So They Want You to Sign a Church Covenant?

Below is a comment I put on another blog that I really should have just posted over here on Detox but I didn't realize that till I clicked post comment and then saw how much I had written!  [Note to self:  I will have to watch that in the future, especially when I'm new to a blog and could probably turn people off by the length of the comment.]  After reading through my comment again I'm seeing it's part of our story that I want to keep - our story as in mine, my husband's, which in this case is linked with our dear friends' story - who left the vortex when we did.  Like FreeAtLast often says our friendship became the gold we took from that place.  [We still have gold there and in the spirit of no man left behind we are a prayer team now for those few we care deeply for to come to an epiphany of truth so they are free to grow up in the Lord.  Someday we hope to share our victory here - another part of the story yet to take place!]  Anyway, I thought I'd post the comment here as a reference.  It's in response to an article about signing a contract or covenant with your church which brought up memories of the lame documents we signed at the former church, which were mild compared to what is going on in churches now-a-days.   Click the link (above in red) for the article - it's very informative and I love the way Dee quotes the song Hotel California!  [It's amazing how songs - movies - stories - take on new meaning once you see what's really going on!]  She also begins and ends with a strong warning against signing contracts with churches:

Summary: Unless you have time, money, reputation and energy to burn:

• Do not prospectively sign any clause, contract, covenant or membership agreement that limits your right to leave a church while you are under discipline.
• Do not sign any clause, contract, covenant or membership agreement that mandates mediation instead of seeking legal protection by the courts.
• Do not sign such an agreement which also mandate mediation by a pre-selected organization.
• Do not sign any agreement that allows the pastors wide latitude in discussing your confidential conversations with others.

Ok, here's my comment (I'm editing the format to include paragraphs for easier reading and I've also added a few comments in italics that are not in the original):

Wow. This post is a definitive warning for the modern day Christian Liberty playbook. I can’t believe it has escalated to such extremes in the last decade. And we thought what we signed at our former church was wack! When our former pastor likened joining the church to a marriage ceremony we thought ‘how corny can you get?’ and we were ‘elders’ at the time – in title only of course, as a long trail of others were before us. (In that church to become an elder was the kiss of death in that it was the final attempt to bring change to a hopeless situation – and it also appealed to our spiritual egos or else we wouldn’t have said yes.)(We are embarrassed about this now.) Even though we had our eye on the back door we were still signing documents that said wine shouldn’t touch our lips and our allegiance is to the lead pastor of the ‘house’, among the long list of covenant stipulations. But if it had been 5 or 10 years earlier we would’ve agreed to even more – so I can see where people can find themselves ready and willing to sign covenants drawn up by their church leaders who are so revered and worshiped. We can become far to trusting and lazy in the sense we’d rather have someone do our thinking for us. It’s so embarrassingly humbling to admit that we fell for the whole pastor covering thing, but it’s part of our story so we can’t conveniently leave it out. (regretful sigh.) Looking back we see we only too willingly gave our pastor too much power. We didn’t realize at the time in doing so we had made him (and his family of nepotism) an idol. However, it was a bill of goods sold to us heavily from the pulpit on Sundays – extra meetings during the week – in conferences – until the church ate up our entire existence practically, which is where we begun to become disenchanted. Fortunately we had a few outside interests we were always fighting to get to and we lived in frustration half the time. 

When we finally REALLY woke up out of the fog of that strange hypnotic love affair with the former First Family (they have actually called themselves that!), we remembered we were born in America and we could actually choose to leave if we wanted – that we didn’t have to live like that anymore. Yes, we’d pay a price for getting out, but another life was an actually an option. It was such an epiphany. But it shouldn’t have been! 

