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.
I didn’t realise that Warren doesn’t take a salary from Saddleback, so I retract my first statement!
If Saddleback has only 10,000 members, it's only $90 per member. That's not much.
If Saddleback has only 10,000 members, it's only $90 per member. That's not much.