Like you, I cannot tell you the amount of times I have heard this statement accompanied by the sad pictures of sickly children from various impoverished countries. We are told that just our spare change can make a world of difference in the life of a child. I have always wondered how much of this spare change actually make it to its intended destination: The poor and suffering.
In a posting that I did some time ago, I told you about a website that I discovered that provides some insight on how monies that many churches say is earmarked for missions (please understand that much of what is referred to as missions is actually brick and mortar operations that actually foster self-sufficiency for the people that are on the receiving end. For example, missions may include the creation of an water irrigation system, reliable farming equipment, etc. Missions is not just regulated to handing out bibles) actually finds its way back into the general operations budget of these ministries right here in the United States. Here is a stat that many may find surprising:
95% of all church budgets in the US are spent on our own comforts and programs. Less than 1% is spent on evangelism to the most unreached. (this figure comes from William Carey University, a small missions college in Pasadena, CA that is widely considered the college of choice for those in the missions field wanting additional training and support.)more…
Now before I continue, the reason why I am discussing this topic is because in all my years in my involvement with church, I have been very hard pressed to find many ministries that demonstrate real financial accountability, let alone talk about it. Please understand that not all ministries fall into this category. There are some great religious organizations that do exist that are very effective and are very transparent when it comes to providing full disclosure of their finances. (In the very near future, I will provide a listing of organizations that have proven to be very effective and transparent with their supporters. You should see this listing on the menu to your right.)
The other reason why I want to discuss this topic is because as a black person, I have noticed for some time now that we as blacks tend to overlook a person’s financial improprieties just as long as they are “giving back to the community”. To put this bluntly, character rarely becomes an issue just as long as the questionable behavior is legitimized with some type of “giving back” mechanism. O.J. is nothing more than a joke in the black community today because he did not “give back” to the community. Had he done so, he would be as legendary as Tupac in the minds of many of us. I have seen this same mindset in many churches. As long as the pastor tells us that we will be blessed if we just give …, his/her followers tend to willingly overlook the fact that while they themselves may live from paycheck to paycheck (not all cases), the pastor and his/her family live in the lap of luxury. Pastors, like anybody else who has responsibility over large amounts of money should be held to some type of independent financial oversight mechanism.
Independent non-profit organizations such as the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (which as of date only has 99 charter members listed and about 21 new members. This organization has been around since 1979!) and ministrywatch.org were established to serve this very purpose. Sadly, most ministries (from the most well known to the seemingly unknown) choose not to open their books to these types of organizations who only serve to add legitimacy to these various ministries by making public their financial records.
As a person that enjoys giving to worthy causes, I am much appreciative when I know that a majority of the money that I have given is going towards its intended purpose (in most cases the needy), and not to the maintenance of a fleet of foreign cars owned by someone who lives in an exclusive part of town.
I am in complete agreement with Ole Anthony (who heads up the organization known as the Trinity Foundation. This ministry serves the purpose of uncovering suspicious activities by televangelists) when he says “…that most of the preachers begin with a ‘sincere desire to spread the faith. But the pressure of fund raising slowly moves all of them in the direction of a greed-based theology.â€Â
This pressure many times comes in the form of building programs.
As churches become larger, instead of dividing up into smaller, more manageable and effective pieces (like the early church [Read the first half of the book of Acts]), they make the decision to develop into what is known today as a mega church. Literally millions of dollars are spent buying property and building a facility that is large enough to hold the thousands of people that belong to this ministry. Thousands of dollars are spent every month for things like utilities, upkeep, etc. All of this for a building that is only used maybe twice a week at the most. I think that most financial planners would agree that this is far from being fiscally responsible.
As a person that has been all over this country, I can’t tell you the amount of times I have seen these large pristine edifices towering alongside other major buildings in the city only to find out that as I get closer to these edifices to find that they are surrounded by low income communities. A low income community does not need a multi-million dollar edifice to admire. The million dollar budgets that are needed just to keep these buildings (again, buildings that are on average used twice a week) open could be put to better use in the communities that they serve. Please hear me when I say that is nothing wrong with mega churches/mega ministries in of themselves. A church with a large building doesn’t “set me off” every time I see it. For me, when I see the amount of money that is spent on marketing, building, television and radio, conferences (a big money maker), etc., the first question I keep asking myself is “what percentage of the money I give actually go to the causes I am giving to?” The problem lies in the fact that many of these ministries flat out refuse to open their budgets for public view. Financial proprietary may be a benefit of being under a non-profit status, but if an organization wishes to gain ground in the arena of public trust, proof of financial accountability and transparency must exist.
If a church or ministry wishes to continue the example of Jesus by serving mankind, then the amount of money that it takes to run their organizations must be far from the high water mark of exceeding the amount that is invested back into the communities they serve. The church here in America cannot continue to use the hopeless faces of the poor and hungry only to build bigger church-meetin’ buildings. The way I see it, a large church building with all the trimmings or a massive ministry that enables certain Christian individuals access to the white house is not always sign of our success, but our failure to meet our responsibility to the less fortunate among us.
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