Churches of gold, silver,bronze Christians

It is a religious tradition to check one’s church attendance and offertory consistency in case a member desires to officiate a wedding, is sick or dies. Many churches are moved to help a ‘dedicated’ member — one with an immaculate financial record — often paraded as a true definition of faith and devotion. Many religious bodies determine holiness by how many times a name appears under monthly receipts from tithes or monthly pledges. Oh, how pastors cherish such souls and their names do not depart from their lips as points of reference during sermons. Source of income does not matter at this point.

Take another member who rarely misses church services and walks to and fro unprecedented distances to get there. These are rarely recognised and even with an immaculate church attendance register, their blank monthly payment proof is enough reason for pastors or church elders to give excuses not to visit them when sick, grudgingly allow them to officiate weddings and may even be fined in death for ‘skipping the biblical requirement of giving 10 percent of one’s income monthly’. And it’s not that these Christians are stingy or ignorant of the biblical laws. Many just don’t have any income to give, but love to fellowship in the house of the Lord.

The church’s core business should be about winning lost souls and cherishing every member who shows up. Tithes are required “so that there may be food in my house,” (Malachi 3:10). But should the same church shun those who have nothing to give? Does giving rank some Christians higher than others?

I have heard about types of givers in some churches ranked in accordance with how fat their wallets are. Some churches literally segregate members according to gold, silver and bronze labels, with specific seats allocated accordingly. And if you are regarded as a loser, you automatically know where to sit. Which verse in the Bible allows church leaders to follow such a hierarchy? Tithes and offerings are becoming a way for some to simply buy their membership and influence even if they decide not to physically attend Sunday or midweek services. Church overseers will not even question them and simply feast on their offerings.

Such churches barely reprimand these opulent givers as they should as their spiritual guides. Many are left scot-free amid murmurs, but they are untouchable even when they break church rules such as the dress code, marrying many spouses over time or coming to church with hangovers. But for the less privileged, corrections are the order of the day. Elders perpetually call them aside to warn them about late-coming or not looking ‘presentable’. If they miss a day at church, elders bombard their homes to ask if they still want to remain members. Some pastors even reprimand the way they walk just because they are easy prey.

Look, rules are rules and enforcement should not be influenced by one’s wallet. I know about one woman who was denied from joining a women’s group of one church because elders discovered she was actually an MG2. Another MG2 was allowed through membership within the same period, which angered the former for the segregation. But it is what it is. Our churches are compromised.

“If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” James 2:3-4.

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