Floyd and GCR: They Are Astounded at the Selfishness of God's People

Well, the Southern Baptist Convention, Great Commission Resurrgence Task Force has released their preliminary report. The chairman, Ronnie Floyd, at left, delivered the prelim report via video and written form.

You're going to be shocked, but guess what needs to happen for us to have a Great Commission Resurrgence? Are you ready?

(1) Pastors need to preach storehouse tithing.

(2) Church members need to repent of their sin in their giving, and start forking over 1/10 of ALL income to their local churches.

Yes, Floyd says he is astounded at the selfishness of God's people because they don't fork at least over 10% of their income, undesignated, to their local churches.

Stop, and go read pages 26 and 27 of their report here. Or, go watch Ronnie Floyd in the video below (fast forward to the 54 minute mark) so you can get the full context of what he says about storehouse tithing.

I mean really. Did Obama and the Pelosi help write this? Its the same message: we can do great things, but boy, we have to have more of YOUR money. We already are raking in billions, but it ain't enough. We need MORE. And when we get more, we won't just buy bigger buildings, and inflate our salaries, and take trips down the Danube, and hire marketing firms...no, we'll do real ministry...we promise!

And you wonder why Les Puryear tried to get Kostenburger and Croteau fired for holding to a doctrine that says storehouse tithing is not applicable to NT believers? These men believe that you handing over a minimum of 0.1 of your income is necessary for them to fulfill the Great Commission. If that's true, then by all means fire Kostenberger and Croteau and bring all lay people before the discipline committee who are doing such a dastardly deed of keeping the gospel from going forth by their stinginess.

And not only does Floyd and the GCR want you to fork over the money in your wallet, they have their eyes on your "financial portfolios". Look at this slide from Floyd's game show video:

That should send chills up your spine. They have their eyes on your wallet AND on your portfolio.

Let's re-write Matthew 28:19-20 into the new modern, SBC GCR translation:

"After you get my followers to fork over 10% of all their income, and after you tap into their portfolios, Go ye therefore into all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observer all I have commanded you....and also disciple them so after they become my followers they too will obey the Old Testament law and fork over THEIR 10% so you can keep reaching and discipling."

Ronnie Floyd offends all hard working SBC lay people by calling lay people "selfish" because the average church members only give 2.65% of their income. Floyd calls us to "repent of the sin of not honoring God with at least the first tenth of our income." Funny, I didn't hear Floyd calling his church selfish for their paltry 0.3% they give to the CP.

And then this gem:

"Can you imagine the spiritual revial that would consume our churches if God's people would obey God in giving? Can you imagine the opportunities of advancing the Gospel...if God's people would obey God in giving?"

Its sad, really. No mention of treating our spouses better. Or being better examples for our kids or just loving Jesus more - that's not the key to spiritual revival. No, spiritual revival is dependent upon us giving them more money. How convenient. Amazing how these mega church pastors think. Lay people, wake up. Your SBC pastor likely views you, the 80%+ of you that ARE sacrificially giving and serving but not meeting their 10% criteria....they view YOU as being the greatest obstacle in achieving God's work. If you only would stop being so selfish, they would be able to fulfill the Great Commission.

Ronnie, we lay people are wising up. You will be lucky to maintain the 2.65% average. Its been that for decades and decades. People now know many of the new generation of pastors...if we were to give them boatloads of more money, their tendency would be to build more glorious buildings, hire more ministers, expand salaries, hire church marketing experts and create a mega church empire. Someday, we'll probably see an SBC mega church pastor use our tithes to lease a luxury jet airplane. And by the way Ronnie...we have watched you as our example. Your mega church takes in millions each year, yet only a measly 1% goes to the CP.

And the last statement by Floyd worth commenting on:

"Stand on the authority of the Word of God and call the people of God back to Him through the giving of the first-tenth and additional offerings to your local church. Remember the only people who ever get offended with the declaration of biblical stewardship are the ones who give little to nothing at all to your church."

That's wrong. The vast majority of generous givers are not meeting the 10% threshold, and they are increasingly becoming aware of the false doctrine and are tired of their pastors misusing scripture to guilt them into giving more to the church. And the generous givers are also sick of the secretive nature in which churches spend the money, and they are realizing that they can take some of their "2.65 percent" and give it to other charities who are doing God's work.

Floyd and the GCR's push to get people to tithe as a means of fulfilling the Great Commission won't work. Its not biblical, and people know it, and there are even conservative bible scholars like Croteau and Kostenberger and MacArthur that know it.

And besides, it won't sell too well up in the Northeast: Accept Jesus as your Savior, join our church and our convention...and oh by the way: I forgot to tell you: another part of the gospel is you're required to fork over 10% of your income to our church - every week - on the gross, please. Its in the Bible. :)

Good luck with that, Ronnie.

GCR Progress Report from GCR on Vimeo.