Pastor Rick Warren — who does a great job of keeping himself in the headlines — has a bit of a problem.  His church, Saddleback Church is suddenly $900,000 in the hole for the year. In hopes of making up for the shortfall, he has taken to begging parishioners for the money before January 1st.

In a letter written to parishioners on December 30th, he said:

With 10% of our church family out of work due to the recession, our expenses in caring for our community in 2009 rose dramatically while our income stagnated. Still, with wise management, we’ve stayed close to our budget all year. Then… this last weekend the bottom dropped out.

On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive – leaving us $900,000 in the red for the year, unless you help make up the difference today and tomorrow.

On December 31st, he felt the need to add:

BACKGROUND: The cause of our financial shortfall was NOT a management issue but simply by the way Christmas occurred in this year’s calendar. After 10 packed Christmas services, and with Christmas Day on Friday, many people were out of town or too tired to come back for weekend services, so the unusually low attendance created an unusually low offering. That is understandable.

MEDIA: Because our church attracts a lot of attention, the media will undoubtedly report my letter- but only partially, not telling the whole story. It is likely that none of the positive end-of-the-year reports of your service to the community and none of your amazing accomplishments as a church family in 2009 will be reported. They may get some facts wrong or even misjudge our motivations. I know this is frustrating, but don’t let it bother you.

[editor: if you'd like, you can read the accomplishments he brags about here]

One immediate red flag is why he felt the need to clarify — a full day later — that it wasn’t mismanagement of funds that caused the shortfall.  Surely his non-questioning parishioners that hang onto his every word wouldn’t wake up and suddenly question the actions of him and the church, right?

This whole situation begs this question to be asked:

Is God punishing Pastor Rick Warren and his church?

Two of the commandments that Pastor Rick Warren could have possibly broken in his teachings include:

• You shall not make yourself an idol
• You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

If Rick Warren really is doing God’s work, wouldn’t God make sure he had the tools to do it?

Or is Rick Warren not really doing the work of God, but actually spreading hate (the opposite of what God advocates) and doing so in God’s name, hence the punishment?

It sure does make one wonder.

UPDATE: OC Register is reporting that Warren and his church ended up raising $2.4 million.  We’d love to see an accounting of those funds!

(Photo courtesy kev/null’s Flickr photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurioso/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Tags: Editorial