Offering box at the altar of Grace Revival Church, Kisii.

Do pastors just take?

by Eric Bosire • 19 October 2023

In the Kenyan church, pastors receive tithes and offerings. As much as we have seen most of them develop their churches from what has been given, it has been witnessed that some have neglected that duty and instead benefit themselves materially and socially.

Pastor David Smittcamp is originally from Minnesota, USA. He is a missionary currently residing in Kisii, Kenya since January 11th 2022. He came to Kenya to help orphans in the community after seeing their plight on online platforms. He runs a number of orphanages through donations from friends abroad and in Kenya.

According to Pastor Smittcamp, the church is supposed to take what they get from tithes and offerings and help the people in need in the community, but they don’t do that because Kenya in general has been brought up to take and not to give.

“The church doesn’t give to the people, they put it in their pockets and build bigger churches and that’s not the way God intended the church to run. A lot of churches here teach that in order to give to the church, you should buy the pastor a car, fuel it, then fix it whenever it has mechanical problems, and you should buy his or her family a nice wardrobe and send his children to a nice prestigious school or college because he is up there at the pulpit preaching the word of God,” said Pastor Smittcamp. He went ahead and said that a pastor is asking all these from a congregation who most of them are probably not wealthy and cannot afford to send their own kids to good schools and colleges.

“A pastor is getting a bonus payment of 1 million Kenya shillings every year for being a pastor? Because he made it one year of his work? He is doing his work, he is not a messiah, he is not doing anything for anybody, except for himself, filling his pockets,” exclaimed Pastor Smittcamp. He said the bishop, the pastor should serve as role models to the congregation, not ask for money every time. He believes in a united church that takes care of the servants and ministers and uses what is left from the proceeds of giving to help the less fortunate in the community.

I asked local pastors to respond to what pastor Smittcamp said about the church not giving back to the community. Pastor Joseph of Grace Revival Church believes that giving is godly, God our creator is of the nature of giving. We ought to learn from God the character of giving. When Jesus came, he not only brought the good news but also gave his own life through the death on the cross. Giving is important the bible says in the book of Psalms blessed is he who refreshes others for he himself will also be refreshed. God rewards givers and when you give you walk in the plan of God.

On pastors receiving and not giving, Pastor Joseph was of the opinion that pastors are shepherds and they take care of the flock, which is an obligation given to them by God. “If there is a person who is supposed to give to the maximum, that is the pastor”. He said in their church, they have set up a special day every year to remember those who have advanced in age and are no longer in employment. They come together as a church to bless them with foodstuffs and household needs like sugar, flour and cooking oil.

Pastor Joseph and his church also go out and visit orphanages, they take to them food items, clothes and also take to them the message of hope. “We do it as a work of the body of Christ and to the people that God requires us to give to. As we bless those in need we are touching the heart of God,” said pastor Joseph.

He remembers one Sunday, just as he stepped down from the pulpit, a person came to him and told him that he hadn’t eaten anything for some time and was hungry. He had to help this person to get food. “There is no way I can preach to them any other gospel other than acting to my capacity to bless them. Most of the time I have found myself giving until I cannot count what I have given. I do sometimes give my clothes; I have paid school fees for some people. I have paid house rent and medical bills, I have on several occasions woken up at night and taken people to hospitals with my car. Any church that has a pastor who is only receiving and not giving back, will not grow and if it grows, it will be for a short time, because we don’t teach people by the words we say, but we teach them by the actions that we take. I know for sure pastors give beyond what people expect, they give beyond the basket. There are things that you cannot explain and also you don’t want to boast that you gave,” said Pastor Joseph.

Pastor Francis of Kisii Pentecostal Church disagrees with Pastor Smittcamp and says that when it comes to the matters of giving, it depends on the revelation one has. “What we do after stepping out of the pulpit, we don’t announce, we have people we are taking care of, we are taking some children to school”. So pastors are doing things behind the scenes without speaking about it, They don’t want to be seen as a “show-off”. Pastor Francis also emphasized that what a pastor can do personally will be limited: “You cannot take everything, sometimes we give until we lack”.

In Pastor Francis’s church, they use a certain percentage of what has been given to support some people in the church and the community at large. “We don’t necessarily have to say what we have given. We are supported by the scripture that your left hand should not know what the right hand has given out. Joy is not in receiving but joy is in giving. You don’t have to be a Pharisee, standing at the market place so that you can be seen. The Bible also says you don’t do good so that you can be seen,” said Pastor Francis.

So the perspective of these two pastors is very different from that of the missionary. Of course, it is true that there are indeed fraudulent pastors who misuse tithes and offerings. But it is deeply unfair to paint all pastors with this brush.

Furthermore, pastors who have gone to Bible school have acquired the training to preach the word of God. They don’t have training to solve all the problems of the community and also not the financial resources that would be required for doing so.

Next: The love for children, by Eric Bosire.

Notes:

About the author:
Eric Bosire is a Kenyan Journalist. He is based in Kisii.

About the image:
Photo by Eric Bosire.

Suggested citation:
Eric Bosire: Do pastors just take? MissionField News (ISSN 2813-2270)
https://missionfield.news/2023/19_Taking 2023-10-19.