I agree. But building projects, missions, and special events don't fund themselves. I recall a church who secured an interest free loan from a bank and $1million of it came from one source. Not to mention charitable giving and legacies. The majority who include the church in their estates are those with greater means.
I have always felt the Jewish approach of membership was better but I've yet to see it applied.
I once knew a Pastor, we were friends, I was often at his house.
He had come to town with his family,
The religeous in the town were not to keen about him coming.
It turned out to be a hard battle.
At home with the family the wife showed me a scrap book she was compiling, it contained pieces from newspapers
There were people going around the town with petitions against him.
This I did not understand.
Among other things, a new bigger church building,
something that the congregation wanted,
at a church meeting they voted to go ahead,
it turned out that it was mostly those who only attended
such meetings, never any other.
I could go on and on the whole evening,
about all the corruption,
it was unbelievable.
All the religeous in the town and neighbouring towns set all they had against him,
he had btw a handful of elders supporting him and a few other folks.
He was not given permission to start building.
So his wife phoned someone in the government,
to her surprise they answered,
"Of course no problem, when do you want it?"
Here comes the miracle part.
The wife was so over the moon, so she sent flowers to the person who had granted permission.
She got a call back and someone said,
"Sorry, no one here by that name."
