Money, Money and more Money

A friend invited me to his church some months ago. He claimed they serve the real God and that worshiping in his church gives a sort of spiritual ecstacy, so I decided to give him the benefit of doubt.

So I was in the church, waiting for the spiritual highness. Although the praise and worship sessions were really cool, it was nothing close to what the choir in my church would produce on their bad days. Still waiting...

Then came the sermon which was centred around Blessing, Prosperity, Success and Financial breakthroughs. The preacher would do good as a motivational speaker as all he kept hammering on were Business Ideas. There is nothing wrong if a pastor decides to give certain money-making ideas and suggestions to his congregation, absolutely nothing wrong. But the very moment you realize that a one hour sermon in a church is all about money, money and more money, then you've got to check if the book on the pulpit is not a Business Encyclopedia.

So after the sermon came the most important event during the service: "Offering Time". A group of ushers went round, giving each person a small envelope with the inscription: "TITHES". I told the usher that I can't pay tithe because I am still a student. Yet she insisted that I pay my tithe, no matter what I do or how much I earn.

Then something happened. Two male ushers pushed 7 offering collection boxes to the front of the congregation. Each box held a label.

1. Normal Offering.

2. Tithe

3. Evangelism Offering

4. Mission House Welfare Offering

5. Church and Mission House maintenance Offering

6. Weekly Testimony Offering.

7. Prayer Offering.

For the prayer offering, anybody who wants the man of God to pray for him/her would write the prayer points in a paper and put the paper in a sealed envelope with some money.

I honestly don't see anything wrong if the people give these so called "sowing to God" out of their free will. But when the man of God mandates that everyone who wants to sow to God must stay right in front of the pulpit for prayer, then you know something is wrong. Anybody who does not have the means of sowing to God will be left isolated, away from the people. Those who are left will be seen as the less-privileged...

But in the Christian Holy Book: "The Holy Bible", the places of worship were not structured that way. When it comes to offering contribution, all they had in the temple was a small offering box in which people who wants to give out of their own free will can give without creating a scene. And even Jesus even made mention of a poor widow who gave so little but so much because it was all she had and she gave it from her heart.

It is just so unfortunate that the real purpose of the Christian Church has been defeated and the mission now is all about the love of what the Holy Bible labelled the root of all evil.