Christian Financial Accountability
Posted on January 17th, 2008 by catalyst into the Christian Pop Culture categoryHere is a link to Joyce Meyer's 2006 Annual Report.
It is listed under the Financial Accountability section of her website.
If you read the report though, you will notice it is really just a press release. There is no financial accountability.
However, Joyce is banking on the fact that most Christians are too enamored with people in power to bother questioning her. They won't ask why she fails to list any real financial information.
And guess what, she's right. Most Christians don't demand real accountability from their leaders. Because demanding accountability is hard. Questioning leadership will get you ousted from church. It will cause people to question your faith. It will get you labeled a troublemaker.
(Sigh) And yet, I'm supposed to be ashamed for starting this blog. Please!
Update:
Well, I guess I jumped the gun, and I missed the actual financial statements.
So, there is some financial accountability. But I'm still not that impressed. The statements aren't exactly easy to find, as they're hidden behind a wall of PR. And it's still not clear who is getting paid what.
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January 17th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Catalyst, I think you may have jumped to conclusions. That page includes links to their financial statements.
http://www.joycemeyer.org/JMMWeb/2006AnnualReport/Financials/FinancialStatements.html
That being said, they have outside accountants who verify that 82% of their expenses go towards “ministry”. I include quotes, because most of that ministry expense is for TV, radio, conferences, and book publishing. That doesn’t sound so bad until you realize that most of the income is derived from TV, radio, conferences, and book sales.
Only $29M of $115M goes towards “missions and outreach”, and the rest goes towards making JMM a media mogul. I’m sure that $29M does a lot of good in her programs for the orphanges, disaster relief, etc. and I don’t want to take away from that. But I feel the percentage quoted is misleading, because the bottom line is that all these conferences cost a lot of money and are primarily used (or at least it seems to me) for generating revenue, and their ministry value seems questionable. The web site uses lots of pictures to make it appear that JMM is primarily in the business of helping the world’s poor, when only 25% of the income is devoted to that. I find that somewhat dishonest.
It does verify that she gets a salary of $250k a year, plus housing allowance (how much?), and a retirement program(how much?), and that the income generated from her ministry exceeds the compensation.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:45 am
I hate to be the guy who posts a lot because it seems like I’m looking for attention… but I couldn’t help but remark on a few things after jumping back to http://www.joycemeyer.org/
First off, the header for one section is “Enjoying Everyday Life”. Sounds a lot like a self-help magazine than a ministry. The first topic under that is a TV broadcast entitled “Think about what you are thinking about - Part 2″. (I kid you not!) This woman is such a deep thinker she had to talk about thinking about thinking twice! As a follow up, I clicked a couple of magazine links for “Battlefield of the Mind” and “Mind games”. Her conclusions? We need to have a positive attitude and quote the Bible. Because we’re too stupid to outsmart the Devil. Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh here, but I was expecting a bit more from someone who has an entire book on the topic along with a 128 page study guide. I can get the power of positive thinking from “The Secret”. The only difference here is that she suggests people channel that into Bible verses. Your mileage may vary. I guess I’m being overly critical, but it surprises me how much attention this gets, not to mention the donations!
January 17th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Does Dr. Phil get tax exempt status? Does Oprah?
This is nothing but a self-help business, they do not deserver tax-exempt status…especially when they have over $81 Million in net assets (not including their personal assets) at the end of 2006…
Does $81 MILLION qualify as “storing up treasures on earth”. If not, then I wonder how many millions it would take.
As a CPA looking at these financial statments, this has to be one of the most profitable businesses out there…the margins are great. They have $81 Million in assets ($44 Million in cash and investments) and very little in liabilities. They pull in over $100 Million a year in cash (from people much poorer than themselves) and live like kings. Something tells me this isn’t what Jesus had in mind.
Its enough make greedy businessmen jealous.
I don’t know how anyone can think this is OK. If they have 81 MILLION in assets why do they continue to beg for money from people who are in debt?
January 17th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Just a thought, is anyone giving 25% of their “monies” to benefit others? The normal response on this blog is one of disagreement that they have to give 10% of their “hard-earned” dollars to God. All I know is I’m not giving 25%, I can barely squeak by at a little over 10% so I am definitely not going to criticize someone who is giving way above me!
January 17th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
How do you think she gets her money to give away? Working at Starbucks? Roofing? Babysitting?
January 17th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Using that standard, I guess we can’t criticize those generous Mormons, or Ted Turner, or Bill Gates. I think you get what I’m saying.
I am not criticizing her giving, I actually believe the message she preaches is not scriptural, and the prosperity gospel preachers use the twisted message to gain mountains of wealth. Of course they give a bunch away, that’s how they justify the formula.
So if I give away 25% of my income I should be above question? Sounds like a good deal…now tithe to me and I’ll give away 50%.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
About 4 years ago I was at one of CBC’s conferences. At these conferences they literally have an offering sermon — a 20-minute or so sermonet on why you should give them money.
Anyway, Wendell was the sermonizer, and I distinctly remember him saying that they were praying for Bill Gates’ to get saved and attend TCC so they could get his tithe — which he promptly promised to share with SPFD. That got quite a laugh, although I hope there were more than a few who were truly appalled.
(I do hope Bill and Melinda are saved and continue to give generously to worthwhile causes!)