Readers' Responses
Does it Take Money to Spread the Gospel?
I run a ministry website at
www.escapeminitries.net
and if you go there you will see our vision statement on our home page.
In the next day I will be adding your article " Does It Take Money to
Spread the Gospel?" to our articles page and the link on our page will
take the reader direct to your ezine articles.
I want to say I loved your article and agree with two hands clapping. I
also would like to say that I love to read articles that I want my
readers to read, but instead of taking an hour to write, I simply have
to spend ten minutes and create a link to the article. I find that the
more good articles I find by other people that line up with our vision
the more credibility it will give James and myself.
I met a modern apostle once and I saw him come to our country three
times and never ask for money. He came to my families church and each
visit spent a week there ministering. One of the people from our church
sees him overseas very often in Indonesia, where he does most of his
preaching and takes money from the people who love him and want to give
him gifts each visit if there is any money.
One day this apostle had been ministering in Asia and was due to fly out
the next day to the next country to minister to another church when the
Lord Jesus put it on his heart to give $8500 Australian dollars worth of
money to the the pastor of the church he had just been ministering in.
The Lord said the pastor needed money for his church's needs, for some
personal needs and needed money for a holiday to have a well earned rest
with his wife's family that they hadn't seen in years on another Island.
The apostle told his personal assistant and interpreter that the Lord
had asked that he give all his money away that he needed for the next
two weeks worth of ministry, and she cried and cried and begged him not
to give it away. He told her, What can I do, the Lord has told me to
give it to him, the Lord will have to provide for us. He gave the money
to the pastor with the word of knowledge saying the pastor needed a
holiday with his wife's family, and the pastor broke down in tears and
had a hard time accepting that the Lord of the Harvest had answered all
his prayers as he was very poor.
The friend from our church arrived to meet the apostle a couple of hours
before he was due to fly out to the next country, and he pulled out an
envelope with $10,000 worth of love gifts. One person that I know had
felt led to clean out his bank account and give it to the apostle, and
now works part time simply to fund the apostle. Another person that I
know was all set to buy a trail bike ( motorbike) for $6500 and was
ready to draw the money out of the bank to buy it for fun, and the Lord
told her to not buy the bike but to send it to the apostle as he had a
need for it.
The apostle smiled as he got the love gift and was very happy with his
beloved friends in one small country city in Australia and happy with
Jehovah Jireh his provider. The personal assistant/interpreter cried
tears of repentance to her Lord and her maker for her lack of faith and
was reported to be happy later on that God really is a great provider.
I just thought I would share that with you.
I love you dear brother and I will check out your other articles and
post that article on my website in the next two days.
M
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I am confused; all these people seem to know is “wives be in subjection to your husbands” and don’t forget to tithe while you’re at it. Daystars group even suggested the sum of $5,000 a few weeks ago. There happens to be a few instructions for a christen life between these two passages. If you want to know what they are, you had better dig in and find out what they are for your selves. Find a good teacher or pastor you can trust of course, but God’s Word gives us “rest” not confusion.
How did they come up with the sum of $5,000.00? What’s up with that? Luke 9:1-6 says … Jesus sent his disciples out without money … nor two coats apiece.” Do you think these peacocks will read this passage?
No, I do not believe your pastor should walk around with holes in his/her shoes, nor should he/she be living in a box under a bridge somewhere; but why in a palace? Jesus lived well before He was crucified; but He did not live in a palace; He left that to Pilate and Herod.
S
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Thank you for shedding light on this subject matter. It is so helpful. I am a homemaker with limited family income but still try to give something from the heart. One of the ministries I went to overseas that I support has a minister that claims to be a Man of God and lately he has been asking for his members overseas to pledge a $1000.00 for a building fund in another country. He even said that "We are not asked to give so we can lose money but so that we will be blessed again and continue to live in an open heaven." This bothered me so I researched about preachers asking money and your article is the very first thing I saw. Thank you for writing this as it has enlightened and taught me some truths.
Thank you for sharing this and God bless you!
P
*******************************************************************************************************************Dear Bode,
I have enjoyed your website and appreciate the phenomenal work you have
been doing.
However while I agree with much of what you say about the extremism of
the Prosperity Gospel and the mess that is seen on most of Christian TV,
I am somewhat bemused about your thoughts on whether it takes money to
spread the Gospel.
http://www.lordsquill.com/Articles/Reformational/Does_it_Take_Money_to_Spread_the_Gospel.htm
You seem to elevate the Scriptures where Jesus told the disciples not to
take money as they went forth on missions, taking it out of context by
making it of universal applicability for all times and all contexts of
Christian ministry, and therefore erroneously conclude that no money is
needed to spread the Gospel.
And Paul saying he was not receiving money from the churches for his
ministry suggests more particularly that this was the standard practice,
but he personally chose not to receive his income from them. But he had
the right to do so. Just as he had the right to get married but he chose
not to do so. Does that therefore become a Pauline doctrine?
