Should Churches Worship Money?

Wherefore Come out from among them, and be ye separate...

"For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (1 Timothy 6:10)

Did you ever begin wondering if “going to church” was about raising money?  In some churches there is a constant drive for the raising of money.  There's a collection for this project. There's a collection for the missionaries in some far away land.  There's a collection for the missionaries in some other far away land.

 Once in Florida I was studying with a neighbor who asked me about our attitude toward money.  It seemed like a strange question.  Well, come to find out, he had gone to church with his wife. . .   (the man considered himself an unbeliever).  During the service they had taken up a collection for the building fund.  To make a long story short, they didn’t get enough money.  The preacher ordered the doors to be locked, with the admonition that “no one is to leave the room!”  They passed the plate a total of three times.

Amongst so many of today’s churches, if you finally make it through all the contributions, then they start up with the fundraisers.  They have garage sales, auctions, cookies, donuts, chili feeds etc. A few years back a law office sent me a letter promising us a large contribution if our young people would be sent out to deliver neighborhood fliers promoting his law firm!

The irony is that the bigger the church… normally the more they beg for money.  Am I missing something? Didn’t Jesus tell Peter that He would build the church on the fact the He (Jesus) was the Son of God?  Jesus really didn’t seem all that excited about building earthly monuments did He?  In fact, the one man most concerned about the money in Jesus’ group was Judas!

Jesus (through the Apostle Paul) did make provisions for a contribution.  

“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week, each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.” (I Corinthians 16:1-2)

Notice that the purpose of this collection was “so that no collections will be made when I come.”  Obviously the point is for a church to have a collection, one collection per week, and be done with it!  Just as obviously, Paul pointedly, not only limited the collection to a single weekly collection, but he also limited it to one certain day.
  

Jesus became very upset when the Jews turned the worship of God into a giant sale-a-thon!

  “Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. And He {began} to teach and say to them, "Is it not written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS'? But you have made it a ROBBERS' DEN."  The chief priests and the scribes heard {this,} and {began} seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.”   (Mark 11:15-18)

Do you suppose He would be pleased with all the merchandise being carried through the churches today?

 Does it astonish you that there is still a group of people who believe in Jesus strongly enough to trust Him?  Jesus’ teaching, has always been an astonishment to “the whole crowd.”  At The Pillar church of Christ, you’ll never be called on to “tithe” (an Old Testament practice).  You’ll never be asked to buy anything.  If you’re visiting, you’ll not be expected to contribute.  You’ll not hear impassioned pleas for money. Yes, we’ll pass the plate on the Lord’s day…Once!  We follow the example of New Testament Christians, “but they first gave themselves to the Lord”  (II Corinthians 8:5)   

We believe we should share the attitude of the Apostles, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all {people} life and breath and all things.” (Acts 17:24-15)

We are more interested in you than your money…
We believe that’s the way God wants it! 
We believe that the purpose of our gathering is to worship God!
Isn’t that why you’ve come?
 "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Peter 4:11)

Times of Services
Lord’s Day Bible study           9:30 am
Lord’s Day Worship              10:30 am
Lord’s Day evening study         6:00 pm
Wednesday Bible Study             7:30 pm

Private Bible studies available anytime!

 Feel free to ask about anything you see or hear while visiting us. We are thankful for your interest in spiritual things.


**Update: I made this article into a printable tract. To view or print it, click here. **





Hi I am glad you stopped by our blog. These articles are from an emailing that we did several years ago.   Today most of our work is on facebook

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  Jerry Blount 

You can follow the postings on the congregation's page by clicking on this link.... 

Las Vegas church of Christ 


If you wish to worship with us....
Las Vegas church of Christ
709 Dora Celeste
Las Vegas, NM 87701

Our meeting times are
10am Sunday morning for Bible study.
11am Sunday morning for the worship service.
6pm Wednesday evening for Midweek Bible study.

If you wish to contact me...
yakipreacher@gmail.com

Be well

Jerry Blount