by Tad Lindley
There is a lot of shadowy hate speech directed against Christianity on social media. One of the contributions that I would like to reproduce here for you goes something like this:
The 10 richest pastors in the world*
1. Kenneth Copeland – $300 million
2. David Oyepodo (Nigeria) – $150 million
3. Pat Robertson – $100 million
4. Joel Olsteen – $100 million
5. Enoch Adeboye (Nigeria) – $100 million
6. Uebert Angel (Zimbabwe/UK) – $60 million
7. Benny Hinn – $60 million
8. Chris Oyakhilome (Nigeria) – $50 million
9. Creflo Dollar – $27 million
10. Rick Warren – $25 million
I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:24)
*These figures are from Pulse.com on the internet and are as of 2024. Unless otherwise noted, these men are from the United States.
The aim of the social media post is now to discredit Christianity as a hypocritical, money-grabbing industry that is completely ignorant of the words of Jesus. If the above data points are all you have, you can easily assume this is the case.
But…
If the people trying to discredit the planet’s pastors knew the actual data, they would see a very different story. You would see the minister or ministers in your village preaching three times a week, conducting funerals and weddings, visiting the sick, and comforting grieving families, putting more money and time into the church than they ever get out of it. There are a number of pastors in our region who rely on food stamps and other forms of social assistance to the shame of refusing to tithe and donate. This shouldn’t be! Those who are not on welfare are, in many cases, fortunate enough to have a job outside of the church that they use to support the church.
For every David Oyepodo…
…in Nigeria, thousands of men are trying to scrape together enough money to buy a bicycle so they can travel from one African village to another to preach the gospel. For every televangelist in America pleading with people to donate more and more money to keep their program on the air, there are thousands of men and women giving home Bible studies to the broken and hurting, without any financial compensation.
For every Rick Warren…
He has become quite wealthy from the books he has written. There are tens of thousands of “tent maker” pastors who, like the apostle Paul, work long hours at secular work (he built tents, see Acts 18:1-4). that they can start a church without being a financial burden.
What about the ten richest NBA players?
1. Michael Jordan – $3 billion
2. LeBron James – $1 billion
3. Magic Johnson – $800 million
4. Junior Bridgeman – $600 million
5. Vinnie Johnson – $500 million
6. …I’ll let you look up the rest
The point is that no one will ever claim what a cheat basketball is because a handful of men have become very rich from it. And while many complain that LeBron James is grossly overpaid, no one connects that with the local high school basketball coaches, men and women, who make less than minimum wage to help young athletes pursue their passion.
How much should your pastor earn?
Your pastor is the one who will marry and bury you. If he follows the biblical pattern, he will likely be the one to baptize you in the name of Jesus. He will be the one who calls your name in prayer when you are too weak in sin to pray for yourself. He will be the one who teaches the Word to the church at least three times a week, in between going house to house leading home Bible studies. A true man of God will do it with or without pay, but my question is: What is such a pastor worth?
Reverend Tad Lindley is pastor of the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
