From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Sat Oct 12 2002 - 23:12:18 MDT
Dehede011@aol.com wrote:
> spike66@attbi.com writes: As many churches of all brands have discovered, it
> is the number of dollars that make things happen, not the number of people.
>
> Spike,
> That is without common knowledge in the society at large. But, how do
> you explain the gains the Pentecostals are making over the Roman church in
> South America? Or are those reports faulty?
> Ron h.
My comment was not with regard to which church is
winning out over which other one. It was with regard
to how to make decisions in world church government.
Do let me get specific. The Seventh Day Adventist
church has a house of representatives government that
sends reps as a function of the actual number of
believers. This always worked fine, since most of
this American-made religion were in the U.S. and
Canada.
During the 80s, central African tribal leaders
learned that if the village converted to SDA,
the American church would send money, doctors,
build a school, and most importantly, teach
the children English, which was their ticket
to success in the city. Within a very few
years, there were more SDAs in Rwanda and
Burundi than in the U.S. and Canada combined.
However, most of the church's budget was
being supplied by the home country.
What to do? By the way the rules were set
up, Rwanda and Burundi were entitled to more
representatives than the U.S. But of course
we know the golden rule. To complicate matters
further, African notions of equality
of the sexes would be considered scandalous
in this country. Then there was the problem
that the Africans had no problem with slaying
people because of their race, which they
demonstrated by the war between the Hutus
and Tutsis a few years ago.
Since then, that church and parhaps many
others have realized that a church must
be run as a business: he who pays the
piper calls the tune.
spike
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