Evidently you have never been a full-time evangelist without a secular
job nor have you gone as a missionary with your wife to live in Pakistan
and minister amongst those poor peoples for 10 years.
For instance, if you are going to publicize and gather people in a
crusade ground for three days to preach salvation, is there zero expense
for this?
You exegete the Bible passages to come to the conclusion you wish. In so
doing, do you not become equally as culpable as those you critique? And
this seems to include the view that no vicar, minister, clergyman or
pastor should be salaried by the church? Evidently you get your income
and living from being a journalist or whatever profession you are in.
I remain extremely bemused. I hope we can engage in some fruitful
dialogue if time permits on both our parts.
Anyway, God bless you.
In Him,
O
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My Response:
Hi Bro.
O,
Thank you so much for your comment in general about my writings, and in
particular about the article referenced above.
I believe that you misunderstood somewhat the main point of the article,
which is not to say that you don't need money to spread the gospel. But
that you don't need the people's money, especially raised deceitfully
to spread the gospel, which is what most preachers do.
If you look at the letter of the article, and not the spirit of the
article, it will seem as if I'm saying that no money is needed
whatsoever. That's not what I'm saying. To say that, is to say that it
didn't cost the disciples anything financially to follow Christ. The
fact that they left their occupations to follow Christ cost them some
financial gains. Even Jesus going from town to town, and
Paul travelling from coast to coast, cost some money too -- their
personal money and VOLUNTARY contributions from the people.
So, in that sense it does take money to spread the Gospel.
However, in the sense where many preachers try to make it seem like
without money they cannot spread Gospel, all in an effort to make people
part with their money, no it does not take money to spread the
Gospel. All it requires is our willingness and boldness to open our
mouths as the Spirit leads. That is, contrary to what many preachers
would like us to believe, LACK OF MONEY IS NOT A HINDERANCE TO THE
SPREADING OF THE GOSPEL.
Also, the other misunderstanding of the article is the idea that I said
(or wrote) that pastors should not be salaried. I did not write that or
even imply it. I'm all for pastors or evangelists being on salary. I
have an idea of what it takes to be a pastor/evangelist or what's
required of them. Again, I kind of have an idea of what pastors do on a
daily/weekly basis, from putting together sermons at least twice a week,
preaching 3-4 times a week, counseling, funerals, weddings, hospital
visits, to name just a few. And in order for them to do their jobs
effectively, I believe that they should be on salary. I'm not in favor
of part-time preachers. Being a pastor is and should be a full-time
job.
Now, you suggested that I took scriptures out of context. That's not
true. Generally, I present issues as I see them in the Bible, based on
my understanding of the Bible. And, at the risk of sounding
arrogant, I do believe that the Lord has given me insight into His Word,
especially on issues I write about. Besides, my overall summation of
the fact that it does not take money to spread the Gospel is scriptural,
and rightly divided. And it's not just based only on the scriptures I
used in the article. Rather, it's based on my overall knowledge of
the logos of God's Word. If it takes money to spread the Gospel, in the
general sense, then the excellence of spreading the Gospel will be of
man, and not of God. God can and does spread the Gospel without money!
What am I saying? That in the context in which I wrote the article,
my assumption that it does not take money to spread the Gospel is
scriptural!
You brought up another interesting point about having a crusade, which
costs money. While I'm all for crusade. The idea of raising money for
a crusade in itself is not scriptural. There were several 'crusades' in
the Bible. For instance when Jesus fed the 5,000 and 3,000. And when
Peter preached his first sermon at Pentecost or when Paul addressed the
people at the Areopagus. But in all these instances no one raised money
to host the event.
And even though it may take a lot of money to organize a crusade, God
can move upon the heart of a rich man/woman to pick up the tab for the
crusade. We have no idea what God can do. But rather what we do, in
our limited knowledge, is preempt God by thinking that we have to raise
money to cover the expense.
I'll be interested to dialogue with you on this issue, but it doesn't
seem as if I'll be able to change your mind or you change my mind on the
subject. And that's okay, we can agree to disagree. But rest assured
that what I base my writings on is the precedence set in the Bible, and
not by man. That is, you'll never find anywhere in the Bible where
people begged for money in other to spread the Gospel.
Interestingly, however, what I've found in the Body of Christ is that we
do a lot of the things not because they are scriptural or saw a
precedence in the Bible, but because we saw our so-called spiritual
fathers or people we glean from, and do them. And often times they are
wrong -- sincerely wrong! My former pastor often makes a statement that
I believe is true. His statement is that, "If we do not see Jesus
Christ do it, we are not subject to it!" That is, Jesus Christ is our
ultimate example. And I don't see anywhere where Jesus asked the people
for money, even though it did take money to do some of the things He
did. And that's the main point of my article. When and where it
requires money to spread the Gospel, in the general sense, God always
moves upon the hearts of the people to give, without the
preacher/evangelist resorting to tricks and gimmicks to get people to
give.
That's the way I see it.
Again, thank you for taking the time to comment on the article, and to
read this response to your comment.
May God's peace continue to abide with you.