Prosperity Gospel
Prosperity Gospel
Sick again this weekend with a cold. JVD got up on Sunday morning to head off to a volleyball tournament and I stayed in bed for awhile. I woke up and reached over for the remote to laze away in my warm bed, and while flipping through the channels, I came across several church services on TV - including “Living Word Christian Center.” I have to be honest, I have happened upon some of the services of Living Word on TV before. I have a similar inclination to watch their service as I do when I happen upon Joel Osteen’s smiley face on Tv. I just have a feeling deep inside that I am going to hear something that will make me say, “Hmmm…not quite sure I read that same passage of Scripture in quite the same way you do.”
So on Sunday, Pastor Mac Hammond of Living Word begins preaching his message, which happened to be a message to answer some of the allegations made against him and the church, as featured on the first page of the Star Tribune.
Which made me wonder what the allegations were…..so I scramble out of bed and look up the story online. http://www.startribune.com/462/story/993598.html - ‘The Kingdom and Power of Mac Hammond” -
I was already feeling not so great, and reading the article made me sick inside, but hearing Pastor Mac Hammond’s defending his accumulation of wealth made me even more sick. And even worse was hearing the claps and applause of his congregation as he professed to his congregation that he likes nice things. He has a $38,000 Lexus SUV, and well, as he put it, he likes fast cars so he bought a Porsche. And even more than that, he likes Harleys so he has 3 - yes 3! of them. (the church applauds)
So, I am not saying that a pastor has to live in poverty, but the message Mac Hammond relayed to his congregation was that it is the flock’s duty to make sure their pastor is treated well. Oh yes, that’s what he said.
According to Hammond, “it takes wealth, folks, to establish God’s covenant on this earth” and “it takes money to influence a community” and “the world is not moved by poverty, there’s enough of that” and “you can’t even obey the mandate to love without being financially prosperous - because love means to give - to be a blessing to somebody else, if you haven’t got anything to give you can’t even love” (church applauds)
So God tells us that He wants us to increase and He makes provision for it and interesting ly enough, He doesn’t exclude the clergy from this increase. As a matter of fact…..in 1 Timothy 5:17-18 the Lord says that those who labor in the Word and doctrine are worthy of double what anyone else makes. Amen. God says…..that in His opinion those who are preachers are worthy of double the compensation of what anyone else makes.”
To which I open up my Bible and read 1 Timothy 5:17-18 and my Bible somehow does not say quite the same thing Mac implies that it says - (I wish I knew what version he was reading) - My trusty old NIV says, “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”
I am not quite convinced that God is telling us that a pastor should make twice as much as everyone else. Yes, I agree that He is perhaps saying that they should be treated well and not taken for granted, honored and revered, but twice as much money? Hmmmm.
I hate to be the person who bashes on a pastor. And I hear that Living Word has many ministries that are doing a number of wonderful things in the cities. But in a day and age when so many of us have so many “blessings” as it is, it is so hard to sit back and hear someone - a preacher no less - proclaim the legitimacy of even more “blessing” and justify their abundant wealth as a sign that his congregation is caring for him as God intended and God is indeed blessing him. I am just so sick of what I keep seeing around me. I want to witness future Mother Theresa’s rise up in this world and demonstrate real love. Pastor Hammond, I simply must disagree with you. One does not need to be rich in order to love. If I remember correctly, Jesus was not a rich man. If I am not mistaken, isn’t He the basis and did He not demonstrate what true love is all about? You can keep your prosperity gospel. I’d much rather profess the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
February 13th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Good post. Makes me think of the women who put a tiny amount into the offering but Jesus said she gave more than anyone.
Having said that, I don’t think being rich or being poor is a sign of spirituality. You can just as easily be poor and greedy as rich and greedy. And I don’t think God is against us having some things, but he is against us being consumed by those things. I know ultimately, that whether I have little or much, I want my focus to be on serving others with whatever I have and not to be sucked up into a life of consumerism.
Thanks for sharing your thoughs.