Not to me - I can't see any 'church' using such a thing to raise money. What a perversion of Scripture!
I was being sarcastic. I thought it was obvious.
This makes me intensely bitter, and maybe that's sinful.
I lost a child, a 20 year-old beloved son when I was a member of a large Holy Spirit-led healing church. I didn't get a lot of support from the staff. The next Sunday, they had a special speaker, who talked about a sick child, and he talked about his pain when he thought he would lose that child - and he asked: "God, why?"
I was deeply touched, and felt the same way.
In the next breath, he said the child was saved! "Praise God!" from the congregation.
But where did that leave me? Faith is easy when God answers prayers, and these churches demand we pray because they tell us God will give us what we want if we do.
But what kind of failth do you need to maintain the love of God when he DOESN'T answer prayer?
These people have a cheap faith.
We had a little ministry in that church, but were always considered to be outsiders. What kept me there was the fact that it was a very good place for our ministry, and I saw people healed from spiritual, mental and emotional problems time and time again through our little group. Not my doing, but blessed by just being there to witness the work of the Holy Spirit.
Over the course of a year we saw people relieved of alcoholism, and three people suffering from chronic life-long depression were relived of that ailment. (How often to do you see that!) It was encouragement to me to keep doing what we were doing!
The pastor, in the prayer groups would constantly ask for miracle of healing - "I want healing of sickness and disease - cancer, life threatening illnesses! That will bring people in this town to Jesus!"
I pointed out to him the people who we witnessed being cured in our group... "Well, that's nice." he said, "Nothing wrong with that. But I want big, dramatic healings!"
Jesus had come and was healing people right in front of us, and he couldn't see it. Thank God the Holy Spirit was able to work with us, despite this guy!
That pastor's wife told the story of her young son, as a child years ago, diagnosed as very sick... she prayed, and suddenly he was healed! Proof, she said, that God hears, loves us and answers prayer!
So, where does this leave me? I guess by her logic God doesn't hear my prayers, love my or answer my prayers.
After my son died, some of my Christian friends never spoke to me again. (Many remained close, and helped me through that time.) But virtually no help from any of the pastoral staff. I didn't fit their model of what they expected from God, I suppose.
I remember sitting in a branch of that church where the pastor knew of my struggles. He just seemed to get a blank look on his face when I cried during prayer groups. One Sunday he turns toward the group of his "favorites," the little inside clique of the church, all seated together. He frowns and starts the service with "We just received some terrible news. We heard Rick Warren's son died. It's a surprise to us when we hear about terrible things happening to good Christians."
I was sitting 15 feet away from the guy. He knew my struggles - but he was better able to show concern and compassion to someone 3000 miles away that he had never met, than he was able to express to a member of his own congregation that he knew was struggling with the same thing!
I had to come up with my own money to bury my child - we had the service at a different church, by my ex-wife's request, and I certainly had no problem with that. The funeral home let me pay the bill over several months, and when I could afford a plot I bought one, and I paid for the stone in monthly payments over a period of about a year.
It's what the members of the congregation have to do. We're not bless and taken care of like the pastoral staff.