How did we lose sight of the true gospel and of what it really is to live in a free country (free at least for now)? We have discussed this at length over the last 10 years – my good friend and processing partner calls it free talk therapy! ( I was referring to FreeAtLast!) Talking it through and reading blogs and books, as well as indepth study of the Bible in a non-church environment – (here I should've said in a multi-denominational setting) all part of the healing and hopefully will keep us on the road to spiritual health. We’ve concluded that part of why we fell for the pastor authority thing is we are victims to our own sub-culture. We had to go through another experience at yet another church that we thought was different than the first to realize more fully that it’s how the Christian church today does church. We found that even though the style of the pastor of Church 2 (8 years in attendance) had many differences than the former authoritarian Church 1 (20 years in attendance), underneath it was built on the same supposition that the pastor is the one in charge of the money and the elders are in name only. What they have in common is stunning. Questions asked are considered contrary or insubordinate. The pastor is building a kingdom he has no problem asking professionals to give to sacrificially in time and in money. Blatant Nepotism. (Here I should have said blatant at the first church and subtle at the second.) Vasts amount of money spent to build the lead pastor’s legacy and to live in plain sight in front of the poor among us as upper class Americans because to date the IRS is reluctant to investigate churches. (Here’s a couple NPR interviews on the subject although they are talking about TV evangelists and talk shows, it applies to any church set up as a 501c3:  http://www.npr.org/2014/04/01/282496855/can-a-television-network-be-a-church-the-irs-says-yes)(http://www.npr.org/2014/04/02/298373994/onscreen-but-out-of-sight-tv-preachers-avoid-tax-scrutiny)

How did we come to think the church is more powerful than the freedom our forefathers fought for? How on earth did we get to the place within the christian community where we forget we live in America where the vote still exists, at least outside the church; and why do we so willingly relinquish our ability to think critically and vote according to our own consciences to opportunistic leaders of a tax exempt organization that exists only by the enabling (give power, means, competence, or ability to; authorize) of the people who attend and give weekly donations?? Once we come to that conclusion as Americans who still have at least some freedom of choice, then we can, as my good friend often reminds me, vote with our feet. 

So we need to realize WE DON’T HAVE TO SIGN ANYTHING WE DON’T WANT TO SIGN. But first we need to look at why we are tempted to sign: 1) Just like the Israelite’s in the Old Testament, we are looking for a king because we are prone to idol worship 2) God calls himself Jealous for a reason – he didn’t intend for us to give our power to any member of the 5-fold ministry spoken of in the New Testament – an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor or a teacher; 3) It’s easier to let others make decisions for us but in the long run it’s much more labor intensive to extricate ourselves, so we may as well gird our loins at the beginning and do the work of ministry each day at the by listening to the Holy Spirit ourselves, thinking and researching for ourselves. Like my good friend often reminds me God wants us to be grown up Christians rather than being children to the pastors who call themselves fathers even though the Word of God specifically warns people not to call themselves fathers.

Bottom line – if church leadership is asking for your signature to a covenant they’ve drawn up, that is the red flag telling you to vote with your feet and get the heck out of there. It’s better to be in relationship with a few close friends seeking God than a roomful of unsuspecting people who feel comfortable listening to one man – and it’s usually a man lol – give his opinions on the Word of God every week. It may not be the high one has grown used to but the level of sanity is worth the sacrifice.

Ok – didn’t really plan to make this comment this long. But signing church covenants must be some kind of trigger!

Mega House for Mega Church Pastor - Parsonage Allowances Questioned



Good friend, Free At Last, came across a story called "The House of Steven" which tells us about a pastor of a huge multi-site church in Charlotte, NC, who built  a 16,000 foot parsonage for himself and his family.  In the video you will see a compilation of six reports on Pastor Steven Furtick and Elevation Church, produced by WCNC-TV, NBC Charlotte and its I-Team.  The stories were aired in October and November of 2013. (Click here for those of you who may not see it above on your phone.)

As the story unfolds we begin to see Furtick may be abusing a tax exemption provided for clergy defined by Tom Ranier (here) on his blog as "a housing allowance law passed by Congress in 1954.  Subject to certain guidelines, ministers are able to declare a portion of their ministry income as a housing allowance that is not subject to federal income tax."   This was originally established for ministers and small churches who needed the help.   But like many of the lead pastors of mega churches in America today who, by living like kings and celebrities, Furtick's story is calling more attention to the fact that the housing allowance even exists.  Even though he says he is paying for the $1.6 million dollar house from his book sales, we can assume he can still take advantage of the housing allowance law, writing the entire property off on his federal income tax.

The underlying concern of this story is it hints to us that this very well could be the beginning of the end of special privileges for churches and ministries.  Already there was a lawsuit filed in 2013 by Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation where a U.S. district judge ruled unconstitutional "a law that lets clergy members avoid paying income taxes on compensation that is designated part of a housing allowance." (You can read that story here).  And in the above video another organization is suing the IRS in a similar way as you will see.

