Picture this...A beach house nestled on 20 acres of perfectly manicured land overlooking the ocean. On that property you see a mega mansion with exotic cars, a private jet and a 120 ft yacht floating nearby. Is it the C.E.O. of a multimillion dollar corporation? Is it your favorite sports athlete? I know, it's my favorite actor's home, right? Wrong! The person who owns everything you pictured in your mind belongs to a religious/spiritual leader of a "Mega Church."
Gone are the days when people viewed Pastors, Bishops, and other religious leaders as meek, humble and generous to a flaw; but wealthy? Not one of the adjectives I would have considered in years gone by to describe a religious leader. Now before I delve deeper into this topic, I must highlight the perspective from which I write. I personally consider myself a spiritual person who believes that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I will also reveal that I have bounced around from church to church in my travels - from non denominational to Baptist to Catholic - shoot I have even been to a Kabbalah temple, listened to Mormons preach and even studied some of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses. Needless to say, I am a roaming spirit open to hearing new ideas and beliefs but solid in my own.
Firstly let's make sure we are on the same page with respects to the definition of a Mega Church:
A Mega Church is a church having 2,000[1] or more[2] in average weekend attendance.[3] The Hartford Institute's database lists more than 1,300 such Protestant churches in the United States. According to that data, approximately 50 churches on the list have attendance ranging from 10,000 to 47,000.[4] While 3,000 individual Catholic parishes (churches) have 2,000 or more attendants for an average Sunday Mass, these churches are not seen as part of the Mega Church movement.[5]
That being said I stumbled on this bit of information while conducting research for this week's blog post:
A 2003 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article detailed accounts of the wealthy pastors club. According to the article, Creflo Dollar drives a black Rolls Royce and travels in a $5 million dollar jet; Benny Hinn lives in a $3.5 million home and drives an $80,000 Mercedes-Benz G500; T.D. Jakes has 2 mansions; Robert Tilton's ministry owns a 50-foot yacht; Randy and Paula White's ministry owns a jet airplane, a Cadillac Escalade and a Mercedes-Benz sedan.
Salaries for these mega ministers are typically kept confidential. But in a 1997 CNN interview, Hinn said he earned between $500,000 and $1 million annually. While the national average salary of pastors is $147,096, according to the 2010 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff, a select few pastors are earning much much more.
Help me put this into perspective.....Many are quite aware that some of these Mega Churches with attendance of 50,000 members plus have enormous operating expenses (rent/mortgage, electric bills, staff salaries... etc) but we are also aware of the huge financial surplus in which some of these churches are able to raise through their extensive member base.
Follow me through this scenario:
You are on the board of a Mega Church and as a result you and a select few are privy to all the financials for the year. The expenses for the church totaled $5 million (including salaries) for the year but your generous members have given $15 million in tithes and offering providing a surplus of $10 million. Now as a board member you have to decide what to do with that extra $10 million.A) Do you give your Pastor/Religious Leader the lion share of the surplus?
B) Do you re-invest into the community that has helped the church flourish over the years.
C) Do you go even bigger, by expanding the operation (building and staff) to touch even more people.
D) A combination of all of the above?
It seems like too often the board members of the Mega Churches have been selecting option "A" for one reason or another. One school of thought is that the Pastor/Religious leader of the church is the reason for the growth of the church and as a result should be rewarded. Just like in a corporation - the board wants to keep it's "C.E.O." happy so they can enjoy the surplus his/her presence has afforded them. How do you keep your Pastor/Religious Leaders happy? One could argue money - AND LOTS OF IT!
For more information: http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/2783/120/
All dollar amounts quoted in USD
Well as usual Mr. Dawkins, another great read. A topic that is controversial and thought provoking. I, like so many will have strong feelings when it comes to this topic, and would love to address the questions that you pose to us the readers.
ReplyDeleteI believe that all should be compensated for a honest days pay, but what is too much you ask. Being paid millions of dollars to lead a religious congregation might just be it. Church/religion has always been a business now it's BIG business, rivaling those of major corporations with millions of dollars and assets. We always want to hold or religious leaders up to a different standard, regardless of the fact that they are human as well. I don't believe that men of the cloth should have such outrageous salaries and live the life of "BIG" celebrities and "CEO's". It's one thing to live a life of comfort and preach the word, but live a life of opulence and preach simplicity is contradictory.
A lot can be said for how they make money, such as books deals, TV rights, and other revenue streams. That is ok, as I stated earlier before, but if that additional revenue is being acquired should they not take a hard look at how much they are willing to take from the church as compensation. There are examples of people in other industries not taking a salary because they have other revenue streams coming in. There are examples of CEO's, and high level executives taking 1 dollar a year annual salary because they have stock options and investments that they can live off of, they are doing the job for the love of it. There was a recent news report I saw where a school administrator resigned so that he could be rehired to take a lower salary. He was making over 6 figures and did not need that salary to survive. His district was in financial trouble like so many others today. His wife carried him under her medical insurance so it wasn't required for him to have. His salary today is 36,000 a year. That extra money that the district is saving allowed them to hire more teachers and keep the sports and arts programs going. That is the selflessness that should be displayed by or men/women of the cloth. Especially in these hard times.
As they say one day we will all meet or maker. Will you be able to say that you've lived a good life where you gave more of yourself and your wealth and not lived off others to gain wealth?
And it came to pass that there would be false prophets.
ReplyDeleteIm not catholic....and certainly the catholic church has had a very checkered past, and recent crimes against children, going back how long....but who else has a track record to compare to what it has done for education and the poor.
Celebrities use their God-given talent (or lack thereof ---- yes, Kim Kardashian...I'm talking to you) to make millions and live large. Why can't God's people use their gifts (of ministry, counseling, teaching, writing books etc) and live large too? For some reason, we think religion should go hand in hand with poverty and not prosperity. As long as they don't make money their idol - and that they give to those in their communities...I really don't have a problem.
ReplyDeleteIs the real issue the fact that they HAVE a lot of money...or the fact that they are SHOWY about it?