My friend John Smith from Corpus Christi, TX was interviewed for an article in the Corpus Christi Caller Times. The article was written about churches in the area who offered a 'Money Back Guarantee" for new tithers. (Tither- Someone who contributes 10% of their income toward the ministry of their local church on a regular basis.)
Check out the Article Here (over at Monday Morning Insight)
As John wisely points out in the article, this is nothing new. Pastors have been offering this challenge for decades. Pastors rely on God's word not returning void and on people understanding scripture enough to know that blessings come in 100 ways not related to cash. Apparently at Bay Area Fellowship, a former employee (hmmm?) decided she wasn't blessed enough and filed a lawsuit asking for 3 years (years?) worth of tithes back from the church. The church offered her 2004's tithes totaling just under 3k but the lady instead is taking the church to court. Amazing.
Anyway, my friend did a good job of being kind to everyone and he displayed wisdom in the midst of a chaotic situation.
Another Thought:
Many Pastors have no clue how to handle the media. Pastors have a tendency to view the media as the enemy. I'm convinced that we must get over this. The media are people and would you blame them for being a little skeptical for what we in the ministry do? To the unsaved reporter who is trained never to trust the first answer we are weird. When we try to 'Ignore them so they'll go away", we get hammered in the long run.
Get to know your local reporters. Try to learn what they need from you. Be honest with them and don't put them off. When your church does something awesome, alert the media with a press release. You never know if your story may look good on a slow news day. One of the worst things you could do is ignore them. And NEVER EVER go off record. There is no such thing as 'off record'.
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