Big business is church business?

A major problem these days within the church is the fact that many so called preachers have lost their first love….that of Jesus Christ and a heart-felt desire to share the Gospel with the lost. This desire in a true disciple will be there even in the face of hardship and certainly would never be something a true disciple would do to try and “earn” a reward.

The business of the church is preaching the Word of God as recorded in Scripture to reach lost souls and to disciple those who already believe. The business of the church is not running a huge greedy enterprise.

I know for certain there is a local “seeker sensitive” mega church preacher or two in my area that are all about making money and treating their church as a business. I prefer to call them “sinner sensitive” churches personally.

One such local pastor is always preaching about “tithes” and I used to wonder why that was harped on so much and presented almost as a legalist requirement for salvation. He doesn’t so much teach the word of God. You would be hard pressed to find any Scripture in his sermons much less any Scripture used in context. Well with exception of Scripture telling those under the law that they needed to give in a legalist fashion. Wonder why he doesn't also preach other things such as the rest of the law? Hummm...many because they have no self-serving please line my pockets motive to them? The rare scripture you do find, it is obvious he has searched various translations to find a verse worded in a such a way to make it seem to prove his point. This didn’t make sense to me at first then I checked the local appraisal district records and found out this pastor lives in a huge home valued well over a half million dollars. Light bulbs came on and suddenly it made sense.

Water down the message to preach a “feel good” sermon, pack them in and rake in the money. That is the objective of the local sinner sensitive preacher.

What happened to reaching the lost, making disciples? Has it been replaced by seeking "fame" and raking in the money? Isn't that what the Pharisees of Jesus' day were all about? Position, money and seeking prominence without a real heart for God? Funny then that you would seek to be one of those since Jesus called them, "white washed tombs" a "brood of vipers" and many other such unflattering things.

Doug Krieger has written a great article that is well worth the read on this sort of mammon worship dressed up as being “Christian” so that one can rip off the church flock. You can read his article titled, “Merchandising the Word of God just got worse!”

If I had to sum up the great points Mr. Krieger makes in his article, it would be in the paragraph quoted below:

“One would have to be hard pressed NOT to see the Laodicea-type of Christianity America has produced. I’ve given you but the tip of an iceberg of decadent Christianity that is giving Mother Rome a run for her money. This “bigger is better Churchianity” proliferating throughout the land, spurred on by the marketeering, Madison-Avenue ways of the MEGA-CHURCH MOVEMENT, await the wrath of the Almighty. For all the good and the alleged gospel that is broadcast through these channels, is it any wonder that the world sees little societal change while it takes such offense at our financial manipulations and scorns us in the public marketplace!”