The Root Of All Evil

It's a shame what the love of money makes people do.  In some ways, I'm glad that I've never had much money.  It seems like those that do can be categorized in a few different groups:

1.  The Greedy

2.  The tight-wads

3.  The practical hard-workers

For the love of money is the root of all evil  ...

While much has been shared about the pursuit of riches within the ntcc, it seems that they will never change.  In my 13+ years in the ntcc, none of the 14 preachers that I observed had much of anything.  This to me was never unusual; because there was a realization of the sacrifice required by all of the pastors in ntcc, at least the ones that I knew of in the churches that I was attending.  It was always shared that if you gave willingly God would bless you.  What always did strike me as odd, was the many times in which there was serious money rolling into churches and very little of it ever seemed to accumulate at least not in a place where the local pastors or members could access any of it.

The ntcc is run much like the United States Government is run.

The government has their hand in every aspect of your life. ... 

And so does ntcc!

The ntcc is run much like the United States Government is run. Uncle Sam takes a big chunk of money off of the top of your pay check called income tax. This is much like tithe in that it is a percentage of your income before any of it gets spent. Then you have State taxes that come out of your check before you see anything in your bank account. Then you have other deductions like Social Security, unemployment insurance and the list goes on. This is everything that is taken out of your check before you get to spend a penny. Then when you go to spend the money you have to pay sales tax on everything you buy. Food tax which is usually more than sales tax when you buy food in a restaurant. Hotels are taxed and they pass that high tax-rate onto you; (by law they have to). Just about every bill you pay to include the phone bill, energy bill, cable, high-speed internet, water, trash (and the list goes on) has taxes on the bill; taxes which are over and above the services that you are paying for. The government has their hand in every aspect of your life. If this is not enough you then have taxes that are incorporated into every business that you patronize. For example if the Government makes Walmart pay taxes on its profits, do you think that Walmart is going to eat those costs themselves? What they do is they incorporate the price of those taxes into the price that you pay at the register so that you pay their taxes for them. This happens in every business; the expenses of operating are passed along to you the customer. When the Government gets greedy they come out with a new tax that supposedly is on the rich or the wealthiest people such as Gasoline and oil companies. They tax the fuel right at the pump. Why not?  The oil companies are rich; they can afford it.  Right? This tax is again paid by you the customer. So what do they want to do? As they have done in the past they are suggesting that the oil companies pay "windfall" tax on their profits. Who do you think will pay for that? Us. Gas will be so expensive that we'll have to spend ten bucks just to put enough gas in our lawn mower to cut the grass. If your parents die and leave you their life savings which they have paid taxes on all their life, then you have to pay taxes on it before you spend it; if they repeal the Bush tax cuts, it will be 55% taxed. Then you got property tax, personal property tax, automotive taxes and the list goes on and on and on.

The ntcc has a very similar system to the United States Government. First of all you have tithe which is paid off of the top of your check before Uncle Sam Gets a hold of it. Wait a sec, didn't uncle sam already get a hold of it? Then it is very highly encouraged (from behind the pulpit) that we are not to be tightwads and pay to the penny; but we are to pay more than 10% so God can have room to bless us. Also, just in case we receive blessings throughout the week, throw a few extra bucks into the envelope so you'll be covered. So there we have it; tithe is taken care of.  What next?  Offerings.  This is where they really dig into your wallet. That little velvet bag with the two wooden handles gets to make its rounds at least 5 or 6 times a week. I've seen it passed around in Sunday school and morning and evening church services, bible studies and even on special occasions during fellowship after the service when everyone is eating cake and drinking Cool-aid. But there is nothing wrong with this; it is a free-will offering right? I've seen ntcc preachers sweat and slobber from behind the pulpit trying to get people to give more money. The part of the service that is supposed to be 10 seconds long right before the offering plate makes its rounds was often turned into a mini sermon and fire was issued forth from behind the pulpit before the basket was even prayed over in anticipation of receiving a large wad of cash. I've even seen that pesky little bag passed around more than one time in the same service. Okay, we'll cut you some slack because everybody takes up offerings, don't they?

Here are a few more examples of how the ntcc is like the federal government:

Budget offerings:  This is a tax that is incorporated into their system of money extraction for the       purpose of covering expenses that were not able to be covered by previous taxes; I mean offerings.

World Missions:  This is a tax that is used to export ministers overseas so that they can live in complete and total poverty and receive very little help from the government; ur I mean ntcc leadership, which they have given so much of their money to and entrusted with their welfare.

