How would you like to have earned an average salary of over $200,000 a year since 1999? Doing so would place you among the top 2% of earned incomes in America. Not many accomplish this amazing task.
How about controlling the funds and revenues of an organization that brings in millions a year by simply asking for it? Millionaires aren’t as rare as they used to be, but how many do you know? I bet together we could only think of a few.
To do either, you would think you’d have to own a business, be a surgeon, an executive, or a banker, practice law, claimed an inheritance or have made some real lucky investments, right?
Yet, according to recent trends in the U.S., there is one unlikely way to do so with relative ease. You don’t even have to have any formal training or special education either. A nice big, recognizable name helps, but that’s not even necessary. You just have to have some charisma, passion, a neat story or something to say, an ability to communicate effectively and then a small group of followers. And, by doing all of this, that income level 98% of Americans can only dream about can be yours, and making millions can be right around the corner!
Your dreams just might come true if you will simply start your own evangelistic ministry!
Only in modern day American Christianity can we marvel at the mighty works of these new “Business Preachers”. This trend isn’t necessarily new, but the increasing numbers of these men and women since the late 80’s is staggering. With outlets like TBN, Christian radio, name-it-claim-it, feel-good mega-churches, the Internet, and other technologies, any person with a supposed calling from God can grab a mike, set up a 501C3 non-profit corporation and literally go to town, raking in thousands of dollars in the process. Trendsetters Robert Tilton, Paul Crouch, and Oral Roberts paved the way for modern day preaching millionaires such as Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Myer, Creflo Dollar, Joel Olsteen, and T.D. Jakes to name a few.
The website http://www.inplainsite.org/ says it best, “"Christianity began as a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When it went to Athens, it became a philosophy. When it went to Rome, it became an organization. When it went to Europe, it became a culture. When it came to America, it became a business.”
These people have created a complex scheme of revenue generation, legal tax evasion, hidden records, and big time fame. Done for the sake of ministry, many of these men and women have found a secret path to worldly wealth! It’s an incredible system too. Simply do some ministry, ask for money to run the ministry and suddenly you’re making six figures! And how do they keep the funds coming in? By doing more ministry! The more they do, the more they earn. It could not be more self-serving. As a business owner myself, it’s the simplest example of “investment equals return”.
In a recent local report in the Dallas Morning News, a popular DFW minister earns a reported $300,000 in personal income, all derived from his self-named ministry that generates over $2 million a year in contributions! All of this in less than 5 years after retiring as a former Houston Oilers NFL great! He does a lot of great work for the Kingdom and I know people that know him personally. Yet, was his real reasoning behind starting his own ministry to minister, or was it to maintain a lifestyle he no longer could keep since his playing days were over? I could be real motivated myself to do some amazing things for God too if I knew I could earn more than 98% of the rest of those out there.
But let me give you some more jaw dropping examples as some of these people are doing things that most of us just cannot comprehend.
Lakewood Church in Houston, controlled by Mr. Olsteen, recently gave the city of Houston $12,000,000 to take over the former home of the NBA Houston Rockets, The Summit. Yet, on most Sundays the word “Jesus” is not even spoken from his mouth or mentioned on stage. All the while his own book, Your Life Now, sold over 2.5 million in just a few months time, topping the New York best sellers list. People like to feel good and the sales of his book plus the 30,000 members of his church are proof in the pudding. Turn on the TV. He’s everywhere and you’ll find yourself being sucked in like many have. He’s good. Real good. But there’s a big difference between being real good and being real God.
Another amazing event took place recently when Mr. Copeland asked his followers to donate millions of dollars because he felt called to own a $16,900,000 Cessna Citation X jet to transport him and his team around the world in class. I know personally someone that wrote him a check for $1,000,000 to help him do so. Few in the world can even dream about owning one of these and doing so puts one in the social class with the likes of Mark Cuban, Kenny Trout or Michael Dell. Mr. Copeland took ownership of it in March of 2006.
