disorder.
For what it’s worth, my brethren, here’s my advice to saints who might find themselves in a similar silly church situation.
Yep, folks, my time, talent and treasure will only go to ministers and ministries that stay true to the Verbum Dei and who do good works for those who’re truly in need. I suggest you do the same and flee the carnival-like mooks who’ve let their personal ambitions eclipse biblical principles and common sense.
Amen.
Mega Churches make me very queasy.
If you sell FORGIVENESS people will buy it.
Are you buying it?
The fact that God is big business only comes as a surprise to the naive.
“squat-humping” is definitely a phrase I’ll be adding to my vocabulary!
My grandfather told me to never trust a pastor who owned more than one suit. That made sense to me then, and it makes sense to me now.
GREAT article! Preachers who cast themselves as CEOs with all the perks are ... I’m looking for the word ... Hucksters? Creeps? Absolutely Brazen Hypocrites? ... Something like that. Or those.
Sooo...I shouldn’t have watched Dr Eugene Scott?
He was a HOOT!
When one of our three kids was born mrs p6 and I watched him while she was in labor. Best and easiest birthing EVAR!
Wish Doc Scott was still around.
And my all time fav radio preachers were Brother Dan and Sister Ann. Western Pennsylvania. Not quite a mega church but close.
They got me hooked on great Gospel music like The Happy Goodmans did. Dan and Ann did a pretty good version of Great Gospel Ship all by themselves!
They also brought Chico Holiday and Big John Hall into town a couple of times IIRC. LOVE that music!
My husband goes to one. My son went with him a few weeks ago and saw the pastor getting something out of his Porsche. It really only confirmed what I already knew.
Used to watch him on or HUGE sattelite dish years ago. We’re talkin’ pre-scramble days. He WAS a hoot!
http://m.youtube.com/?reload=2&rdm=1a1wzd5yq#/watch?v=45cAaIHdozI
This fellow is still bush league compared to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, who had gold faucets in their bathrooms, an air conditioned dog house and gave away cars like Elvis. (I knew of one plumber who was given a car for making a house call on Sunday.) Their TV station had better equipment than the major networks in New York.
Hartford, am I boring you? Play it again!
A megachurch is defined as church with an average church attendance of at least 2,000; so I’d be careful about blanket criticisms of all megachurches.
Charles Spurgeon preached to a church that was larger than Joel Osteen’s and I dare anyone to argue that Spurgeon was not one of the greatest preachers of the true Gospel in the history of mankind.
Scott was a classic. Funny as, um, hell. One day when he was soliciting money by saying GET ON THE PHONE!, my teenage son and his pals were watching and laughing at his friend’s house. Scott sat silently for many minutes waiting for the 10th pledge to come in of $1000 dollars. My son’s friend called in and made the pledge. BWAHAHAHAHAHA! He began talking again but of course would get no money. The kids laughed their asses off.
Oh I forgot about the 11th Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Wear Expensive Clothes.
A pastor having wealth is not a sin. Poverty does not make one more Godly but the church board approving a $60,000 a year clothing budget is ridiculous. They are more the problem because they catered to this demand.
Pastors who aren’t held accountable can be led astray like Jim Bakker and Jim Jones.
“...but the church board approving a $60,000 a year clothing budget is ridiculous. They are more the problem because they catered to this demand.”
Church boards are often composed of sock puppets. It is the pastor’s fault.
I’m not opposed to pastors having some luxury perks, but any pastor who spends that much on clothing and hair gel has not only failed to grasp the significance of 1 Corinthians 11, but is also acting like a Sodomite.
I also can’t stand this stupid, condescending trend of “Christian Rock”. Sorry, but mimicking pop music and replacing all the “babies” with “Jesus” does not negate the mind-numbing terribleness of that music. “Christian Rock” is undoubtedly going to be used in the next Project MKULTRA.
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