Except for the guy on the receiving end, of course.
Saddleback Church with its 5 campuses in Southern California may have overextended its growth. This $2.4 million installment may be the beginning of more to come. The economy we enjoyed during the Bush years brought into being the mega churches. Whether these churches survive will be one to watch. Such churches need a good economy to operate. Can they downsize and survive is the question to ask.
I realize that you don’t count Rick Warren among those you admire.
However, it should be pointed out that Saddleback ministers to a large number of people, and many of those are out of work and in need. The church experienced a shortfall in offerings, and this is what prompted the original request by Warren.
He, BTW, takes no money from the church.
He’s not my cup of tea.
But as others have noted, he doesn’t take a salary, returned every cent of salary he ever made, and gives away 90 percent of his income. So the shortfall isn’t about him.
A large church has a large cost, maintaining a large campus, and usually a large salaried staff. The flip side of that is that they usually have money to take on projects smaller churches can’t. When you join a church, the work they do there is your work, their problems are your problems. If there is a shortfall, its your shortfall.
You don’t look for a fatcat, especially when your local fatcat is already giving most of his earnings. You’re a member, you have a responsibility. And in this case, the $900 thousand isn’t that large a percent of their budget, and it isn’t that much per member. They can do it, they just needed to know they needed to do it.
I didn’t care for the book, it again wasn’t my cup of tea. But a lot of churches have shortfalls this year, and a larger church with larger costs and larger ministries is going to have to either cut back or step up. It looks like they’ve decided to step up.
While I have some problems with some of what he does, I don’t think Warren takes a salary from the church and gives away a very significant percentage of this book royalties. It is my understanding that he lives in a pretty modest home and has for many years.