Recent reports by NBC Dateline and others speculate that Mr. Hinn, one of the most popular of today’s tele-evangelists, has revenues that exceed $100,000,000 a year! And he’s not even shy about it anymore. He’s been seen staying at the most expensive hotels in the world and driving around in his $500,000 Bentley. I even know the person who is personally responsible for detailing his many collections of cars in the Dallas area and he spends hundreds a month in keeping them shinny. I would hope so, what a terrible witness it would be to have some dirt on the wheels…
Common signs and ideas thread their way through many of these people too. Some include:
* naming the ministry after themselves
* having higher paid salaries than most common CEO’s
* paying numerous family members high dollar salaries
* ownership of numerous and million dollar homes
* extravagant vacations and lifestyles
* high-society social status, accepted and embraced by the world
* numerous $100,000 cars
* direct control over the finances of the ministry
* little or no outside accountability
* high paid attorneys who hide, protect and craft the legal structures of their organizations
* unwillingness to be open and honest about finances of ministry
* many are uneducated, untrained, self-proclaimed teachers, preachers, healers or all of the above
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for pastors making good money and being taken care of. In my mind few should earn more than our teachers, police officers and the pastors of every day congregations. I attend a 4,000 member church and I can bet my pastor earns $200,000 a year. But the differences between him and these others are very apparent.
First of all, the church is not controlled directly by him and nor are the funds of the ministry. The ministry isn’t named after him and was established well before he assumed the role of pastor. He doesn’t dictate his salary, the elders of the church do. He is accountable to the members of the church and the elders in all aspects of leading the ministry. He can be removed or replaced at any time. Church finances are discussed and even shared with the congregation as needed. He doesn’t preach name-it-claim-it, but preaches “pay your debts and get debt free”. He’s written three books, yet donates all of the funds from the sales of those books back to our church bookstore. His lifestyle is real….having and doing what the rest of us that work hard do. But, what’s the overall biggest difference? He has the job of being pastor of our church, not owning and running it like was his own business. It’s God’s ministry and for now he is simply in charge of leading it.
According to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (www.ecfa.org) over 1,200 ministries now choose to open their books and allow the world to know just what they do with the money that flows into their organizations. Reverend Billy Graham, someone that has led more people to Christ since the Apostle Paul, reports his income at just $200,000 a year with few increases in over 30 years of ministry despite having the most powerful Christian organization in the modern world.
With Mr. Graham it’s always been about Jesus and nothing more. Ministrywatch.com states, “In the past half-century Billy Graham has preached the biblical Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ to over 210 million people in 185 countries and territories. As a result, millions upon millions have received Christ and become His disciples.” If you want to see everything about his finances just check out http://www.ministrywatch.com/ and it’s all right there for the world and God himself to read.
Sadly, many in this new generation of “ministers of faith” are simply self-serving and their number is growing by leaps and bounds. They’ve realized you don’t have to just “work for food” if you work for Jesus. I must have overlooked it somewhere in Speculations 1:1, because I guess “work for wealth” would really be more appropriate.
Think I’m just crazy? Let’s ask SIX tough questions:
1. If Jesus ministered physically in the world today, would He drive a $100,000 automobile?
2. Would he fly across the country in his own multi-million dollar, one-of-a-kind, rare Cessna jet?
3. Would he take some of the most expensive vacations known to man and stay at the most exotic hotels in the world?
4. If he had a legal “non-profit corporation” to channel the funds of his ministry through, would he hide his numbers and run from accountability?
5. Would he take money from those that gave, thinking it would be used to reach the needy, in order to sustain a certain lifestyle he deemed he was rightfully owed?
6. Would he really own a home worth multi-millions? Maybe even two or three?
If you think so, then the “Jesus” you serve is a wolf in sheep’s clothing my friend and he needs to be shaved. The Jesus I know and love is hated by men and despised by the world. Real ministries are mocked, beaten down and abused by the media for their stance on truth.
Yet, only in America, can starting a self-named ministry…make you a millionaire.
“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." II Thessalonians 3:6-10
© 2006, J. Brady
"I say it how I see it and I make no bones about it."