The more notorious these lead pastors of multi-site money-maker churches become, it will unfortunately effect the livelihood of the smaller churches whose pastors are less concerned about the numbers than they are the individual.  Hopefully the Lord will watch over them and take care of their every need as they continue to live a life of sacrifice and surrender before Him.

More about ministries avoiding tax scrutiny in the links provided in an earlier post on DeTox here.

NPR Investigates How TV Preachers Avoid Tax Scrutiny

Just want to link to this story that we heard on NPR yesterday and today.  You can either read it or listen to it in 2 parts. 
Part 1 is Can a Television Network Be A Church? The IRS Says Yes  Part 2 is Onscreen But Out of Sight TV Preachers Avoid Tax Scrutiny.

Even though it points to the tele-evangelists who are raking in the money and not paying taxes on it, it reminds us of what is going on in the last 2 churches we attended as well as megachurches across the US - there is just no accountability for how the pastors are spending the money.  More on this in the next few days but just at least want to give the links to the stories while I had them handy. 

DREAM

I dreamed last night, or more likely early this morning, that I was quoting scriptures about God’s love and purpose for His Collection of People, otherwise known as the Body of Christ, or what we often just dub, the Church. In my dream I was feeling very up and positive with a new determination to see us as God sees us and help speak that into existence. When I woke up, emerging from the fog, I remember quipping that I am going to focus on our bright future and all was going to be okay.

After my cup of coffee I couldn’t help but be curious why I would dream such a thing since it is no longer my habit to pace the living room quoting scriptures in prayer trying to control the universe. Was this my former life resurging itself through my subconscious mind or was the Holy Spirit speaking to me? Dreams have formerly and currently been a vehicle of communication for me so I didn’t want to completely discount this one. The fact it didn’t carry any oppression or confusion with it, but instead I felt rather joyous and hopeful, gives me a cautious green light to explore the subject.  I thought to blog about it even if it's just to remind myself later.  That's one of the benefits of blogging - whether anyone reads your stuff or not, it's a place to journal.

In letting go of some of my former behaviors because they were rather ‘works’ oriented, I haven’t necessarily thrown out my core beliefs. In this case, I still believe in the power of scripture and I still believe in speaking it out into the atmosphere. But I am no longer compelled by the legalistic concept that there is no power in the scripture unless you speak it out loud. Wouldn’t that mean the power is in my speaking rather than in the power of the scripture itself? Isn’t there also power in ‘hiding the word in my heart so that I may not sin against God’ as David suggests in Psalm 119? Hiding doesn’t convey speaking, but rather storing something like a treasure, or a secret weapon to pull out when you most need it.  The Word is what will cause me to overcome temptation. I can think scripture and I can speak it. I can sing it and I can shout it. I can choose whatever ‘method’ of acknowledgement I want, but the power remains in the Word of God itself not in how I manage to agree with it.

Back to the dream, it does stir in me a desire to search the scriptures regarding the Body of Christ – the Bride of Christ - and God’s plan to partner with us. Even as the mega prosperity-driven church world threatens to redefine us and our mission, the Lord must have a plan to reclaim what is rightfully His. In the Old Testament there are plenty of accounts of how His chosen race went off the rails into idolatry, yet He always had a way of rekindling in them a desire to return to Him and worship only Him. Real life isn’t always about the sweetness and light of glory and victory, it’s also failure and defeat and with that, recovery and redemption.

For us, this last decade has been a discovery of how the existing institutional church has gone off the rails into its own idol worship. We have seemed to collectively sanction the exaltation of what is now commonly known, at least in the blog world, as the celebrity pastor. Our church leaders now have to be movers and shakers across the globe in order for us to revere them. If they are among the rich and famous, we can then live vicariously through them. What does this say about us? Why has a spirit of humility and true servanthood been replaced by what looks like the bravado of EGO and a sense of entitlement? There is a steady stream of evidence revealing that huge sums of money are funneled into the ‘lead’ pastor personal bank accounts.

