“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Money is like any chemical of intoxication drawing attention to itself with addictive attraction. It is like alchohol, illicit drugs, substances of abuse, money is exactly like these. Money draws a person from the heart, it is forever competing the Love of God for space in the heart. It has an attraction to what it can do, usually good intentions. It captures the heart and plasters itself with the thickest glue to convince a person to do everything “legit” to acquire and get it. This is where trouble begins, because in legitimizing a means of getting money different ways and means have been devised by pastors to get money. Usually well intended for the work of God but in the heart “the love of money” creeps in. When this happens the danger signs are not obvious. Little by little a Pastor in charge who, in many instances, is the sole authority over all funds, begins to direct usage of the same to his advantage. It begins with “ENTITLEMENTS”, and moves to “ALLOWANCES”, and graduates to “GRANTS” and sundry diversion of funds to meet the pastors needs.
Run away from these three, do not allow them to glue your heart. Turn your heart for all your needs and work hard to provide your wants. Invest more on your call, seek the gift of the Holy Spirit, promote as priority the cause of the Gospel above anything. Seek to live the Gospel you preach in practical ways without ulterior motives of anticipating returns. The process of getting plastered to money is not easily visible until at the point is postings or of sudden change in administration. This is when entitlement, allowances and grants shake a Pastor to his root of Salvation. Having LEGITIMIZED and DEPENDED on money in the name of God and abandoned the deepening of faith and trust in God things will fall apart. This is when a Pastor looks more at the congregational status as a promotion or demotion. This is when only a pastor’s gifting in Christ, faith God, pursuing a call, focus on mission and grounding in the Gospel will come to display. A Pastor who has depended on money and used the church to legitimize the sources of “making it” cannot last.
Money has addiction…
-Legitimization of diversion…
-Demanding grants…
-Focus on entitlements…
These three, when they capture the heart of a Pastor, they preoccupy all discussions, they devise ways of diversion of funds and can make a Pastor and the church he leads loose The main Focus of the Mission and Ministry Church. These are the three out many that have shifted the focus of many clergy and led some astray. These three have caused quarrels more than anything else in the church.
Let the Lord who called us be our entitlement, our provision and allowance, let Him be our main source of all grants. Over time with you’re fixed on God, you will prove your Call, fulfill your ministry, leave a legacy of Godly ministry and glorify God.