Waiting for our anniversary
I am glad that our wedding anniversary is coming up at the beginning of April (did you remember that Phil?) after commenter Jane sent me a link to this television report from New Zealand about an anniversary gift for the lead pastor of Destiny Church, paid for out of the church budget. Jane says:
In all the major news bulletins last night was a story featuring Brian Tamaki - one of our up coming cult…..er …..pentecostal leaders over here. He has numerous Maori & Pacific Islanders in his congregations - generally the lower end of the socio-economic scale - and is very heavy handed re tithing. His 22 pastors of his little church plants apparently gave him & his wife Hannah a gift for their anniversay last year - bought from the funds taken from the tithes in their churches - a cruise on the QE 2 with an estimated value of $ 40 000.
Think you can pursuade Phil to take you on one??
My response was something along the lines that I thought such an expenditure out of the budget of NCCC was unlikely (but the church has just replaced the falling down shed at the manse with a new one).
March 11th, 2006 at 10:29 am
Wait… you guys are married? But… but I thought Phil and Dan were both MEN.
I’m so confused.
March 11th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Suggested anniversary gifts for Phil & Dan.
An all-expenses paid trip of a lifetime on the City Circle Tram, Latrobe Street to….ummm…Latrobe Street.
A lifetime subscription to Signposts.
Unrestricted access to the footpaths and walkways outside all Commonwealth Games venues.
Front row seats at a Northern Community event of your choice.
And remember (HG)…….this….is living!
March 11th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Could this be turned to a conversation about Hillsong because I don’t think they have been discussed before.
March 11th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Um……brian Tamaki sat in the front row of a Hillsong NZ conference years ago - does that help Kieren??
March 12th, 2006 at 7:37 am
While i resonnate with some of the sentiments here I throw a word of caution to the wind.
I’m sure that TV3 are completely perfect. I’m sure that there’s nothing reproachable them, but enough of the the Tamaki bashing by them.
How can TV3 on one hand play the “he’s living off the back of the poor people” and then promote all the ridiculous things that people don’t need (including Instant Finance…)? $40,000 is chicken feed for their advertising revenue during a news broadcast. How much is a news presenter paid? And that for being the frontperson to delivering untruth to the masses. I actually don’t see a great difference between a broadcaster who is using ‘truth’ for their own ends and Brian Tamaki. There is one difference though, that even though i’m not convinced that Tamaki is doing it right, even though there are sharp disagreements in some of our essential flavours of christian expression, even though all this, i’m convinced that God’s Spirit is to be found somewhere in all of that in a way that it won’t be in a broadcaster.
Maybe the gift was generous, maybe it was out of whack in some senses, but, it’s completely consistent with Destiny church’s doctrines.
Would the media presenters baulk at that kind of ‘bonus’ if it came from a whip around at work? or would they feel humbled?
To the media: “Leave Tamaki alone”, too many planks in the media’s eyes to let this one slide.
To us fellow members in this body of christ, keep some of this conversation going. But what is it with this world and “Brians”? Was Monty Python prophetic?
March 12th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Sorry Stu, but $40,000 is an obscene amount of money to be coming out of Church funds to send the pastors on a luxury cruise, OBSCENE! Whatever the shortcomings of the media may or may not be, is completely irrelevant.
Having seen too many episodes of Media Watch, I have a healthy scepticism of the media, yet that does not entitle Houston, Tamaki or any one else to get off scott free.
March 12th, 2006 at 11:08 am
actually you and i agree, my issue though is with the hypocrisy of the media spending obscene amounts of money inappropriately but righteously pointing the finger.
not sure i agree with you nilmo regarding the luxury cruise. it depends how far you want to talk about church funds and i’m not even sure that the money did come out of church funds. the quote is that “the money came from the 22 senior pastors who derive an income from…” it sounds more like 22 people who value another person thought it would be nice to give that person a break by giving a couple of grand each. it doesn’t seem that the money came out of church coffers as such but from the generosity of some people’s salaries.
this is radically different scenario to what the media is painting. I confess that i do not sit easily with defending Tamaki, but i think we need to extend fairness to whatever is thrown at him. And i think the media have made this into something that it’s not. I could be wrong, but if anyone could clarify that for me it would be helpful.
March 12th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Our church is already increadibly generous. Just look at this list of anniversary gifts for Dan and Phil we are already planning:
Weekly complementary warm grape juice served with a side helping of matzos bread.
Two for one child blessings (twins do run in the family).
Platinum level mates rates on your next wedding or funeral service - whichever comes first.
Priority parking at the Ivanhoe tennis courts.
Monogramed stationary set (left over from the last time we did a mail out to Terry, Daniel and Lyn).
March 13th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
Hey Dan,
Didn’t you post a list a year or two ago giving the suggested gifts for each wedding anniversary- the one that suggested a desk set and groceries! If you put the link up again maybe we could find an appropriate gift for you.
March 13th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
I found the list. Aren’t search functions handy?
8th Anniversary: Bronze - Linens, Lace
Does this mean we should buy you both some lingerie?
March 14th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
How about one of those doylies we use to cover the communion table on Sunday mornings?