Posted on 03/16/2015 6:54:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I’m all for generous giving, and I’m all for taking care of ministers of the gospel, but I will not be sending Creflo Dollar $300 to help him buy a $65 million jet for his ministry. The very thought of it is obscene.
On a manipulative video now removed from his website, the narrator explains how Pastor Dollar’s ministry is touching people worldwide and how the old private jet they’ve been using for years has become unusable, also explaining how it is actually dangerous to fly.
Now, we are told, in order to travel around the world, he needs a new jet, and not just any yet. It is a top of the line jet that is being coveted by billionaires who are on a waiting list to purchase one.
Yes, Creflo Dollar is asking for 200,000 people to send him $300 each in order to buy this ultra-luxury flying machine.
What’s really sad is that some people will actually do it.
What’s even sadder is that this same money could be used in millions of more productive ways.
What’s the saddest of all is that this financial appeal is bringing reproach to the name of Jesus and making a mockery of the gospel before the eyes of the world.
Can we be real for a moment?
Creflo Dollar is not the only super-busy gospel minister on the planet (let’s put aside whether you agree with the message he preaches), and many of us run hard for the Lord day and night, also flying around America and to the nations.
We can manage just fine without a private plane.
Yes, you’re in and out of lots of airports; yes, there are more flight issues to deal with because of delays and often, the seats aren’t that comfortable. Yes, there are baggage problems and there can be lots of time wasted; yes, sometimes you have to fly through the night, arrive without much sleep in the morning, and start a full day of ministry.
That’s called life, and all of us have to deal with it.
But given the choice of redirecting multiplied millions of dollars for ministry work to fund the gospel – we’re talking about the cost of buying the jet and the cost of maintaining it – or putting those millions towards the ultimate private jet, I think the choice is pretty easy to make.
Can anyone really think that their own ministry is so important that 200,000 people should give sacrificially to help them travel in greater comfort?
To be perfectly clear, if God blessed Pastor Dollar with a bestselling book and he used the money to build a gorgeous house, that’s between him and God.
The same would hold true if he made some financial investments that were abundantly blessed or if someone gave him an amazing jet to use. I wouldn’t begrudge him in the least.
Why should I begrudge someone from enjoying God’s blessings? If they are not greedy for gain and if they do not see godliness as a means towards financial prosperity – something that Paul denounced in the strongest terms in 1 Timothy 6 – then what they do with their money is between them and God.
Over the last 39 years, my wife and I have been blessed with some very nice houses and with some not so nice houses (and apartments), and we weren’t any more holy living in a small apartment than in a spacious house. Being poor doesn’t mean that you’re spiritual and being rich doesn’t mean that you’re carnal.
I also believe in the stewardship of our bodies, and if we can travel in a way that helps us be stronger and fitter for the work of the gospel, so be it.
Smith Wigglesworth was once asked why he traveled first class on trains and he answered, “I’m not saving the Lord’s money. I’m saving the Lord’s servant.”
Yet Wigglesworth never got rich off the gospel (may I ask what Creflo Dollar’s salary and benefits are?) and he donated all royalties for his sermon books to missions.
The issue of financial stewardship is shouting to us right now.
Because of my height and some sleep issues, when I travel overseas to countries like India (which is quite often), we do our best find ways to upgrade to business class, using miles or other perks or finding discounted tickets. And there are large congregations that gladly cover a business class fare when they invite you overseas, and that’s a great help when traveling so far.
But I’ve sat in the back of the plane hundreds of times (stateside and internationally), and I’m still alive and well, while the ministry times in each location have always been blessed.
In 2 Corinthians 6:4-5 Paul wrote, “but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger” – and, he added, “by flying commercial rather than private jet.” (Sorry. I just made that part up. He never said that.)
You might say to me, “Maybe you can manage without a private jet, but some people cannot do without them.”
Again, that’s between them and God, and to say it once more, I begrudge no one God’s blessing.
But there are ways to share planes with others (a rich business executive told me that’s all he would ever do, and he felt it was outrageous that people had to have their own jets) or to get safe and functional planes for a tiny fraction of the cost.
But my goal in writing this is to be redemptive.
Every year since 1993, I’ve worked with a ministry in India that has planted more than 7,000 churches in unreached tribal regions (hint: you can’t get anywhere near these villages with any kind of jet), along with building hospitals, schools, orphanages, homes for the aged and mentally ill, not to mention feeding the hungry day and night.
For $50 per month, you can support one of these devoted tribal pastors and his family – and I mean full-time support. (Some of them have been beaten for the faith; at least one was killed. They are sacrificial servants of the Lord.)
For $25 per month, you can support one of the precious children in the children’s home – and that means food, clothes, shelter, and a terrific godly education. (A couple of years back they got their first beds after years of sleeping on the concrete floor, but even before then, their smiles were precious and their love for Jesus contagious.)
And so, while I sincerely pray for God’s very best plan for Creflo Dollar and his ministry team, whatever that plan is, I’m going to sow my money where it really counts.
Will you join me?
Mr Dollar has a net worth of more then $27 million dollars. The name certainly fits him.
