Are You a Tither???

I remember in my former church a common question asked by the pastor, his family, and his staff was, "Are you a tither?" and " Are they tithers?"

If someone asked for prayer for something, someone to agree with them, healing, a situation, or any need they may have the pastor or his family members first response was "are they tithers???" They also claimed what they wanted from God and demanded it because they were "tithers"

At times when invitations were received by staff or the pastor's family members they wanted to know if the one the invitation was from was a tither before they made a decision to go or send a gift.

Many times when people wanted an appointment for counseling, I was instructed to pull up their tithing record so a decision could be made if they could see the pastor or anyone for that matter.

The staff was REQUIRED to tithe in order to be employed by the church. If the pastor or one of his family members became suspicious that a staff member had fallen behind in their tithing, I was instructed to pull up their tithing record and the staff member who had fallen behind was called in for a correction conference.

In reading the new testament and the eye witness accounts of those who came in contact with Jesus I am amazed that he never once asked anyone if they were a tither!!! He only asked them if they believed! Multitudes came to Him.

Some asked Him to bless them.... tithing was not required for Him to give His blessing.
Some asked Him to heal them.... tithing was not required for Him to heal them.
Some asked Him to COME with them and heal or minister to their family members... He ALWAYS went willingly and tithing was not required for Him to go with them.

My former church wanted the congregation to believe that tithing was a requirement in order for you to receive anything from God. Maybe this was because of the luxurious lifestyle they were living as a result of their enormous salaries and the personal things that were paid by the church for them.

Sadly they neglected to put the emphasis on the BLOOD OF JESUS that purchased everything we will ever need from God. Tithing is not required for us to receive everything that God has for us but the blood is what was required.

We should give to God and His work out of a heart of love, not because it is extorted with fear and promises of riches and material things. A person who gives out of a willing heart and giving nature gives way beyond the tithe anyway.

You can't buy God with your tithes. The bible doesn't say that we overcome anything from tithing. It does say ... that we overcome by the "blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony".

That is the blood and believing...... not tithing.

The Flesh Church

I remember sitting in my former church before I knew the truth about all the sin going on for years behind the scenes and wondering why our church never grew. I also wondered why many wonderful ministers that had come in the past never came anymore. I wondered why members and staff members that left on what seemed to be good terms with a wonderful public sendoff never returned to visit even when they were in town. These things really bothered me. Of course the "pastor" always put a spin on how the church was growing and thriving, yet it never manifested. The numbers went down instead of up. The "pastor" would criticize the church down the street that was growing by leaps and bounds. He criticized the things that they implimented such as free coffe, free CDs and other things to be a blessing to their people. At that time my former church was charging 1.00 for an 8oz. cup of coffee and 7.00 for a CD that cost about .50 to make. He called it the "seeker friendly church". Then one of the few traveling "ministers" that still came to the church on a regular basis came up with the name "flesh church". This same "minister" called precious Christians that had left the church "bowel movements". Now these Christians didn't backslide or fall into sin, they just wanted to attend another church. Probably a church that focused on Jesus and people instead of pride in "our faith" and using it to get money and material things.

Now this "flesh church" actually had over 19,000 people come to hear the gospel on Easter weekend. My former church didn't have 600. My former church's vision was for members who PROSPERED and had material things. My former "pastor" said that we were God's garden and if we didn't LOOK GOOD that it reflected badly on God. One important thing on the "flesh church's" vision was to start a medical clinic to help the community and be a blessing to those who could not afford medical care.

I recently had an opportunity to experience the effect of the flesh church's impact on the community when I accompanied someone to their new Medical Clinic. A visit to this clinic is 30.00 if you do not have insurance and 0.00 if you do. They do their best to prescribe medications that are on the Wal Mart 4.00 list of medications. The staff is friendly and caring. They have quality doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and office staff. The facility is immaculate and remodeled. Everything I experienced was excellent.

The pastor of this "flesh church" doesn't stand in the pulpit and boast about his airplane, fancy suits, his anointing, his great gift of teaching or his BMW faith. He is too busy doing the work of the ministry, carrying out the great commission and doing something to help and impact the community. When you go to the clinic, the doctor doesn't even ask you if you are a tither before he prays for you.

It is a good thing that there are "flesh churches" that are doing something for Jesus. My former church is too busy trying to keep the former executive pastor from spending 10 to 20 years behind bars for the impact he had on the community.

That's Not Grace!!!

The other morning I heard a message by a wonderful pastor that I love and respect very much. The message was about Elijah and some of the miracles that God had performed in his life. As I was listening to the message, I began to think back on many of the messages that I heard at my former church. Many of these messages were about what I had to do in order to get God to move on my behalf. I was instructed to "Sow a seed if I had a need". We were always hearing about what we were supposed to do in order to move the hand of God. If we needed a financial miracle, we were to sow a huge financial gift into the church, if we needed a personal miracle in our lives we were to serve and serve in the church, and things like that.

