A friend invited me to her church one Sunday and when it was time for offering, we all danced forward and dropped our offerings in the box. After the first offering, we had four other rounds of offerings, one category was to raise money for their new church building. I am sure this is not new to most of us especially from this part of the world. Other offering categories included children offering, Levites offering and women offering.
I was perplexed at why the pastor collected so much from the members, I felt like he was exploiting them. To my greatest surprise, the brethren who sat close to me divided N100 notes into five and split it in different envelopes. I felt like I had been duped because I put N200 in the envelopes making a total of N1000.
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I got home that day asking myself why I allowed myself to be exploited that way. You know that feeling when you go to the market to buy something only to get back home and confirm the price and discover the seller cheated you? That was how I felt. Then suddenly some rare question crossed my mind “Who really owns the church- God, the pastor, or the members?”
A lot of us stroll into church every Sunday, worship God and stroll out but we have never bothered to ask how things are run in the church. How do they fuel the generator? How do they make minor repairs in the church? How does the full-time pastor feed his family during the week? You meet the house of God well decorated, but do you bother to know what goes on behind the scenes? Then you stroll out of the church and go to social media to tweet…“My pastor is definitely using my money to build an empire #ScrapTithing”.
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I thought of two reasons why that pastor collected five offerings:
- The church might be a new church and things are still hard for them.
- The members are not giving enough and the pastor decided to divide the offering for accountability purposes.
I’m not saying the pastor is right to have collected five offerings but come to think of it, a lot of church members are stingy, they want to get from God but they don’t want to give to support his cause. We forget the principle of “give and it shall be given unto you”.
The brethren who I saw dividing N100 notes into five gave me an insight on what the majority of the members likely did. These same church members will go out and say “my pastor is duping me”. Some of you might want to argue that brethren give what they can afford but we all know the truth here. Some brethren are unapologetic leeches who want to enjoy feeding off the goodness of the church without any sympathy of giving.
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We all understand that Christ is the head of the church but what is the head without the body? As members, we are responsible for the church growth as well as the pastor. Apart from giving our widow’s mite, we should be able to give a substantial amount that will be used to develop the church.
Like we often say “I am going to my church” instead of “I am going to my pastor’s church”, let’s act on it. Begin to take responsibility and contribute your own quota. I’m not leaving the pastors out of this. Pastors must be accountable for every dime they get. The lack of transparency of some pastors is what gives people who know nothing to blab. It is wrong to turn the church into a money-making factory where members are sucked off all they have. Let’s be guided.
Beautiful write-up! For a minute there, I said to myself “here we go again” and my church conspiracy shoes began to itch. Lol I love how you balanced it off at the end. The church is God’s, the Church is the Pastor’s the Church is Ours. We need to start seeing it that way. And to the Pastors, who are custodians of not just the word and instructions of God for the Church, but also the monies accrued through this ministry, there is need to start embracing this transparency thing. If the people can see a concise record of what… Read more »
Hehehehehe 🤣🤣. The beginning of the post is tricky, I bet religious fanatics will take off at the first paragraph.
In this corona virus pandemic I think the church has given more than any other organizations apart for individual donations. Those monies don’t fall from the sky. We should be happy to give in churches according to our capacities. And also the church should be transparent in its financial activities. It’s only a few churches I’ve seen them do this.
Yes I agree with you but the media finds a way of excluding them from the news except when it exudes controversy. Thank you for reading 👌
Very nice write-up. This brought back a conversation I had with a friend of mine, who said how can church be funded without asking the members to give; according to him Jesus Christ didn’t ask anyone to give money. I brought to his consciousness that at this age and time, we need money for everything. During the time of Jesus, people didn’t mind sitting on the ground just to hear from him but at this time, a pastor can’t expect that from his members. But, let’s not forget the fact that there’re some ministers who request for outrageous sum of… Read more »
Where does your friend expect the church to generate funds from if they dont ask the members? Way different times from the days of Christ. How many will attend a church that people sit on the floor when there are other churches that can make one comfortable? Thank you for the feedback 👌
This is a beautiful write-up 🤗 if Christ is the head of the church and I am part of the body, then I have to look out for the financial needs of the body according to my capacity. Even in Jesus’ time he had people who gave to his ministry, that’s why Judas was in charge of the purse and Jesus could make demand on Peter to go and get bread in town to feed the multitudes after his sermon. Giving in church should be a thing of joy because other people are blessed when we give.
I was once made a pastor by force ooh 😫
And those few months were not funny in terms of funding and compliance. The church that sent me on a mission were expecting me to convey people to church in buses, host crusades, hire equipments, tend to needs all by faith.
It wasn’t funny at all so I kinda understand when offerings like this are collected because it’s basically for purposes like this too.
Hahaha. I remember your pastor story, hopefully you’ll be made a priest soon. ☺️☺️
What I am against is the church not balancing the gap between the poor and the rich in the congregation, as some churches are building schools for the rich among them they should also build for the less privileged, they should make their big auditorium classes where volunteers graduates can come and teach and lecture those that can afford their big institutions, that is how it should be until this is done Nigeria can never be great
You make a valid point. If there is segregation in the outer world, the church which preaches equal love should adopt some measures to bridge the gap. Although fact is they might not be able to affect every nook and cranny but then the most important step is starting. Thank you Sorex.
Truth is, that can’t happen today especially in this part of the world, except you don’t want standard education. Good education is very expensive in this part of the word, where the government has failed woefully in giving us basic amenities. My church has the best private universities in the country, in the short time of the first university was built, it has surpassed some public universities that has been around far b4 its establishment, and it’s sustaining an international standard. My church doesn’t ask for money, aside from the usual offering and tithe, and seeds as you are led… Read more »
Hmmm I feel you Dosbambi but don’t totally agree. Great with the scholarship idea but the fees should at least be affordable to a large extent (my opinion). When you say the church has other expenses, like what please? Because all other things I can think of are still church related which if you look very closely still generates profit for the church.
The word affordable is a relative term, and to me, for the value offered at these universities, the fee is affordable.
Other expenses nonother than the running of the church and paying salaries/wages. The cost of doing that is very expensive. Churches now, pay for the transport fare of some members to churches too. Then maintenance of church properties is a thing too.
and loads of other things, pal…no be beans o.
Oh well, I get you in a way still lol😄😄
😂😂The post got me laughing a little. Good angle
😂😂😂😂
To be honest, there was a time in my when I started questioning the reasons why the church choose to extort money from its members, knowing fully well that some members are struggling to feed their family, to be honest it’s really unfair cause they keep taking and never giving back to the people…An average man can’t even afford to go to a church owned university, but they built it with their money…so tell how is that fair ???
I don’t even wanna think about that but it’s really crazy…
Extremely crazy if I must add. No one is asking for these things to be free, theu should at least affordable to the average. Thank you OJ