The Church bubble has Burst!

In 2001, after the Enron scandal, economists warned us that the tech bubble would burst, and indeed it did. In recent years, we've heard the same things about the housing bubble, and indeed it is happening.

There is another bubble that is about to burst. A bubble that has been inflated by the egos of church leaders. A church that has lived the lives of stars inhabiting luxurious empires and religious buildings, flaunting exaggerated and inflated congregations who in the past were giving huge coffers of money. Now, that the economy has taken a downward spiral, churches across the country have found themselves in the same state as the entertainment industry and Wal-Mart; having to come up with new marketing gimmicks to keep you coming; or, as the apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 2:3, "In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money." (NLT)

Churches and pastors across the country have found themselves unable to continue the lifestyle that they have become familiar and comfortable with, personally and as a church. So, in an attempt to ease their own conditions, they are burdening their church members.
(See, Giving Under Grace not Under Pressure) They have forgotten what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8:13, when "For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened." Paul was excited and pleased that the Corinthian church was WILLING to give and not PRESSURED to give, in order to help the Church in Jerusalem, but he did not want them to put themselves in a financial bind.

It never ceases to amaze me what some Church leaders will do and say to ease their own conditions, while burdening God's people. The people now have no more money to give. Just as the stock market is correcting itself, so is God correcting the wrong in the Church. The church bubble has burst! No longer will church leaders motivated by greed and selfishness, receive the kind of dollar amounts that they have become accustomed to.