Church’s Money Giveaway Fills Pews
Posted on November 5th, 2009 by The Reformer into the Christian Pop Culture categoryI guess desperate times call for desperate measures.
At Lighthouse Church of All Nations in Alsip, the congregation can get more than just prayer at the Sunday worship services.
If a lucky — or "blessed and highly favored" — churchgoer is in the right seat, they can also receive a cash prize.
At each of the three Sunday services, the Rev. Dan Willis pulls a number of one seat from a bag and the worshiper in that seat wins a cash prize. Two of the churchgoers win $250 and the third gets $500. The church gives away $1,000 each Sunday, Willis said.
The cash prize is part of Willis' recent focus on helping his congregation pay bills and begin a debt-free life, he said.
"We've had soooo many of our people displaced from jobs, facing foreclosure," he said. "When people's faith was high, their debt was down. When their faith was down, their debt was high. I realized the two are connected."
Willis concedes the cash prize is a gimmick to fill the pews. But he's unapologetic about the plan, because it's working. On a typical Sunday, his church draws about 1,600 people to its three Sunday services. But since the money giveaway started, about five weeks ago, the congregation has grown to about 2,500 each week, he said. The money for the giveaway comes from the church offering. Lighthouse is a non-denominational church.
"If I can get someone in here and teach them and give them money, that's what I'm going to do," he said.
As part of the lessons, Willis set up a shredder near the pulpit to encourage church members to shred their credit cards and commit to stop spending. He talks about budgeting, tackling past-due bills and saving. He encourages the prize winners to use the money to pay down their bills, rather than splurge on new items. One Sunday, he gave away 15 savings accounts with $25 already in them. And he had bank representatives at the service so church members could set up accounts.
Full article can be found HERE.
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November 8th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Well, this is what you get when the “pastor” ceases to be a shepherd and becomes a business administrator. I did not realize it was such a problem until I read the following in our church bulletin insert this month (a flyer called “The Church Around The World):
Sigh.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
sad but many pastors seem to want to do Gods will but dont seem to want to be involved with people. It’s like they want to teach from a distance and build up their own ‘career’, fame or personal ministry empire. In order to build their own ministry empire, it’s all about customer loyalty.
I’ve come to the conclusion that ministry always attracts two types of people 1, the people who genuinely care, want to give up their lives as living sacrifice to build up the church and love and feed His sheep and love the truth of the gospel. I’ve met people like this and they are truly amazing. I’m so glad to know pastors like this.
and 2, insecure, emotionally immature authoritarian types who want to build themselves and make high positions and a name for themselves in order to fulfill holes in their own pathetic lives. Many of these people have co-dependency issues. They want to be the authority types and experts who have all the answers. They use people to feel important and significant. Then they only associate with the rich or influential people.
Lastly, many of these megachurch pastors would probably not make it in the real world, so the megachurch is a cope out because the real world wouldnt give them as much attention or stroke their egos.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:14 am
That is sad Anna. I'd say over the last 20 years that shift has taken place, to the point now where there really are very few churches with pastors who just want to pastor.
This is SOOOOOO true!
November 10th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Anna and Nina,
I remember Former (not Reformer) telling us in another post we should be pointing out that our misgivings are just with MFI leaders and not MegaChurch leaders. It obviously goes beyond our personal experiences with MFI ‘pastors’.
November 10th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Good find Reformer.
I must say, at least Rev Dan is teaching people about paying down their debt (although is sunday service the time to do that?). If Jesus walked in he may be tempted to turn a few tables over simply bcz of his conviction that His Father’s house is to be a house of prayer!
Another thought that comes to mind is the motive behind Dan’s teaching - only the Lord knows - but could it be if folks pay down their debt they’ll have more money freed up to give to
theLordI meanthe Churchto Rev. Dan?!November 10th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Good insight, nina.
DeTox, who is Rev. Dan?
November 12th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
The Rev Dan Willis referred to in the article
November 12th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
This was exactly my thought. Having bank representatives at the Sunday service to help church members set up accounts from the money you just gave them? Really??
November 12th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
DeTox: Oh. Duh.
November 16th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
My thoughts exactly, de-tox. Proving once again the Bible’s timeless ability to speak across the centuries.
This reminds me of a conversation I had back during PBC days with a friend of mine, who currently pastors an MFI church in Western Oregon. He had been going on and on about big churches, and idolyzing their pastors as great men of God, and how these large numbers alone was an automatic sign of God’s blessing.
Which I was saying having a big church no more meant the guy was a man of God, than King Ahab was more a man of God than Elijah was because he had many thousands more followers behind him than Elijah did. Which my friend never admitted to.
But he does have a large church today.
Sounds like this place in Chicago is in severely in need of cleansing from the top down. I seem to remember a certain frequent C-BUS-C poster who doesn’t live too far from there…
You busy next Sunday, ‘Scrupe?
-joe