Church vs state of the poor

What many of my readers may not know about me is that I battle daily with my inner demons. I was raised going to church every Sunday and my godfather was even the pastor. however, I will admit that I have faltered from that path these days. However in recent times I’ve found myself finding faith and belief again and making small but incremental changes to reflect a better me. The hardest part for me is to find myself sitting in the pews again when all my faith in man and his churches has wavered. I know any Christian readers I may have will say to me that it is not the church or the man that I am there for but the Father and Saviour who I’m showing my love to. I know that they will all be sending me to the numerous verses in Corinthians that promote worship in groups but I guess that is a battle for The Father and I to work out.

My main issue and why I am writing this blog is the hypocrisy that I’m seeing with churches today. What hypocrisy am I talking about? Pastors profiting as members of the church struggle to make ends meet. Many church goers follow their pastor blindly as he represents to them God's representative on earth. They pay their tithes and contribute to every offering made be it building fund or someone needs school clothes fund. Yet, especially with these new “super churches,” we are seeing pastors preaching in designer suits, living in big houses and driving luxury cars. I have issues with this type of behavior.

I’m in no way saying that a pastor does not deserve to live a “comfortable” life but many of these pastors today are living way more than comfortable. The bible states that it is easier for a camel to enter into the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. This verse obviously doesn’t extend to some pastors. The money collected from offerings in my views need to go to maintaining the church, helping those members of the church who are in need of help and yes helping the pastor and his family make ends meet as well. Making ends meet does not however include driving a BMW, to your upstairs and downstairs home to watch your children play their wii on a big screen television.

Any pastor living life luxuriously instead of comfortably and even humbly should be shipped to Afghanistan to do missionary works in my views. A true pastor’s obligation should be to the spreading of the word and the well being of his flock. A chain is as strong as its weakest link. No pastor should be happy and kicking back when there are people in his pews struggling to eat. Worse yet there may be some who want to be in the pews but can’t afford to get there. Jesus walked amongst the poor and was not too big that he couldn't wash his own disciples feet(John 13 for those who never heard the story).

However don’t let my mild ramblings discourage any of you. My battle is my own and The Lord and I will discuss that in length when the time comes I pray. If you can afford to pay tithe as your obligation be it wholeheartedly or as a token go right ahead. I’d just rather you help those people in life who need the help.