Even in Jesus’ day there was much difference between the Pharisees and the money lenders.
What those who came before you left to your church is NOT mammon; those riches are a sacrifice made to God. It is immoral to abandon those sacrifices to evil-doers; they are resources which are set aside to assist the spread of the gospel.
We need to be fed with the gospel, so I recognize that there comes a point when the liberalism is so intolerable as to become an obstacle to one’s own faith. But as long as you remain strong in your faith, keep the good fight! We mustn’t let liberals inherit all of the treasures given back to God.
PCUSA and others also haul in more money by extorting large sums from congregations congregations that leave the denomination to avoid costly legal battles over the ownership of church buildings and land.
Wie is das möglich?
Nur für Verrückte.
(Traktat vom Steppenwolf)
This is true in the short run but eventually there will come a time when there won’t be any older folks leaving money to the church and buildings will get older. If anyone think liberals will give heavy to the church they better think again. They are the least giving of anyone.
My guess is that in about 20 years, if our Lord tarries, the PCUSA will find itself without members and without funds.
This is why our church refuses to establish an endowment fund and so live year to year on a “faith budget.” If we are doing what God wants us to do, He will make sure we have the money we need. If you start sinking your money into endowment funds, over time that money controls your church, and the pastors realize they can simply live on that money and no longer have to evangelize or carry out the Gospel.
My old church lost over 2/3 of its members over the gay issue, and yet it has enough money to operate into perpetuity, even though they may only get 20-30 people a Sunday. And remember, they also save money by not having to have things like ministry outreach, or children’s and youth programs. Nor is it a problem that they are only down to one minister. So the small number of non-Christians, primarily homosexuals, that have taken over the church can spend more money on promoting the homosexual agenda.
What the article misses is that the church was built by the hard work and the sacrifice of the faithful. The successors who have no belief in faith or sacrifice took the money and abandoned the faith part.
They then used the sacrifices of the previous faithful to support their easy comfortable lifestyle and their immoral leftist causes.
Those remaining faithful were ignored and basically told to leave.
Good story. My UM church sits on one of the busiest corners in town and the property is valued at about $2M.
If the UMC votes to go gay like the PCUSA, TEC, and ELCA have already done the membership of our church will drop below the level required to keep the doors open because, although the Conference “owns” the property and the pastor(s) “work” for the Conference, the local church pays all the bills and there is no mechanism in place to help a struggling church stay open.
So, the Leftists drive the people away. We can’t afford the pastor anymore. (Note, the Conference does everything they can to discourage cheaper Licensed Local Pastors from being licensed, so we have to go with the expensive “union” clergy) Then, we close and all the property reverts to the Conference.
So, when we ask the Leftists why they are destroying our church or if they even care and they say that their politics of “inclusion” are more important than the local church.
They can say that because the Conference will reap huge windfalls as these local churches closes up and the property reverts to Conference. In some cases, they may even sell it to the congregation that left and formed a new church. Imagine that...having to buy the property that you and your parents and your grandparents built over the decades from a Conference that ran you off just so they could ordain Sodomites in a church with no more people.
The Left is positively controlled by Satan. Every time I talk to a Progressive Methodist about the future of the denomination, I can almost smell the sulphur.
The Presbyterian church I was baptized in (First Presbyterian Church of Coral Gables, FL) was closed due to declining membership. They were fully endowed, and the endowment was transfected to the “Mother” church. That’s how its done.
The DC church has attached the principal of their sustaining "Soper Trust," the remains of a huge inheritance from a mega-wealthy benefactor, to keep the National Cathedral open.
They have spitefully squandered millions in legal expenses to seize real estate from parishes voting to leave the denomination. These buildings are old and costly to maintain, and have few if any parishioners left, so they mostly are sold off to secular enterprises.
But these stopgaps will not last forever--trust funds run dry when used for current operations--they will run out of captured real estate to sell, and the church itself is demographically doomed-- they are old and getting older.
There are more people attending NFL games on a Fall Sunday than all the Episcopal churches in the country put together.
Maybe the presbyteries or the international organization are making money but the local churches are definitely losing money.
I remember hearing an interview with Parker Williamson of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. He viewed what he was doing, fighting a loosing fight in the PCUSA, as, at least partially, a matter of fiduciary responsibility.