Dear Friends,
This article is so troubling and confirms "the state" of the "church". For this group of tele-evangelist it's planes, for many of us it might be wasting food or other mismanagement of God's resources. It's not that we should point the finger without self examination but the exhuberant life style (and it is quite lavished) of the american christian needs to be examined. At the least, we here in American should live in constant tension of the great responsibility we have with all this stuff. We must ask the question daily...Do we live a purpose filled life of living modestly? God enables us to be economically blessed to be a blessing to our Christian brothers and sisters and to the least and lost in the 2/3 world. It is so important that we adhere to the admonishment from Micah 6:8 "He has showed you, O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God." Please paste the site below and read the entire article, very eye opening. I guess what makes this so gruesome and horrific is that people have sent in money under the guise of a 'seed' gift hoping to receive a new house, healing, car or plane. And it's all done in the Name of our Lord, Jesus.
It's ironic that a group of us from our church are preparing ourselves to go to Haiti. I did a lot of soul searching to examine our motives for going and how best to honor God in our use of resources. As many know, it takes a lot of money to go on a short term mission trip and the money might be better spent sent directly to the sons and daughters of the soil (people of that country). Also the money was needed right here at our struggling urban church. Sometimes 'short term' mission trips are loaded with paternalism (control issues), do goodism, vacationism and other ism(s). After getting past our motives and possible ism(s), I felt pretty good about our team. I believe our motives were at least wanting to be pure. (I believe it's impossible for humans to have pure motives...thank God for Grace.) So my big hurdle was stewardship. I wasn't quite sure on the stewardship issue (and still struggle with it). But what turned my titantic of indecision was our teams meeting with the Haitian pastor of the ministry that we will be visiting. I asked him point blank, "why should we come to your country to your city to your village...why are we coming?" Pastor Jude answered without hesititation..."when you (missionaries) come, you bring Hope." And he began to elaborate. In other words your physical presence personifies Hope. And with his words a tangible presence was in our midst and I believe it was the Holy Spirit and many of us had tears in our eyes. I believe this was a confirmation. We heard it from one of the sons of the soil himself.
I mention Haiti just to illustrate that [even] doing wonderful things for God demands that we live in the tension of...'is this the best use of God's resources.' I believe living in America for the follower of Jesus means to struggle daily with our prosperity and walking the tightrope of modest living. My friends, in all of our 'blessings' and prosperity lets do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. In Jesus' Name.
Love,
Pastor Dennis
What would Jesus fly?
Six televangelists under Senate investigation frequent luxury corporate jets-and they are not alone
by Rusty Leonard and Warren Cole Smith
Billionaire Warren Buffet became one of the richest men in the world by knowing what adds value to a corporation and what does not. And one of the things that does not, he has argued for years, is a corporate jet: They're a luxury in almost every case and a necessity for only a few. He often railed against them in the annual reports of his company, Berkshire Hathaway, and elsewhere.
That's why, when Berkshire Hathaway finally bought a corporate jet in 1989, he somewhat ashamedly called it "The Indefensible."
But try telling that to Fred Price, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, Benny Hinn, or Kenneth Copeland. Their organizations are among more than 30 churches and Christian ministries with luxury jets (see sidebar), according to a WORLD investigation. And according to Ole Anthony of the Trinity Foundation, a Dallas-based ministry watchdog, ownership and use of luxury jets is one of the surest indicators that donor money is not being used for ministry purposes.
"There are incredible abuses of these corporate jets for personal use," Anthony said. "Mind-bending abuse that they do with impunity."
Using ministry resources for personal use is prohibited by IRS regulations, but the IRS almost never investigates tax-exempt organizations. Of the more than 1 million tax-exempt organizations in the country, fewer than 10,000 get audited each year. When a media organization uncovers abuses of an executive jet for personal purposes, Anthony said, the televangelists say they've reimbursed the ministry.
"But it's just a claim," Anthony said. "They are not required to, and almost never do, provide anything that resembles real documentation of the claim."
All six of the televangelists under investigation for potential abuse of their tax-exempt status by Senate Finance Committee ranking member Sen. Charles Grassley (WORLD, Nov. 17, 2007; Jan. 26, 2008; May 31, 2008) are connected with luxury corporate jets. Eagle Mountain International Church, associated with Kenneth Copeland, owns three, including a Cessna 750, the fastest civilian airplane available in the world. (It's often called the Citation X.)
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