In the course of this message, the pastor brought out the fact that God performed miracles and provided supernaturally for Elijah even when he was not moving in faith. God didn't look at Elijah and say, "Well if he does this then I will provide a way for him", that God moving on our behalf is not contingent on whether we tithe or not or whether we "do" something to earn it or qualify for it. That's not grace!!!

The dictionary defines grace as the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God. This grace comes to us not because of any thing we can do but because of the blood that Jesus freely and willingly chose to shed for us when He chose to make the ultimate sacrifice and gave Himself for us. Grace does not mean.... "if you do this, then I will do this"!

Since the time that I left my former church, God has done so many awesome miracles in my life and blessed me so abundantly it is almost beyond belief. Yet I did not do one thing to merit or deserve any of these miracles or blessings. I actually made it a point NOT to do anything that I had been taught I was supposed to do in order to be blessed by God because I needed to remember the God that I knew before I allowed myself to be manipulated into trying to be some kind of "faith giant" in order to receive from God. He does it because I am His, because He loves me, because I know Him and because my savior, Jesus, purchased it for me with His blood. I asked Him to forgive me for ever belittling what was purchased by His blood by thinking that I could get something from God because of what "I" could do. Thank goodness I realized that I don't have to perform my way through life, I can just look to Him and live a life more wonderful than I could have ever hoped or imagined.

Dentist Drama

Today I was remembering an incident at my former church where a staff member gave a testimony that occurred at the dentist office. This person went to the dentist and was so consumed with the realization that they had a "pastor" that they began to cry in the dentist chair. The testimony centered around how awesome the pastor was and how they were moved to uncontrollable tears at this realization. This person cried so much that the dentist ( unable to do any work on this person at this time) had to wait till the deluge of tears subsided before they could continue the appointment. All this over the realization that they had a pastor?????? I found myself wondering if they had ever had to delay a dentist appointment due to tears over the realization that they had a SAVIOR?????

I began to think back on how twisted the priorities at mfc were. There were many services that centered completely around the pastor! Not Jesus! The pastor's, achievements, anointing, family problems, successes, desires and agenda. There were many services that people walked away having never heard anything about Jesus, just about the pastor.

Many church members now sport bumper stickers on their cars supporting the pastor. Not one of these has a bumper sticker supporting JESUS! WHEN DID THE PASTOR BECOME MORE IMPORTANT THAN JESUS?

It sickens me to realize that I was drawn into such a farce and allowed myself to be so monumentally deceived! I have my focus on track now and Jesus and righteousness are number one! If you are in a church that "promotes and pushes the pastor" get out. The church should be promoting one thing, JESUS!

Does It Ever End

In the past seventeen months, since I have realized the truth about what had gone on, was going on, and is going on in my former church, my life has changed enormously. Once all the control, lies, deception, sin, greed, corruption, and crime began to surface and continued to surface, a very rude awakening began for me. Not only did I realize a pastor and his family that I had served faithfully and sacrificially, were nothing of who they portrayed themselves to be, I discovered that they would stop at nothing to perpetuate their family ministry no matter what level of degradation and sin they had fallen to and been involved in. Along with this stark realization came the earth shattering revelation of the vast number of loved ones in my life that had been used, abused, violated and scarred for life as a result of this ministry.

Since this realization of the atrocities that have gone on over the years has come to light, there is not one day that goes by that I do not think about all the loved ones that have been affected and the horror that they live with on a daily basis. I keep thinking that one day I will wake up and this will not fill my thoughts. I will admit that it has gotten better, however, that day has not arrived. Even now that the ones who committed the crimes have been arrested and it looks like justice will be served, for the victims, it will never end.

Since making the choice to stand up on the side of righteousness and refused to be controlled and ultimately leaving my former church, God has shown Himself stronger to me than He ever has in my entire walk with Him. He has brought me through day after day and blessed me so abundantly above and beyond anything I could have ever hoped or imagined in so many ways. Even in the midst of all the twisted and deranged things I have been told and all the questions I still have I have about how people like this can be allowed to commit such atrocities and continue to do so even after being exposed, I have made a conscious decision to move on with my life and focus on the wonderful blessings that God has put in my life and trust Him to somehow help me to one day live free of the constant thoughts of the nightmare I have seen my loved ones live through.

On that note, I want to say that there are wonderful churches out there that are truly consumed with a desire to actually minister the love of God in action to a lost and hurting world. There are churches where the pastor is interested in all people, not just the tithers. There are churches whose members don't sever lifelong friendships because someone left the church. There are churches that address and handle correctly rampant sin in the church and church leadership instead of trying to cover it up, excuse it and lie about it.


I am currently attending a church that the main goal is to love people and minister the love of God to them regardless of where they go to church or if they tithe or not. The desire of this church is to minister to the community as a whole, and to love people with the true love of God. I thank Him for this opportunity to do something for the kingdom of God after so many wasted years in a church that did more harm to people than anything else.

