I am not convinced that Hillsong is preaching that we are to seek riches. And I believe in mega churches because I believe in soulwinning and I believe in revival. (3000 were saved on the day of Pentecost and continued meeting in the temple area=Megachurch)
I am not convinced that they are doing anything out of the ordinary when asking people to be faithful to give to support the ministry.
Many people are blessed with financial success and can support the work of ministry if they believe that it is a worthy cause and they will indeed be rewarded in heaven for their faith when they give to support the ministry of the Gospel and the local church. To give for the motivation that you want to see people get saved and to ALSO know that you will be rewarded in heaven for giving to that work instead of spending it on your own lusts is a sound doctrine and true. Preaching that on a Sunday before the offering is taken up is fine with me.
If someone at Hillsong went a little too long for your liking when expressing the scriptures on the fact that they do teach that one will be rewarded for giving is not sufficient to call them teachers of covetousness. It is a subjective opinion on your part. You must produce proof of your accusations in order to be taken seriously. Now you don't HAVE to produce proof for your own opinion, that you can possess without proof, but in order to get other people on an internet chat site to see why you think Hillsong is guilty of error in their request for giving from the congregation you would have to produce some sort of transcript from the appeal or a video we could watch where you were offended and then we could judge whether the problem is with you or the speaker.
You brought it up, therefore it is up to you to support your claims. Until then I can only go by what I have seen. I have not seen them do these things you claim that they do. So how do I know if you are just being critical. You might have a problem with my church too.
And we rarely say more than two sentences about giving. It is usually something like "There will be ushers at each door when you leave if you would like to give" Now the critical people love that but I am not very pleased with it. I think they need a little more encouragement. They need to be made aware of the fact that only a small percentage of them are faithfully giving but it is not my place to say it. So I trust that the leadership knows what they are doing and I don't let it get me too upset.
I appreciate the fact that my church does not give 10 minute sermonettes on giving before every regular sermon on Sunday, that would be overkill and drive people away, however I think they would do well to remind the people more often that it is God's method for the members to support the local assembly and if they are not doing that they should step out in faith and decide on a proportion each week as God has prospered them (1 Cor 16) That would not offend the antithithers and educate the ignorant at the same time.
Now if a church does give 5 minute sermons on giving before the regular sermon each Sunday it would be a bit annoying but I would not accuse them of being covetous. I would be more likely to accuse them of being stressed.
And more likely of accusing the people of being stingy. I know for a fact that less than 10% of most churches actually give a regular proportion out of their income on a weekly basis. This is why you are hearing the constant appeals.
There are covetous preachers and God warned us about it in the New Testament for a reason. Have nothing to do with them. Maybe your were dealing with one. I would not be able to know without proof. I do think that the majority of criticism that I hear is a problem in the heart of the critic.
I am not convinced that they are doing anything out of the ordinary when asking people to be faithful to give to support the ministry.
Many people are blessed with financial success and can support the work of ministry if they believe that it is a worthy cause and they will indeed be rewarded in heaven for their faith when they give to support the ministry of the Gospel and the local church. To give for the motivation that you want to see people get saved and to ALSO know that you will be rewarded in heaven for giving to that work instead of spending it on your own lusts is a sound doctrine and true. Preaching that on a Sunday before the offering is taken up is fine with me.
If someone at Hillsong went a little too long for your liking when expressing the scriptures on the fact that they do teach that one will be rewarded for giving is not sufficient to call them teachers of covetousness. It is a subjective opinion on your part. You must produce proof of your accusations in order to be taken seriously. Now you don't HAVE to produce proof for your own opinion, that you can possess without proof, but in order to get other people on an internet chat site to see why you think Hillsong is guilty of error in their request for giving from the congregation you would have to produce some sort of transcript from the appeal or a video we could watch where you were offended and then we could judge whether the problem is with you or the speaker.
You brought it up, therefore it is up to you to support your claims. Until then I can only go by what I have seen. I have not seen them do these things you claim that they do. So how do I know if you are just being critical. You might have a problem with my church too.
And we rarely say more than two sentences about giving. It is usually something like "There will be ushers at each door when you leave if you would like to give" Now the critical people love that but I am not very pleased with it. I think they need a little more encouragement. They need to be made aware of the fact that only a small percentage of them are faithfully giving but it is not my place to say it. So I trust that the leadership knows what they are doing and I don't let it get me too upset.
I appreciate the fact that my church does not give 10 minute sermonettes on giving before every regular sermon on Sunday, that would be overkill and drive people away, however I think they would do well to remind the people more often that it is God's method for the members to support the local assembly and if they are not doing that they should step out in faith and decide on a proportion each week as God has prospered them (1 Cor 16) That would not offend the antithithers and educate the ignorant at the same time.
Now if a church does give 5 minute sermons on giving before the regular sermon each Sunday it would be a bit annoying but I would not accuse them of being covetous. I would be more likely to accuse them of being stressed.
And more likely of accusing the people of being stingy. I know for a fact that less than 10% of most churches actually give a regular proportion out of their income on a weekly basis. This is why you are hearing the constant appeals.There are covetous preachers and God warned us about it in the New Testament for a reason. Have nothing to do with them. Maybe your were dealing with one. I would not be able to know without proof. I do think that the majority of criticism that I hear is a problem in the heart of the critic.
I'm not claiming to know what goes on in all mega churches but from what I have saw if you were to bring out the whole gospel then the mega church would lose most of it's congregation and more than likely definitely lose all the greedy leaders.
We are told to give from the Heart cheerfully.... to give not expecting something in return.
They can claim to have many souls turned to Jesus but if they are not preaching the full gospel and folks are turning to God in hopes they are going to benefit financially or in other fleshly ways ....Did they really truly get saved? or are they just deceived?
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