cinepro wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:52 pm
IHAQ wrote: ↑Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:17 am
There is another question here, if the fund gained $6 billion in value in and of itself...where did all the tithing go in 2020?
Can you expand on your question?
I don't how that is necessary. It's a simple question that points to the need for a fully transparent accounting.
If you made $80k a year at your job (your revenue), and also owned a house that appreciated by $50k in a year, you didn't "make" $130k. You had $80k in revenue, and your net worth increased by another $50k. But you can't spend the $50k from the house appreciation unless you sell the house, so you still need the revenue.
Likewise, the Church's investments might have increased by $6b, but it doesn't get that money until it sells the investments, so it still needs revenue/tithing to pay the bills.
Of course, this raises the question of why the Church doesn't start selling its investments to generate revenue, either to give people a break on tithing or to use it to do good works. But until they actually start selling off their investments, the answer to "where did all the tithing go?" is "it paid the bills (and any excess was probably invested)."
You're guessing at the answer. Because you really don't know. Nor do we know the increase in value on the Church's other investments and assets, as Dr Moore upstream points towards.
I'd like the Church to give a full, transparent, accounting to all the members. A shareholders report as it were. Don't tithe paying members deserve that? It's sure to be faith promoting, right? They can explain why they're amassing increasing amounts of wealth at a time when members and communities are really struggling, when in parts of the world children are suffering because of a lack of resources, right? Because Jesus needs all that wealth, right?
Transparency should be a trait synonymous with a Christ centric institution, because why not when God is on your side?