No, I don't know that it will ever end but I do know that there is hope, purpose, joy and happiness after the nightmare of a controlling, manipulative and abusive church. Thanks to the love, grace and mercy of an ever loving and faithful God!

Attention to Evidence

In my former church there were some things in the New Testament, that were basic teachings to the new church, that were completely ignored the last couple of years that I attended there. One thing that really bothered me was that no one could get baptized at the church. It was just not important to the pastor. OH, he may say it was or is important to him, but what is important to you, you give attention to. Let me tell you, there was never a service that the TITHE wasn't paid attention to. But baptism was not mentioned in over two years.

In the New Testament, everyone that got saved got baptized. Jesus was baptized. Not only could you not get baptized at this church, if you were someone who was unschooled in the Bible or had no knowledge of Christianity, you could have attended this church for over a year and you would have no knowledge that there was even such a thing or what it was, much less why it is done or what it symbolizes.

In looking back to when there were baptism services at this church I remember that there were very few people baptised at the last couple of services.

I realized that without baptism services there is no evidence of how few people are being saved and making a real commitment to Christ at the church. I remember it got to where there were so few people being saved in the services and of the few that came forward hardly any ever came back more than once or twice. I realized that the absence of baptism services kept the evidence of this from being apparent to the congregation.

When the service closes and the pastor gives an invitation it is usually for more than just to get saved and give your life to Christ. There may be several other invitations, healing, recommitting your life, being filled with the Holy Spirit and other things. In this way, people in the congregation just see people come forward and then when they are told that so many people are being saved they just believe it and with the absence of baptism services there is no evidence of the truth.

There was also no evidence of the poor being helped by the church, widows being helped by the church, people being taught to live holy lives, or peoples' individual needs being ministered to.
A healthy, New Testament church should have EVIDENCE of these things.

James 2:14-18 (Amplified Bible)
14What is the use (profit), my brethren, for anyone to profess to have faith if he has no [good] works [to show for it]? Can [such] faith save [his soul]?
15If a brother or sister is poorly clad and lacks food for each day,
16And one of you says to him, Good-bye! Keep [yourself] warm and well fed, without giving him the necessities for the body, what good does that do?
17So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).
18But someone will say [to you then], You [say you] have faith, and I have [good] works. Now you show me your [alleged] faith apart from any [good] works [if you can], and I by [good] works [of obedience] will show you my faith.

If you are attending a church and your pastor claims to teach FAITH, claims to live by faith, hear from God by faith, claims he is the one to teach you faith, then look at his WORKS. Not his works of standing in a pulpit and claiming to know it all but his works in the community, his works among the congregation, his works SHOWING his faith. There should be EVIDENCE. Evidence of his faith by his works, his actions, evidence of what the church is doing and accomplishing.

Pay attention to the evidence. If you can't see any, then you are being deceived. You need to find a church that it is evident what they are and what fruit they are producing.

Its All About The Word

In my former church, we were always told, "It's all about the word", meaning it was all about the Word of God. We were taught that...

-we were not supposed to listen to peoples problems.... when they began talking about them we were to just "tell them the word"

-attacks came against the church because that church was the only church that preached the word the right way and the devil was trying to destroy it

-we were to speak the word all the time and not give voice to illnesses, situations, or anything that did not line up with the word

-the preaching of the word, the way the pastor interpreted it was more important than anything.. even people

In reading the gospels, and looking at the ministry of Jesus, it is obvious that the most important thing to Him was people. The Bible says that Jesus was the Word of God in the flesh. Yet, He did not teach and preach that He was the most important thing. He was not here to promote Himself, He promoted doing the will of the Father and loving PEOPLE.

Yes the word is important. It is alive and powerful. It is the good news to all men. It is the answer to every problem. It is the standard we live by. It is truth. But the most important thing to God is people.

Jesus spent His life here on earth serving people, healing them, showing them love, helping them, putting them first until He made the choice to die for them. Yet we have pastors now that won't give the people in their congregation the time of day. Won't attend their funerals. Have no interest in helping them with their problems, answering their questions, or listening to them when they need someone to talk to. Need to see their tithing record before deciding whether to attend something they have received an invitation to.

Preachers today need to wake up. It is not all about the preaching of the word with whatever twist or "new revelation" they want to push! It is about taking the gospel of Jesus to a lost and hurting world. Feeding the hungry, giving to the poor, ministering to the needy and the hurting, and genuinely loving people.Its about using the word to do this, not using it to get what they want. It is about using the word to teach others how to live, how to love,how to serve and how to live holy lives. It is not there for people in the ministry to use it to excuse whatever sins they choose to engage in and then keep them in ministry positions no matter how atrocious their lifestyles are.

In careful consideration I have comet to the conclusion that it is not ALL about the Word, it is ALL about people.