Do you know what I’m tired of hearing? People complaining about Christians having or needing money, especially pastors. It’s sincerely ridiculous. This world applauds people such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos—I know you know who they are— and oohs and ahs over the success and worth of leading companies, including Apple, Google, and Disney.
It’s totally cool if Disney wants to hypothetically branch out and plant character restaurants all over the world. But when a pastor asks for money to expand a church building and its resources or plant another church at a new location, the crowd huffs, calls him selfish, calls Christianity a scheme, and then proceeds to attack what car he drives.
But, ladies and gentlemen, the goal is essentially the same: Disney and pastors whose hearts are in the right place both want to expand their reach to more groups of people to give them an experience they’ll never forget. Whether that be magic or Jesus is another facet, but the point is that it all needs monetary investment.
Double Standards
A couple of people have asked me why pastors need to drive flashy sportscars. I usually retaliate with, “Why do successful businesspeople need to drive flashy sportscars?”
Why is it okay for a businessperson at a booming company to drive her dream car but not okay for a pastor to drive his dream car? I mean, God is a God of blessings and good and perfect gifts (Mal. 3:10, James 1:17)!
I’m not the person to cross with double standards. God never has them, so why should we? He asks us to be patient, He is more than content with waiting on us. He asks us to lay down our lives, and He gave His own Son’s. Double standards? Out the window.
That leads me to this: If pastors are asking us to give into the storehouse, then, yes, we should look to see where his and the church’s fruits are being distributed. If more people are being staffed, renovations are happening for a better children’s facility, checks are being written for charities…
If love offerings are being presented to guest speakers, classes and groups are providing refreshments, or something else that requires financial sacrifice, then the pastor is not asking us to meet a standard he has not set for himself.
The Real Problem With Money
We forget that, for most pastors, ministry is a full-time job. They’re not asking for money because they are self-indulgent. They get a cut from the tithes and offerings because they need it to sustain themselves and their families, not because they are in love with stacks of bills.
It’s all about perspective, and from my experience, a lot of pastors turn around and give out of pocket right back into the vision God has given them for the church, which, you guessed it, needs more financial support.
There is nothing wrong with needing money, but there is something very wrong with loving it. There is nothing wrong with stewarding money and enjoying fun things with it (because it’s been budgeted for that purpose) and everything wrong with hoarding it because your identity is wrapped up inside of it.
1 Timothy 6:10 reminds us of this. “For the love of money [that is, the greedy desire for it and the willingness to gain it unethically] is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves [through and through] with many sorrows” (AMP).
Read it again.
Do you see those words ‘greedy’ and ‘unethically’? Do you see the part where it says ‘wandered away from the faith’? If a pastor is ethically advocating for tithes and offerings and is standing on the foundational Truth about money, allowing it to draw Him closer to the Father, then I would say he has a pure heart posture. And if he is right with the Lord, who am I to sneer at his shiny red vehicle?
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