Why do we know this and why don’t these types of pastors think we are smart enough to see what they are up to? Check out their houses (sometimes multiple homes!), their vehicles, their clothes, their jewelry, and most telling, their travel itinerary. What really gives it all away is how the adult pastor children flaunt their lifestyle online. So it’s easythese days to follow the money trail of the celebrity pastor, a lifestyle funded by the tithes and offerings of trusting followers who all give their blessing as they give their money in faith that it's being spent wisely. These pastors are living like CEOs of big corporations with the balance of power mainly in their hands, yet with tax exempt status. Do they realize their lifestyles actually endanger that status, not only for themselves but for the smaller conscientious churches. 

All this to say, we can see that the celebrity infested church is on a runaway train to its own destruction and we aren’t going to stop talking about it. But my dream last night could be hinting that there is a new phase in the journey, a bend in the road. It’s been there all along but maybe I am only now waking up to it. Unlike us, God isn’t surprised that the Christian community has given worship status to our pastors. He understands our natural bent toward wanting a human to elevate which reflects our selfishness and how we resist a true life of servanthood. Jesus’ disciples wanted him to act like an earthly king which would have made them feel better about themselves. Thankfully, God doesn’t panic and forget His original plan just because another stiff-necked generation refuses to cooperate. Could He want to remind us each of us who truly care about the outcome, in our own individual ways, that we are part of the plan to get His project back on track? He could do it single-handedly but chooses to work in a partnership with us, His people. It makes sense that He would give each of us tasks as part of the pro-active answer, whether it be prayer, blogging, writing articles or books, singing songs or some other artform – it’s all an opportunity to teach and hopefully turn the tide.

God has been calling people out of the mega church system for quite awhile now and who knows how many more may be leaving in the days and years ahead? That doesn’t mean the mega church world will end - it may only get worse. But, as we pray and seek out God’s thoughts on what is going on, we can forsee the victorious church spoken about in scripture. The Bride of Christ was designed to be God's vehicle of love.  And maybe it's not going to be some huge assembly where droves of people receive Christ by responding to an altar call.  Maybe it's going to be a world-wide community of believers, sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, sharing the love of God and the Gospel of Christ one-on-one with those led to us - or us to them - however the Lord aranges it.  Why should we wait for an exalted man or woman on a stage do all the talking?  God wants to use all His yielded vessels, not just public speaker types.  Or rock star worship leader types.  Not saying He can't use people who are motivated to be in front of the throng all the time, but it's certainly not limited to those types.  So all I can do if that is the case is agree with scripture and say Come Holy Spirit and do your thing!  We are powerless without you!

Churches Who Quit Paying Their Mortgage Payments

 

A new trend seems to be emerging in certain circles of Christianity these days - quit paying your church mortgage yet with no plan to curtail outlandish spending habits - keep taking in the weekly tithe money and use it for what?  Pastor families who feel they are called as Christians to live like the rich and famous apparently want you to fund their lifestyles for Jesus.  Big proponents of the Properity Gospel these churches have outdone themselves on exhibiting their rules-don't-apply-to-us attitudes by defaulting on their mortgages.  Maybe we should all quit making our house payments too and use the money to go on vacation with pastors who seem to have invented a new meaning for recreational living.  Like them, we can just pray the Lord will provide for us through some hard-working business people who already have good investment practices.  We should ALL have such a sense of entitlement.  After all, we are King's Kids, are we not?  Well, yes we are children of the King, but that Particular King never mentioned living the high life using money from the collection plate.  Well, I guess he did refer to that, but it was in disgust of the practices of the Pharisees who loved the choice seats in the synagogue and walked around in fine robes, acting superior to the people who gave them their money.  Wow, that certainly resembles the attitudes of certain modern day prosperity-driven pastors - at least the ones we've seen.


Back to the delinquent mortgage topic, there are plenty of church stories to link to, but I will limit this post to the churches here out west that we happen to have been affiliated with at one time.  A few years back, Benny Perez, head pastor of The Church of Las Vegas, made news in his city and nationwide (Charisma magazine , Christianity Today ) when he and his board decided to quit paying the church mortgage because they owed the bank $7 million when the property was then only worth $2 million.  "The unusual move sparked debate over Christian ethics" says Christianity Today.  Eventually, a Canadian businessman and philanthropist (who is a friend to one of the church board members) bailed them out with a pledge of $3 million and then the church came up with another $1 million to keep themselves out of bankruptcy.  Now they have plans to build a new building and Benny has been spotted recently golfing on the Newport Coast which is quite spendy from what my friend who knows tells me. 

