- Gossip about someone in the form of a “prayer request.”
- Say you trust God, but don’t tithe.
- Hold onto a grudge.
- Say you’ll pray for someone, but avoid talking to them.
- Make church the only time and place you crack your Bible open.
- Don’t bring up your faith to others.
- Curse at people in traffic while listening to K-LOVE.
- Put your amusement before the needs of others.
- Care more about what people think about you, than what God knows about you.
- Never admit wrong-doing toward others/Never initiate reconciliation.
Blessings,
John
John… Nows’s my turn to return the favor. I will be posting this on my youth groups facebook page. Good stuff.
11. Suggest that anyone who doesn’t give money to the church is a hypocrite, even though nowhere does the Bible command Christians to give a certain percentage of their income to the church (see No.2 above). Bonus points: Deny that there is any conflict of interest involved in the assertion of a tithing obligation, even though your salary is paid by those very tithes.
Jake…
A few verses you skipped over:
– Malachi 3:8, Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘how have we robbed You?’ In your tithes and offerings.”
– From Jesus Himself, Matthew 23:23, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees – hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, but neglect the weightier matters of the law: these are the things you should have done first, without neglecting the other.”
– 1 Timothy 6:17, and following, “Instruct those who are rich in this present world… to do good, be rich in good deeds, generous and ready to share…”
There’s plenty more, but I’m confident you’ll argue these verses anyway, so I’ll stop there.
As far as your comment about conflict of interest… I get particularly annoyed by this line of thinking. Most people saying such things are making far more than their pastor, and giving far less financially into the ministry. I’m a pastor. I have gone several months on end with reduced pay or no pay, because my church was unable to pay me. Yet I continued to preach, counsel, lead, create content, pray over, officiate, and otherwise “pastor” my people. I took an additional full time job to make sure my family was safe financially while we continued to serve our church.
And no, I’m nothing special. Far more pastors identify with the job description I just gave than whatever picture you have in mind for how we do this. But just in case you need some scripture for that too: 1 Timothy 5:17-18, “The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor; especially those who work hard at teaching and preaching. For the Scriptures say, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.’ and ‘the laborer is worthy of his hire.”
Very, very few of us do this for the income. There are much more lucrative careers we could have chosen.