Building Fund:  This is a very special fund of money that is set aside for the expansion of the church or so the church can grow.  More real-estate. I thought that was what the escrow fund was for; but that shows you how much I know; I was just a church member (who often kept the books for ntcc ministers)  Guess they will make a rule, oops, "policy" against that now.  All you ministers better bone up on your math!  We can't afford to have the members knowing what really happens to all that money!

Revival Fund:  This also is a very necessary offering that is taken up so that when the overseer goes on vacation in his Recreational Vehicle, ur I mean when He and his wife come to preach a revival, ahem, they will be able to fill up their company purchased RV; and they can get to the next place and be able to afford to eat out every night at restaurants and such.  But wait, the people at the next location will pick up that tab just so they can "be a blessing to The Man Of Gawd".

There are also many things that are expected like taking the pastor out every weekend; which I used to do anyway; because I felt sorry for the guy never having money.  Which brings us to the question, "Why would they always be broke with all of the tithes and offerings and special offerings that were taken up?

The answer is that the ntcc taxes that were imposed on the pastors were even more than that which was imposed on the members.  I'm sorry; I keep saying taxes when what I really mean to say is tithe and offerings.  If you think that the average church member has a lot of tribute to pay wait till you see what the average pastor has to pay in addition to housing, a church building, utilities, food and clothing, and transportation including to and from conference.  Actually the pastor only has two or three things that he must pay for.  The two biggies are church tithe and pastor's tithe.  One of them is tithe on everything they make and the other is tithe on tithe and everything the church brings in.  In order for the pastor to survive he has to get a job;and in some cases now his wife has to sin and get a job also; and they have to put everything into the General fund to meet the requirements of ntcc.  While all tithe income and Sunday morning offerings goes onto the tithe ledger then 10% off the top goes to Graham; thus the term 'tithe on tithe' ("which for years has been a source of ble$$ing for the churches"--mcUk).  The rest goes to the pastor.  Wait a sec, I've got it wrong again.  40% of what's left in the tithe fund goes to an escrow fund; and then the pastor gets what's left unless there is not enough in the General fund, which there very seldom is, so the money ends up in the General fund; and the local pastor gets nothing.  The General fund is supposed to be used to pay all of the bills; and this is why there is so much push for people to give above and beyond what they are able. Then the local pastor has to pay all of the special offerings like world missions and such.  It's no wonder a lot of pastors want their members to pay tithe on their tax returns which is misrepresented as an "increase" when in fact that money was already tithed on by the recipient in most cases.  I remember rwd would preach, "I hope Gawd gives you members just like youurself!"  This explains why the escrows were introduced to "prevent misappropriation, mismanagement and/or theft of each church's finances and to provide them a reserve account for coverages of extraordinary expenses" like Grant's secular education.  Oops.  Did I say that?  I'm sorry jury, strike the words "Grant's secular education" from the record.  That was uncalled for; or was it?

The very few ntcc ministers that are able to succeed in this environment can be categorized into the three types of people that we listed at the beginning of this thread.  The greedy take up all the offerings and pass on the expenses to the church members without sacrificing their own personal lifestyles.  They expect everyone else to sacrifice; but they themselves are not willing to... Sounds like davis and kekel to us.  The tightwads operate on the same principle by extracting as much money as they can from their members and also sacrificing themselves to put every penny into the work to keep it afloat.  The last type of person is very, very rare in the ntcc; and that is the practical hard-working individual that is able to get a very good paying job, or able to get a large following of church members that can sustain the financial obligations of the church without asking for more than people are able to give.    

Does this sound crazy to anyone else besides me? Do you ever wonder why 99.9% of the people in the ntcc are poor?  They say: "God will bless you if you pay your tithe and offerings;" but where are "God's ble$$ings" flowing within the ntcc?  They are not flowing down hill; but rather they flow uphill to the Pacific Northwest's ntcc leadership specifically.  Graham, Washington is where you can find "the ble$$ings of God" within the ntcc.  Not in the Servicemen's homes where the brethren are borrowing from each other to put enough gas in their cars to get to work, or busting open their piggy banks to gather up enough pennies to give in an offering. Not in the bible school dorms where the students are eating ramen for dinner every night, but a few doors down where you find the beamers parked in the driveways waiting for their owners to jump in them and take them to the SeaTac mall for another spending spree where tanya kekel can buy an Alpaca wool scarf for $90 at Nordstroms (on sale!).  I wonder how many bs students witness this riotous living and just leave?  What keeps the majority of them there is fear rather than love.  Hell is placed over their heads as a consequence to bucking the system or questioning the high and mighty leadership of the ntcc. The ntcc is an organization full of scared preachers that are under enormous pressure from their superiors to "make ends meet" and have to extract money out of people that give more than they should have to because they are fearful of "failing God" if they are unsucce$$ful.

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