THE MODERN DAY MONEYCHANGERS WHEELIN' AND DEALIN' IN CHURCHES

An interesting story in Monday's Tampa Tribune: During Sunday's service at Without Walls International Church, Rev. Randy White announced to his congregants that an investor had offered $100 million to purchase the church. White, who with his wife Paula serve as co-pastors of the nation's second largest Protestant congregation with facilities in Tampa and Lakeland, said that he did not agree to the deal, citing his being uncomfortable with several facets of the proposal.

In addition to requiring the church staff to sign contracts which could be terminated at any time, the deal would require the church to be run more like a business. That, said Rev. White, would have made it more difficult for Without Walls to accomplish many of it's goals, especially working with the poor.

The investor asked that his identity be kept confidential, and quite frankly, I can understand why. It just seems wrong when it looks like someone is wanting to use a church for an investment, which it certainly looks like here.

I've never really gotten what the big deal is with these so-called "megachurches", where it seems that the assistant ministers have assistants of their own and they try to make each service an "event" comprable to a mega-concert or sports game. It just seems that there's more attention on the "bang" than where it really should be: on the message.