Daily Lesson from Life 30 March 2009

"Mon, Mar 30, 2009 The Straits Times - $500,000 pay for New Creation Church employee

THE New Creation Church, which made headlines for raising $19 million on one Sunday last month for its upcoming multi-million dollar building, pays good money to its staff too.


The independent church paid one employee between $500,001 and $550,000 in its last financial year, checks by The Straits Times showed.

The church did not confirm if the amount went to its leader, Senior Pastor Joseph Prince, but told The Straits Times that its policy is to 'recognise and reward key contributors to the church and Senior Pastor Prince is the main pillar of our church's growth and revenue'."

This is another interesting headline for sure. Does a Man of God needs so much money to live a Godly life? We will never know as we have learned of bigger churches than this New Creation Church in the USA and elsewhere where the founders or leaders led very lavish lives without any apology. As the money comes from the contributors and not from the government, I guessed it is none of our business to question how the church reward its staffs.

Lessons for me are；

1. religion is a very powerful emotional experience. Nothing commercial about it though modern marketing and communication techniques have been deployed to arouse passion and influence rational minds. I am not saying that is how the New Creation Church works. I am just saying some bodies before them had successfully deployed such means;

2. when you are a party to the feast, you have to be accountable for whatever consequence that may come about. Some church members said in their responses in the forum that they will lead faith lead them. It is fine as long as they are comfortable;

3. for those who may feel pressured should they decide to ask questions, legitimate ones too, you just have to decide if you need to be firm. Asking good questions is part of the check-and-balance mechanism. Of course it can be sensitive if you raise it against the leadership of any organization. However, if the leadership promote open and two-way communication and they have nothing to hide or feared, there is really no reason to upset or defensive. The leaders have to empathize with the followers that there were cases in other religions and other charitable organizations where the 'trusted' leaders lost their way after attaining sustained good results. e.g. ex-NKF, ex-Ren Ci Buddhist association, etc.

I wish the Church great success and that the revenue growth continued so that more money can be had and be put to good use to help the poor and the disadvantaged and whoever the church deemed fit to give to!