Can Just One TV Ministry Not Ask For Money?
Obviously, I’m well aware that having a television ministry does cost money, and a lot of it. I heard recently that Lakewood Church (Joel Osteen) spends 20 million a year on putting their church broadcasts on television around the country. Now, with 50,000 atendees per week, it’s probably a whole lot more affordable for them than it is for others.
But even though I’m aware of the financial burden of having a television ministry, it seems that more and more of these ministries are making a ministy out of finding creative ways of asking for your money.
For instance, Dr. Mike Murdock, of Wisdom Center fame, has made a career out of teaching people about — wait for it — giving money. Let’s go through this sequentially:
Mike starts a ministry on television. To pay for that ministry, he makes up a fake “law of the seed” or some other such nonsense. Pretty soon, the entire broadcast is devoted to convincing you that giving to him will make your life better, you richer, etc. For whatever reason, he equates “giving to God” with “giving to Mike”. So if you “give to God(mike)”, God will give back to you. Soon enough, his entire ministry is about teaching people how to give to God (him), and receiving a blessing.
I’m not sure if you caught it, but essentially you are giving him money so he can continue his ministry of asking for money. THAT’S WHAT HIS MINISTRY IS!!!
My question is, why in the world is this considered a “ministry”?
Can just one TV ministry not ask for money? Whatever happened to just doing it because God wants you to? I can understand the casual “if you’d like to support this ministry…” statement at the end of the broadcast, but what is up with people making entire “ministries” out of talking you in to sending them a check? If you can’t do a ministry without turning it into a 24/7 “beg-a-thon”, then don’t do it. If your church wants to start a ministry, then pay for it!
It’s always refreshing to watch a religious broadcast that actually gives me content, not these supposed “faith-giving” lessons that they pass off as “spiritual”. Give me something I can use, then maybe I’ll consider supporting it. If it helps me, then maybe I want to help it help others. That’s a REAL ministry.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically each day to your feed reader. If you don't have a feed reader, you can always have these articles delivered to your email inbox every day. Click here to sign up.
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
[...] yes, there are many churches and tv ministries that do preach a prosperity Gospel, and I’ve spoken on that before. And yes, there are churches that play Christian rock, and people don’t wear suits and [...]
Comments
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
I do not ask for money. I did at first, then the Holy Spirit laid it upon my heart to not follow in the way of “others” just follow in the way of “God”.
If God wants a “ministry” to “minister” he will take care of its survival.
If someone wants to help pay for my server costs, and expenses, I am sure God can lay that burden upon their hearts, and they can write me and ask how they can be of help.
And my answer to them when they write asking to help?
“Spread The Word”, tell them about my website. Keep your money. And if you insist on spending money, then pay for advertisement somewhere to bring folks to the “ministry”, make a banner and submit it somewhere, do whatever, but YOU DO IT, and YOU will be “Blessed”. It is God’s job to provide for me and my family, not the assembly.
C’mon, Nathan. That Cadillac SUV he’s driving won’t pay for itself! Didn’t you know that Christianity is all about prosperity, emotional health and warm fuzzy feelings?
I set up websites for ministries on a regular basis and my advice to them is always to make it easy and convenient to send support, but NEVER make it the centerpiece of the content. Your ministry should be the centerpiece. If your ministry is “working”, it will support itself.
That “prosperity” message also makes no sense because the reason these preachers are prospering is because of the prosperity message they are preaching which gets people to send money. They are not prospering because of a Biblical principal. They are prospering because people are putting their hope in the wrong place and the wrong message.