Quote:
Originally Posted by Titus2woman
Good point!
It is deeply ingrained! I had a late night conversation with a friend from church last night via telephone. She called to ask me to pray regarding her transportation situation. Her family is without a car that runs and they live out in the country. Her daughter is only 8 and it is a long walk to the bus stop and we've had a lot of heavy rain and she has missed school. I know her husband makes a good living so I asked if she would mind sharing what they are spending their money on as supernatural help is not always required for a natural problem and having gone through debt counseling many years ago I am now a stickler for budgets.
Now these folks do have a lot of bills above a mortgage and utilities... medical expenses and no insurance, a son with fines to probation, just to name a few. Really nothing they could just quit paying unless they let their furniture be repossessed. And they tithe and give offerings of $600 a month to the church. So I suggested that maybe they could cut that back enough to make a payment on an economy car. Maybe by half. She just can't she says because she believes that something terrible will happen. That her husband will loose his job or that her son will fall back into drugs.
So I asked if she had stopped paying tithe when her son fell into drugs the first time or when any of the calamities that befell their family and left them without transportation were happening... Well of course not she says... she has ALWAYS BEEN FAITHFUL.
So knowing that the pastor lives in an upscale suburb (not in the area where the church is), just got a new lake house and has two cars and a Harley Davidson motor cycle and the associate pastor takes some really nice vacations and is sporting a couple of nice new suits and the fellowship hall was just redone... I asked her about maybe going to the church for help... But of course she feels she can't do that because they do have a house (they live in an older model mobile home) and food... and well... you just don't ask your church for help unless you are without groceries...Where did these ideas come from? Well from the ministry that lets their congregants go without while they have a huge surplus of course! Who would want to look like a tightwad in front of those people?
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Many treat this as a badge of honor thoguh. It compounds the problem. Most church folks are programmed to NEVER ask where the tithe goes once they give. So it never seems to dawn on them to look at where a chunk of it goes. They can be scraping by in relative poverty yet never even question whether it is prudent that the Pastor drives a luxury car and lives in the really nice neighborhood.
In fact, they thinkit is somethign to be proud of. I have heard it said that they should be proud of the fact that their pastor drives the nicest vehicles and lives in the nice house. They should be happy their Pastor isn't scraping by and has a good income. So many celebrate that the man of god lives it up while many of them suffer. Further, they are taught that they have no right to question it. After all, once you pay the tithe it is between God and the Pastor how it is used. Oh and of course...you dare not "touch the anointed" by bringing up the fact that it seems odd that they make all that money while many in the church are barely paying their bills.
I don't care if the man of God is paid. I really think it is the ideal model to have a full time Pastor. BUT I think it is just plain abuse of funds for them to live dramatically ABOVE their congregants. How can you relate to your saints anymore when you are living far better than most of them?
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