From the musical "Barnum"...
There is a sucker born every minute Each time the second hand sweeps to the top Like dandelions up they pop, Their ears so big, their eyes so wide. And though I feed ‘em bonafide baloney With no truth in it Why you can bet I’ll find some rube to buy my corn. ‘Cause there’s a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute, And I’m referrin’ to the minute you were born.
Each blessed hour brings sixty of ‘em Each time the wooden cuckoo shows his face Another sucker takes his place, And plunks his quarter on the line To buy my brand of genuine malarkey. God bless and love ‘em! But don’t feel sad or hoppin’ mad or cause a scene ‘Cause there’s a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute, But Ma’am you mighta been the minute in between.
If I allow that right here in my hands The smallest living human man The sight of that is surely worth a dime If I present an educated pooch Who’s trained to dance the hoochie cooch What better way to waste a bit of time If I imported monumental cost A lady, fair, who’s head was lost While crossing railroad tracks to pick some zinnias Who eats farina through a hose And wares pink tights instead of clothes If that ain’t worth a buck my name ain’t Phineas
Aw you say that’s hog wash well who cares You’ll buy my hog wash long as
There’s a sucker born every minute Each time the second hand sweeps to the top Like dandelions up they pop, Their ears so big, their eyes so wide. And though my tale is bonafide baloney, Just let me spin it, And ain’t no man who can resist me wait and see ‘Cause there’s a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute, And friends the biggest one excluding none is me!
Osteen does not taken a salary from his Houston megachurch. He owns one house — the same one he and his wife, Victoria, have lived in for 13 years — and until recently he drove a 9-year-old car he inherited from his late father. Osteen pays his own hotel bills, and there is no private jet.
Although the upbeat minister does take collections at services, netting an estimated $43 million a year, Osteen does not ask for money on his broadcasts, which reach an estimated 7 million viewers weekly in the U.S. and 100 other countries. Nonetheless, an additional $30 million comes through the mail. His most recent book deal earned him a $13 million advance.
“We make plenty of money from our books,” said Osteen, 44. “But we just live normal lives. We try to be conservative and honor God with our life and with our example.”
The success of these books raises questions about how religious figures should handle the millions of dollars in royalties and contributions.
Osteen is not the only prominent religious figure who tries to navigate these issues and, by doing so, differentiate himself from such controversies.
Warren, for example, has repaid every dollar he has earned in the pulpit of Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., and pledged to give away 90 percent of his book royalties. He accepts no speaking fees and is not as reluctant as Osteen to criticize those who are less altruistic.
“The opulent lifestyles of televangelists make me sick,” said Warren, of those ministries now under investigation. The scandals, he said, flow from the “prosperity gospel” that many televangelists preach.
“Success in any area often creates a spirit of entitlement — ‘I deserve this’ — that is the exact opposite of servant leadership,” Warren said.
Osteen agrees, offering his own definition of the prosperity gospel: “I never preach a message on money,” he said. “I do believe that God wants us to be blessed, to have good marriages, to have peace in our minds, to have health, to have money to pay our bills. I think God wants us to excel. But everyone isn’t going to be rich — if we’re talking about money.”
....reminds me of an “aspiring rapper” who was just turning his life around.
As much as you can living in a $10,000,000 mansion and throwing hissy fits on airplanes goes.
I looked it up. Jesus walked everywhere. He only rode a donkey once.
Is there a “Rev Dollar’s Renovation” show in the works?
Looks like he might get a tad upset once the “esteemed” Reverund Run and wife are finished with their mansion renovation.
wow, that’s it? I knew it was right here in my town or area but didn’t know it was a gated palace! (although i suspected it, given the lifestyle he leads)
So many of the Church’s critics demand that she sell off her artistic and architectural treasures to feed the poor, without realizing that they are a net cost to the Church, and the value comes in making these treasures available to all, for the greater glory of God and for the advancement of civilization and culture.
Sell them off and the poor will not be fed for more than a few days, but those treasures will fall into private hands that might not such high regard for them other than as baubles and trinkets to flaunt their wealth.
Yet many of the same critics of the Church’s presumed great material wealth will not bat an eye at funding Creflo Dollar’s luxurious lifestyle, although it is difficult to tell who benefits from the jet and the mansion other than Creflo Dollar.
How unusual...another holy roller fraud.
My mom came to the same decision 30 yrs. ago after seeing video footage of the solid gold bathroom fixtures in Pat Robertson’s new home.
Pimp Pastor Creflo Dollar Ask His Church For $65 Million Dollars For A Jet In Online Fundraiser! (Video)(Language Warning)
TNN Raw 2 - Tommy Sotomayor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LntxY_2m-lg
How many precious children can I support with 65 million dollars?
2,600,000
i do not begrudge anybody an expensive mansion... the building, maintaining and filling of the mansion contributes to employment... as far as the airplane hissy fit, not fits, nobody is perfect... i do not believe this is a common occurrence...
Well, the point is the Osteen quote: But we just live normal lives. We try to be conservative and honor God with our life and with our example.”
indeed... people try... they do not always succeed... we are not perfect...
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