Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean
Amen to the above my brother... I am waiting on the Lord to show me my next move.
If I may offer a word of advice to you as a pastor. Never show favoritism in any way to the big givers of your congregation. I have seen this all of my life, even to the point of a pastor making a leader of a mens' group of a rich chain smoker.(seriously). I have seen the rich coddled and preferred in every way imaginable. The average saint sees that and it upsets them.
Judge a man by his walk with God and not by his earthly successes....in my opinion, this is a great sin of ministry and a stumblingblock to saints that are Godly and poor.
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I appreciate the words of wisdom. I have pastored for about 14mo. so I still have a lot of learning to do. Since I have been there we have lost some of the bigger tithers in the church, but we have grown in attendance though.
We really have been having revival with people being filled with the Holy Ghost and being baptized.
We have more mouths with less food so to speak. I am not stressing though I know God will provide. I am bi-vocational and I don't have a problem with it even if I had to do all my life. Although it would sometimes be less conflicting of my schedule to be full time. I don't want to make people feel they must give or else, but I don't want to be so lax that people fail to get the importance of their giving. I think that a big key in life is having balance. We must have balance in everything we do.
Family, work, play, giving, etc. we must have balance. A lot of times there are suffering families and prospering pastors and I don't think that is balance. In the book of Acts they sold what they had and had things common. The church took care of one another's needs as well as supported the ministry while they were doing the work of God. I think that most pastors out there are trying to be right in their teaching on giving, but it is the few bad apples that spoil the whole bunch. And yes you are right many times people let others financial status affect their judgement and don't judge righteously. I hope the Lord will help keep me from such.