For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith... (1 Timothy 6:10-11)

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.  (2 Timothy 4:3)

You may have never thought of it before, but pastors in most churches are a lot like politicians. Politicians act as our leaders and are supposed to be looking out for your best interests and conveying the truth to you (about government affairs and what they intend to accomplish for us). But as we all know, it often does not end up that way. Why? In a word, money. Money corrupts.  

Many times politicians become more interested in their high salary (which our tax dollars pay for), along with all of the other financial and emotional perks that come with that position. And to keep their jobs, politicians usually end up telling you what you want to hear instead of the truth, just so that they can get reelected.  

Now consider pastors. They are our leaders in the church, they are supposed to be looking out for your best (spiritual) interests and are supposed to truthfully convey to you what God has to say in His Word. But is that what happens in real life?

No, because they soon discover that they can not say things that might make anyone in their congregation the least bit uncomfortable--because if they do, people  start complaining (and usually people who have a lot of influence) and the offering plate suddenly becomes very meager.  And the problem is, there are a lot of things in the Bible that can make one uncomfortable--it pricks our conscience.  And if they should preach something that the congregation really doesn't want to hear, they will soon themselves looking for somewhere else to preach--not a pleasant situation! So what do you do? Well, everybody's got to eat, right? It is really sad that most pastors are automatically placed in such a position because Paul warned that preaching to "itching ears" was a serious error.

Undoubtedly, when most pastors get their first job preaching, they are well-meaning at first; however they soon discover the sad realities of the system they have become a part of--and nearly all eventually succumb to preaching fuzzy platitudes that make the congregation rest easy in their pews. So ask yourself, are you really getting the whole gospel from your preacher, or just the parts he (or she) thinks you want to hear? This is a serious matter, because your soul's salvation depends on knowing what God has to say!

Today's huge megachurches and radio & television ministries have large numbers of church members, listeners and viewers--that means that huge sums of cash flow into these organizations. This money ends up being too much of a temptation for many; keeping the money coming in and managing building projects and building a church organization empire become more important to them than the people they are supposed to be serving. Probably the most visible example of this are the many televangelists who have been caught in various scandals, but it happens in many, many other churches as well-more than you might imagine. Okay, so you can probably see the problems that can result when preachers are put into the same position politicians are put into. But what is the solution? Ah! The solution has been known (and practiced by some) for centuries and it is very simple! What is it? Keeping the money away from the pastor, in fact, don't give him a cent for his preaching! How can that possibly work? Go to our "Library" page and check out "The History of Church Leadership" to see why and how this age-old Christian tradition is practiced; also check out the article "A Bible-Believing Church?" for information on Apostolic Christian preaching methods.