GC in houston no free ride - did jesus charge

[Jason B]

Originally Posted by TrmptPraise

I love the insinuation that somehow people (or in this case, an org.) is charging for church.

As some have mentioned, conferences, seminars, youth conventions & congresses, men and ladies retreats all have expenses related to them. The fact that there has been a registration process involving a fee in recent years is of no surprise. It is certainly not a charge for church or the message.

Considering what is cost to send two teenagers to youth convention and/or youth congress, I would call GC bargain basement.

Is the expense the facility or is it paying for the preachers travel, meals, etc? Why not have conferences at churches or camp meeting sites, or even cheaper large venues such as convention centers.

Do they really have to rent out professional sports arenas? They probably could have had a conference at Lakewood if they'd of asked.

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by Apocrypha

The church has become building and fundraiser centric in its focus in North America. A friend of mine is a minister in a UPCI church in S. California and their church runs like 150-200ish and rents a high school on Sunday and a small office for its administration due to commercial property prices. They are barely considered to be a "real" church by the building owning pastors in the area. There is a heavy bias where a pastor is many times judged by his building, not by his charity, outreach and evangelism efforts.

I don't think so, I've seen a number of respected churches in our area that were renting out warehouse like buildings and infact that "industrial" look is kinda hip to some

[A.W. Bowman]

Originally Posted by johnny44

Aw,why not just go sell your house and lay the proceeds at brother Bernards feet.tic

Perhaps that will be expected at next year's conference?

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by HaShaliach

Conference? What's a conference? Why a conference? Why not hold some local meetings in a park, on a mountain side or at a beach/lake/river side? Or, even in a desert?

Where did the First Apostolic Ministerial Association of Jerusalem, International (FAMAJI) hold their annul conferences? Who was invited, who preached, and how much did it cost?

And, how much money was raised through the auctioning off of Peters, James and John's sandals? Forgot, the church in Jerusalem kept Peter's sandals.

The by-laws of the UPC state that the "voice" of the organization and its highest earthly authority is the assembly of its licensed ministers in a General Conference. No one person speaks for the UPCI - just the "General Conference."

Having an annual meeting like the GC is absolutely essential to the democratic structure of the UPC's ministerial fellowship.

[pelathais]

Jesus "never charged" for attendance at His sermons, etc. But then again, Jesus was never charged a rental fee for the Mount, the Sea or any of His other venues. He had no "overhead" except for taxes (Matthew 17:27).

[A.W. Bowman]

Originally Posted by BeenThinkin

Greetings friend. I don't mean to hi-jack the thread but "is the Gospel really simple?" I thought it was until I started reading all of the many explanations posted here on AFF about the Gospel. (Now please don't misunderstand me, I understand explanations that you make very easy.) But there are others who post so much "depth" if you can call it that, that I think the common everyday Christian would never be able to understand it all. Do I make sense? How much "learning" does it take to understand the Gospel?

BT

The short answer is: Not very much.
The long answer is quite lengthily, so I’ll keep this one short.

If the gospel required (and was dependent upon) a full understanding of Judaism (history, culture, religion and language) in order to come to a ‘saving’ faith in Christ, then Paul would never have been able to raise up Gentile churches from Asia to Rome. Yet, to mature in the knowledge of the gospel – that is another issue altogether.

Over the years I have asked many ‘Christians’ across the land, “What is, The Gospel? What were the original gospels preached by Jesus and His disciples?” I also asked, “Why should I become a Christian?” Most of the answers I received would make a rock weep.

BT, keep on thinking.

[A.W. Bowman]

Originally Posted by pelathais

The by-laws of the UPC state that the "voice" of the organization and its highest earthly authority is the assembly of its licensed ministers in a General Conference. No one person speaks for the UPCI - just the "General Conference."

Having an annual meeting like the GC is absolutely essential to the democratic structure of the UPC's ministerial fellowship.

I love your input to discussions. Like this one, where you expose the basic flaws inherent within most religious organizations. Thank you.

[Brad Murphy]

I think most of the people going to GC are staying at the Hyatt, Marriott, etc. and eating at Pappasitas or PF Chang's every night. I think sometimes they forget the struggling ministers who may struggle just to pay for gas and parking even if they are only a couple hours away, let alone from somewhere else in the country.

[coadie]

Originally Posted by Brad Murphy

I think most of the people going to GC are staying at the Hyatt, Marriott, etc. and eating at Pappasitas or PF Chang's every night. I think sometimes they forget the struggling ministers who may struggle just to pay for gas and parking even if they are only a couple hours away, let alone from somewhere else in the country.

There are a lot of pastors with big churches that started the same way. They did revivals and sometimes hardly got paid.