This article sent to me from my friend (and Hillsong insider), written by Phil Cooke:
FRAUDULENT CHRISTIAN FUNDRAISING
“SANTA MONICA, CA (ANS) – For churches and ministries across the country, fundraising has become a vital tool that’s used to raise the necessary money to make ministry happen. It’s a noble effort, because people need to understand […]

This from the ‘Toronto Star’
“Loaded down with second-hand clothes pulled from the ceiling-high piles in her hair salon, she’ll give out the goods to homeless people on downtown Toronto’s grittiest streets.
Missions like this aren’t cheap for people like her and other volunteers at the church. “We’re poor folks,” says Houghron, describing the majority of the […]

Signpost readers in Melbourne, and also AFL and Cricket lovers may be familar with the ambush marketing tactics of Holden which has used its blimp to ‘over shadow’ the marketing efforts of competitors such as Toyota at key sporting events - usually at the MCG…  
Well the “Parachute Conference” is now over in New Zealand with over 27,000 […]

Further to my earlier post on Amway and the Contemporary Church.
Riverview Church’s new acquisition “Destiny People” (now Riverview OC) has a founding a lead Pastor known as Wes Beavis.
 
I would like to know what theological qualification Mr. Beavis has – (we recently expressed some surprise at the theological contradictions made on his web site).
Anyway, theological precision […]

Thanks to Sir Harry Boy I have come across a very interesting article by a Catholic that recognises the error of selling Indulgences by the Catholic Church and clearly aligns it with the “selling of blessings” by Evangelicals through tithes .
“Surprisingly, some of the loudest Evangelical critics of the 500 year old indulgences scandal are approaching their […]

While some Contemporary Churches are ‘big’ on Luther this week, here is my contribution extracted from Luther’s 95 Theses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/95_thesis
 41.  Church tithing must be preached with caution, lest people erroneously think that they are preferable to other good works of love.
42.  Christians are to be taught that the Senior Pastor does not intend that the […]

How to follow all of the tithing principles in God’s Word.
From the tithing ordinance/statue of Numbers 18, plus related principles.
www.shouldthechurchteachtithing.com
russkellyphd@earthlink.net
November 1, 2006
This article has been carefully written to assist those who want to follow the tithing principles found in God’s Word. Although I am not aware of any Christian Church that observes ANY of them, […]

We have been discussing the merits (or lack thereof) of competing ideologies that Mark Driscoll has labelled “Half Truths”.
I came across this comparison that I thought makes some sense by comparing the two theologies with a ’stewardship’ theology.

Theological Perspectives on Money

By Patrick M. Morley
Many Christians suffer for lack of a theology of money. They don’t […]

I am not a fawning Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill founder) fan, however I did appreciate this comment from his blog and also picked up in ‘The Seattle Times’, highlighting the differences and similarities between Prosperity Theology and Poverty Theology:
“When it comes to the issue of rich and poor there is a great theological debate. On […]

Article published in “Challenge Weekly” Newspaper in New Zealand by Cultwatch Director and novelist Mark Vrankovich
Date: Week starting the 4th of September 2006
World wide the tithing debate is heating up, fueled by the increasing abuses of this suspect doctrine by money-centric pastors. I will detail those abuses later in this article. Indeed, we at Cultwatch […]