Profitable preaching

by MegaDude 17 Replies latest jw friends

  • Euphemism
    Euphemism
    Of course some clergy are the "ceo" of the local congregation, and if the local congregation is quite large, with lots of community functions and activities that must be overseen, then the job becomes harder and harder, and centered around management and business. If the reason a church is raking in the bucks is due to the preacher, and that is what the preacher has demanded, then good for them.

    I've heard that argument, and it does make a certain degree of sense to me... but only for churches that don't require tithing.

    A freewill offering to a church belongs to the church to do whatever it wants, because it was the parishioner's voluntary choice to give it to them.

    The only thing that gives any remotely legitimate color to the idea of a tithe, however, is the idea that the money is consecrated to God. The church simply does not have the right to do as it wishes with it.

  • Euphemism
    Euphemism

    "Remember folks, a tithe is ten percent before taxes. Don't make us start auditing, now." -- Reverend Lovejoy, The Simpsons.

  • Yerusalyim
    Yerusalyim

    LaCapra

    Both the rabbis in my area live in beautiful homes in very nice neighborhoods and I know that they own (maybe not outright).

    Not a suprise at all. I think that a first year rabbinical grad generally starts out at about $55.000. This is why I respect the Rabbis in the military so much...they're some of the few chaplains that take a cut in pay to join the military. Yeshiva isn't cheap.

    Catholic priests make (on average) about $1200.00 a month...Orthodox priests don't do much better.

    We have a lot of Chaplains in the military because they couldn't find a congregation that would pay them a living wage. The 400K a year sounds excessive...but it's not the norm either.

  • czarofmischief
    czarofmischief

    I actually don't object to preachers being wealthy. As long as they aren't poor, I know they don't mean it.

    CZAR

  • Stacy Smith
    Stacy Smith
    $400,000 a year.

    Were you just a tiny bit less uplifted after getting that info?

  • MegaDude
    MegaDude

    Good one, Stace.

    Actually I was so dissapointed by them not telling how to even discreetly obtain the information I wanted that I stopped going. I felt any church that was reluctant to reveal that type of information had something to hide. 400K a year is a good gig if you can get it, whatever you're doing.

    The church I went to before that one had a sliding scale to pay the preacher based on a percentage of the tithes the congregation gave. Then the minister got caught giving sexual healing to seven ladies of the church who sought his guidance. He was defrocked and I don't know what happened to the congregation. They were in the middle of a huge building program and saddled with enormous debt.

  • Carmel
    Carmel

    ...sexual healing...?? what might that be? Laying on of the....never mind!

    caveman

  • Beans
    Beans

    I could preach for $100,000 max. Any more and I'd feel guilty!

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