Money Issues

Too true!!! one of the things the pastor does with the money the get is send it over to diffrent places where people are dying of starvation and disease

 

my favorite thing to do is sit outside when its slightly windy and pray. I live in the country *closest neighbor is about 400 yards away* its really neat! however not everyone digs that kinda stuff so for all the uptight people that need pews and building to sit in lol

 

man, i wish i had a groovy church like that here , ill keep my search on, there must be one, it is a student town after all

 

just keep looking man

 

Here's a refernece to tithing from the NT.

Matthew 23:23

23"How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest part of your income,[e] but you ignore the important things of the law--justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but you should not leave undone the more important things. 24Blind guides! You strain your water so you won't accidentally swallow a gnat; then you swallow a camel!

there's a slightly different version of the story of the rich man in one of the gnostic gospels, I think it's the Gospel of Thomas, where Jesus goes on to tell the rich man something to the effect, "How can you say you've kept the commandments when so many of your brothers are starving on the side of the road while you have more than you could ever use?".

 

I read a book by one of the most prominent american missionaries who presented a graph showing how the average american church only spends 5%

of it's income on foriegn missions.

95% goes back into the church either to pay the rent, pay the saleries of it's employees, or to fund programs specifically for the churches own parishoners.

In other words in one form or another 95% of the money they collect goes right back to the people who gave it.

That's only one guys statistics, it may or may not be representitive, but even if it's true of only some churches it means their falling short by half of the tithes that their gospel requires.

 

Its so sad how the church is its own greatest snare and trap

 

It's sad for them but in a way it's a boon for the rest of us.

If you see someone living a lie and realise that whatever happiness or peace they claim to have is just more lies, it can make you all that much more determined to find the truth.