Even closer to home, the pastor of our former church (whose cousin is married to Benny Perez) decided that he too should quit paying his church mortgage.  (Was he advised by Benny to do this or did he decide, hey what works for BP works for me?)  Not too sure his board at the time was on board since none of them are on the board at this time but his wife and son and probably his cousins from Seattle.  According to THIS public notice that ran in the Idaho Stateman 4 weeks in March 2013, Capital Christian Center hasn't paid a mortgage since July 2012.  At the time the notice posted, the church owed more than $2 million on the church property - and it lists the payments they were ignoring from July - December 2012:

The defaults for which this sale is to be made are failure of Grantor to pay: (i) monthly payments as follows: $21,313.40 due July 15, 2012, $42,828.32 due August 15, 2012, $21,313.40 due September 15, 2012, $23,343.24 due October 15, 2012, $21,313.40 due November 15, 2012, and $20,298.48 due December 15, 2012, as set forth and required by the Deed of Trust and Note, and monthly payments thereafter on the 15th day of each month until the date of sale or reinstatement; (ii)late charges in the amount of $28,619.36, due and owing as of January 3, 2013 

The principal balance due on the Note as of January 3, 2013, was $2,543,323.75. The balance owing as of January 3, 2013, on the Note secured by the Deed of Trust (collectively, "Loan Documents"), was $2,654,427.60

If they didn't come up with the money by today, May 21st there was to be a Trustee Sale held, according to the public notice.  I'm sure CCC was praying and believing for a benefactor to bail them out in the nick of time to mirror what took place with Benny's church.  So, here it is May 21st and is there a Trustee Sale happening for the property at 2760 East Fairview Avenue, Meridian, ID, 83642?  No, because the benefactor apparently came in the form of their cousins who own a mega church in Seattle.  They co-signed a loan to make it possible to stave off today's sale.  Not sure on the details, but  I will update this info as it comes, but for now, all we know is they narrowly escaped at this time.  Were their prayers answered by this band-aid fix by relatives who step in to rescue their cousins in Boise?  Knowing the way they think, we are sure they believe it's the grace and favor of the Lord.  And who are we to know the mind of the Lord who is known for his long-suffering, so it may be.  Perhaps He is thinking of the unsuspecting and trusting people in the congregation in delaying what seems inevitable - after all, His timing is known for being perfect.

Grace or no grace, let's not forget the church in Boise operates as a 501c3 which means they have tax exempt status.  It would behoove the lead pastor family not to abuse this privilege in any way.  For instance, if they are using designated offering funds for designer clothes and furniture, multiple trips to Hawaii, expensive toys for their young children, etc., it could peek the interest of the IRS and that status could be revoked.  Even if the IRS never sees it, the people under their umbrella should be putting 2 and 2 together and seeing the church isn't making their mortgage payments but the lifestyle hasn't changed.  And now that the pastors to the rich and famous (don't even get me started) from Seattle are bailing their cousins out, shouldn't they be watching to see if CCC is going to begin to exhibit wise stewardship with the money so the loan isn't all for nought?

Do we want to see them fall, go under, be destroyed?  Not necessarily.  Do we want to see them no longer get away with unacceptable behavior?  Yes.  As long as they continue to blatently use tithes and offerings to live plushly while refraining from true, fruitful ministry, we have a bone to pick with them.  We'd like to see that come to an end because it brings damage to the cause of Christ by playing havoc with people's faith who are still within the 4 walls of the church at 2760 E. Fairview.  It would be great if the pastor family recognized what kind of people they have become, repent before the Lord and in front of the people fully, and get back to real Christianity and try to represent the true Gospel of Jesus.  If they don't see a need to change, then get jobs in the real world and live high on the hog that way - it would at least be acceptable.  Aren't pastors supposed to hold to a different standard, as they've always said, examples of how God wants us to live, as they've always preached?  They faithfully collect money every week from people who trust them to be wise stewards with that money to "do the work of the ministry".  It's evident that the lead clan is getting ministered to, but we have seen anything but wise stewardship from them to date.