Something Wrong Here

All the ones that struggle believing "all these things will be added to you"

 

wonder where your boys Wigglesworth and Joseph Prince rank?

 

Prince claims he stopped taking a salary. Church brought in 27 million last year I think. He has a net worth of 6 mil? Wigglesworth died in the 40's.

 

Yes, but the Lord is faithful and will always provide. - Psalm 37

 

Average Pastor salary was $807 a week. Not bad for a 20 minute speech.

 

Neither pro- nor anti-paid pastor, but there is more to it than a '20 minute speech.' They have to visit the sick, help those in need, take time to study, be a dad, husband, friend. There is more to the pastorship than a '20 minute speech.' And no, I am not a pastor, either.

If a member needs them at 3:00 am, he has to go. If he is truly a pastor, his schedule varies every day of the week.

 

Maybe it's just a coincidence....but maybe it isn't....that at least three of the persons in the OP are from the oil-rich African nation of Nigeria.

Most of you probably know that Nigeria--which is probably the most heavily-populated per area nation in Africa--is also one that has been beset by a series of almost non-stop violence against its citizens (especially of women, and mainly younger-aged ones) that has been promoted primarily by the ultra-militant Boko Haram organization (or ones that are either financed or are off shoots of it).

Remember the mass kidnappings of those innocent school girls not so long ago?

Nigeria is torn apart by having a rather small, but comparatively wealthy southern population, many of which claim to have a so-called type of "Christianity" [How close these "Christian" people actually adhere to the Bible has never been widely examined by most of the "Western" media.]

In its more northern regions most people there claim some kind of connections with the Islamic religion that is the almost dominant religion of Nigeria's northern neighbors of Chad, Niger, and especially Libya.

Moreover, most of Nigeria's northern population is relatively poor with little hope of ever improving its economic status for the majority of its populace.

Having studied the human situation where Islam has been either the dominate religion or where it is growing in influence outside the more developed "First World" parts of the globe, the circumstances in northern Nigeria are exactly the ones where you find Islam strongly in place.

I can't say exactly why this is so, but my research---and talking to missionaries who serve in these places--it seems that the more hopeless and destitute an area is, the more appeal Islam has for the people who live there.

One conclusion about which I can only speculate is that when a person lives in such a hopeless environment such as this, the seeming lure of the deceptive Islam religion is something that attracts people.

IOW, Islam seems to tell these people that, if you follow the teachings of Allah and his prophet Muhamed, while your lot here in this life may not be much, you will be greatly rewarded in the next life with many sensual pleasures (especially if you're a male).

And, if you should die in the jihadic cause, you'll be even more highly rewarded.

Either that, or if you can find a way out of your poor lifestyle by somehow securing a better education that is available in "Western" colleges or universities, that's the pathway to follow.

Now, I'm not saying that's the one and only reason why each and every Islamic person from any place on earth that comes to the West, but, OTOH, I don't think it's a mere coincidence that more people from Islamic nations have flocked to England, France, Canada, and, yes, the US in the past 50 or so years than ever before.

This presents not only a challenge to us as Christians who live in these Western nations, but also a great missionary opportunity to befriend and witness to these deceived people.

Just think....Up until this last past half century, if you wanted to be a missionary to the Islamic people, you'd have to spend years raising financial support, learning a set of rather foreign language(s) and customs, leave your relatives and friends behind for several years, and go to some country whose leaders and most of their citizens don't want you "interfering" with them.

I'm not saying that if God calls you to do all the above not to go....but now He's sending these very same people to our shores, to our areas, and to many of our neighborhoods.

God has brought these people right amongst us. They now are people whose children attend the same public schools that many of our own children or grandchildren attend. They shop at many of the same stores we do. They may even work at many of the same places we do.

Why, just this afternoon, a family who was obviously from an Islamic background sat down at a booth just a couple booths away from me at, get this, the Chick-Fil-A restaurant I've frequented for many years---and their five children were playing with the half dozen or so other kids in that indoor play area right next to where I was sitting, eating my waffle fries!

Yes, they are right here among us.

I'm glad that the church of which I'm a member has joined with other area churches to help sponsor a "City Church" whose primary goal is to reach these people who've come to (in my case anyway) the so-called "Buckle of the 'Bible Belt,'" the city in which the national headquarters of not only the SBC is located, but where two or three (or more) national denominations also have their HQ's.

Maybe your area isn't one that has almost 100 different language groups in its environs, but "Music City USA" does.

If it doesn't, that's fine....but please pray for us that God will give us direction and leadership, and more burdened people who will go out into our harvest fields right around the corner from our church campuses and bring to these deceived people the only Gospel that will ever free them from the bondage under which they now labor.

"Brethren, pray for us." Please.

 

Then he is not doing what is required of him.

 

Sorry, it was $1072 average for a SBC pastor, same 20 minutes lol.

 

Maybe they just cut the check directly to his plastic surgeon?

Yeah, and if he was smart he would have taught one of his buddies that raisin from the dead trick and he'd be here now to cash in.