Kenneth Copeland - Copeland
Ministries
Flies around in a $17.5 Jet, lives in a $6 million lakefront
mansion with a 1,500 acre campus and a private airstrip. He and his wife make
over $655,000 a year in salary alone. It’s not clear whether this includes
speaking fees, book royalties, and “love offerings.”
Creflo Dollar - World Changers
Church
Drives a Rolls-Royce and lives in a Million dollar home in Atlanta , and a 2.5 million-dollar apartment in Manhattan
John Hagee - Cornerstone Church
His last released salary was nearly $1 million per year (2004). Hagee
does not release his earnings anymore.
Charles Blake - West Angeles
Church
Owns a 10,000 square foot mansion in Beverly Hills
His year salary is $900,000 per year.
Benny Hinn - Miracle
Worker
In 1997 he admitted to making between $500k & $1 million
dollars per year
Joel Osteen - Lakewood Church
Stopped taking his $200,000 salary several years ago. Makes
tens of millions off of his numerous books. Joel & family live in a $10.5
million – get this – 17,000 square foot mansion. Treasures in heaven people.
Bishop Eddie Long - New
Birth Missionary Baptist
Church
Long made over $3 million in a three year period from 1997
to 2000. He drives a Bentley, and lives in a 1.4 million dollar home on 20
acres. An investigation into his non profit showed he made more than $1 million
dollars from them on top of his church income. No doubt some of that went
toward his legal fees in 2011.
Ed Young - Fellowship Church
Lives in a 10k square foot 1.5 million dollar home. He gets
paid a cool $1 million dollars a year, plus a $240,000 parsonage allowance. That
doesn’t count the royalties he makes off of his recent Sexperiment.
Franklin Graham – Billy
Graham Evangelistic Association
In 2008 he reportedly made 1.2 million dollars. Your father
should slap your face Franklin
Rick Warren – Saddleback Church
Has made tens of millions off his book sales (it could be in
the hundreds). However… Warren
10 comments:
I was thinking about becoming a preacher....now I KNOW God is "calling" me!
I just left the church music business because after 15 years of praise band and choir directing, I still can't afford a pair of jeans that cost $150 and are ripped at the knees. I am not cool enough.
When I became a Christian (1996), the big thing was WWJD. Those letters appeared on bracelets, hats, tee-shirts, coffee mugs, a whole bunch of things. A CD came out with music about Jesus, and there was a copy of the NIV Bible on there for installation on a PC.
The earnings of these servants of our Lord call all that into question, and Jesus' proclamation about the wealthy and where their hearts truly are. May g-d have mercy on their souls...
The full article this came from showed several pastors in the same category. But, it also pointed the vast majority of pastors make only about $40K/yr.
Regardless of what you think of Rick Warren, they should all follow his example.
Hear, Hear, Bill. Warren seems to be working on a completely different assumption about what God is doing in the world & what the gospel requires of each of us. Warren is extremely faithful with his finances & is an example of what to do when you get rich almost accidentally.
There are some folks doing it right, but this post calls a lot of the big pastors into question. I wonder how many others are doing it right; there is a point where the money is enough. More should be diverted sooner if God has chosen to bless someone in ministry in a big way, instead of choosing to enjoy more than what is needed to support their families. There's also several visible leaders not sharing their income levels. Transparency is king.
Rick Warren is doing it right and my guess is that all of the success of Purpose Driven Life scared the crap out of him and he got some wise counsel and unloaded as much of his wealth as fast as he could! Smart man.
That's a good way to put it, Bobby. When I've heard Warren talk about the success of the book in the past I really think it was scary for him. It was a challenge to try and keep his integrity through that. I think he came through it alright.
You are also right to point out that there are probably a lot more pastors doing it right than wrong. However, MegaChurch pastors do make a ton of money as a rule.
Should we pay a pastor more if the church is bigger?
You are spot on Tim. Mega church pastors should not make mega salaries. Great post. Love the blog and always been a big fan of Satellite Soul. Grammatology is in heavy rotation on the iPhone. Keep up the great work!
Tims!
Hey bud, I've been thinking about this post on and off for a while. I might be missing your point, but it sounds like you're saying that Papa is unhappy when preachers make loads of money (though I don't remember him ever saying so).
If a vow of poverty was central to Jesus' example for us, shouldn't we all live in the 'hood on 10% of what we make? It's not impossible. As a teenager I supported my family of seven in the costly, dirty city of Chicago on just 30K a year. I sure hope I never have to do that again. Poverty is no curse, but it sure ain't easy.
It's so convenient to point fingers at the rich, but whenever I do, I remember that 90% of the world could point that same finger at me, demanding that I as a Jesus-follower give away my "grossly inflated" income.
In the end, what can I say? Every man is accountable to God for how he handles the finances entrusted to him. I hope one day my giving reaches 20%. If it doesn't, will you condemn me? (I trust you will not :-)
piece of toast,
~ jables
Hey J... good point. Let me clarify what I'm saying/not saying. I don't think God is displeased w/wealth, or that we should all take a vow of poverty. I'm not trying to point fingers at the rich.
I do believe God is displeased with the opulent lifestyles of these ministers. I am trying to expose those who have gotten rich off of tithes and offerings of the church - you don't get to do that.
Jesus was very hard on the Sanhedrin who got rich via temple taxes, selling sheep/doves for sacrifices, changing money, etc. Jesus opposes those who got rich via religious power & exposes this as wrong. We can't forget that it was those who profited from religion monetarily and politically who ended up turning Jesus over to Pilate to be executed.
I think you are right to point out that most of us are rich compared to the rest of the world. Ronald Sider says this is one of the most insidious realities of American culture: we compare ourselves not to the 2/3's of the world who live on less that $2 a day, but to our affluent neighbors.
Maybe, financially speaking in particular, our sins are all a matter of degrees. But as a pastor, I feel an obligation to speak up about the million dollar salaries, luxury mansions, vacation homes, hundred thousand dollar cars, etc., which are the norm for TV preachers & religious rock stars.
Yes? No? I'm Crazy? :-)
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