What to do when your church is closing.

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What to do when your church is closing? Find out here.
http://churchrealty.com
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According to the ministry organization, "Feed My Starving Children", it only costs about $55 a year
to save the life of a starving child. And, based on their statistics, between five and six million
children die from starvation each year throughout the world.
In the midst of these sobering numbers, we find the appalling truth regarding the finances of the
Christian Church in America. According to statistics from "The Yearbook of American and
Canadian Churches" and "The National Center for Charitable Statistics", Christian churches and
ministries in America have a total annual income from donations of approximately eighty billion
dollars.
How are American churches and ministries spending their massive income? They have acquired
hard assets of prime real estate and luxurious buildings totaling in the hundreds of billions of
dollars. They frequently are paying their ministers six-figure salaries, and in some cases seven
figures. Their elaborate mega churches are filled with expensive and luxurious furnishings and
state-of-the-art equipment. Some preachers fly to their meetings in their own personal private jets
costing millions of dollars each. By comparison, the actual amount spent on "true ministry" to
people in need is only a minute percentage of their total income.
If America's Christian churches and ministries gave only ten percent of their total annual income to
save starving children throughout the world, and to house America's homeless population, every
starving child worldwide could be fed three meals a day throughout the year; moreover, within just
two years, 4000 new homeless shelters could be built across America with the capacity to house
every homeless person in our nation. Now I ask you, what would Jesus do? He said that the true
test of discipleship is whether we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and minister in general to
those in need (Matthew 25:31-46). Jesus values starving children and homeless people more than
expensive buildings and "fat-cat" salaries.
America's selfish and materialistic churches try to justify their lavish, self-pampering expenditures
by comparing each of their church buildings to the luxurious temple in Old Testament Israel.
However, their comparison is both unBiblical and dishonest. There was only "one temple" in all of
Israel, and only the priests could enter it. It was not a place where the people "went to church"
each week. On the other hand, there were numerous synagogues throughout Israel where the
people attended on a weekly basis. These synagogues were quite "commonplace", and were not
expensive and luxurious structures. They would be the equivalent of our churches today, and not
the temple. Furthermore, the temple housed the "Shekinah Glory", "Ark of the Covenant", mercy
seat and the Ten Commandments written by God Himself on tablets of stone. To compare our
churches in America to the temple is both dishonest and ridiculous. As previously mentioned,
there was only one temple in all of Israel. However, America's selfish and worldly churches are
building thousands of "temples" throughout our nation, while the commonplace

2. synagogues/churches are vanishing from our landscape.
The truth of the matter is that contemporary churches do not really want to be "like" the temple.
They just want to compare themselves to the temple in "one aspect". They only use this
comparison when it comes to justifying their luxurious and expensive buildings. They don't want to
actually "operate" like the temple. What do I mean? If today's mega churches want to "truly"
compare themselves to the temple, the first thing they must do is close down all of their coffee
shops, arcade rooms, restaurants and bookstores. Why? Jesus cast the "moneychangers" and
those who bought and sold merchandise out of the temple, and He said that we are not to make
His Father's house into a "house of merchandise" (Matthew 21:12; John 2:16). However, don't
expect to see America's mega churches close down their profitable business enterprises that they
operate in their "temples". You see, they only want to compare themselves to the temple when it
comes to the enormous expense and luxury of their mega churches, not when it comes to
operating them in a similar manner regarding sanctity and reverence.
Christian ministers and their congregations are fully aware that millions of children die from
starvation every year. Yet, they willfully allow these children to starve to death, and they
consciously choose to spend their money on their ornate buildings and self-pampering furnishings
and equipment instead. It is certainly a glaring contradiction that these same ministers and their
parishioners will fight to save the life of unborn children, while they purposefully choose to allow
millions of "already born" children to slowly and painfully die from starvation. I am also pro-life, but
what is being done by Christian churches and ministries in America is unconscionable and mind
boggling.
For a more in-depth study of this subject, read "The Gospel for Sale." And, also check out other
interesting and provocative articles at http://godormen.com.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Henry_Bechthold
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What to do when your church is closing? Find out here.
http://churchrealty.com
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