Lance writes….
I don’t normally put out requests for information (because it means more work for me) but this is significant enough to warrant it.
I’ve been reliably informed that somewhere in the early 2000’s (roughly 2001-2003) Christian Shitty Church Senior Pastor Phil Pringle addressed a pastors-only meeting at Margaret Court’s Victory Life Church in Perth (you know, one of those pastors leadership principles rah-rah wankfests) at which it’s alleged Pringle made remarks along the lines of his congregation being saps who could easily be made to part with their money if the right things were said to them and the right buttons were pushed.
I’m told that ‘jaws dropped’ among the pastors at this meeting and the question was openly canvassed about whether Pringle was even a Christian.
It’s needle in a haystack stuff but I’m particularly interested in tracking down a tape of the alleged remarks (churches do seem to tape everything) or at least hearing from anyone else who can corroborate the story as it’s been told to me.
Lance,
I don’t know about what Phil Pringle said … but he does ‘teach’ at Victory Life.
I heard tonight from a VLC member that Richard Roberts (of ORU spending spree fame) is going to teach at VLC in the near future.
It looks as though VLC hosts the ‘Who’s Who in The Zoo’ of all the Word-Of-Faith Scuby Doo Villians:
http://vlbtc.edu.au/o/teaching-staff.html
For someone who so highly promotes the prosperity gospel, these sort of remarks are sure to follow him around. One of the reasons we left C3 was because of this (although it was the lack of sound doctrine that was the catalyst.)
I don’t know if there is any truth in the specific remarks. However, I do know that the focus on money raising seemed to begin with their first building fund, which I was there for, and completely took over the church meetings at the time. I eventually left because I wasn’t hearing anything else – the main message would be cancelled when the offering message took over the entire service – just about every week. I hoped it didn’t stay that way, but was not around to see.
PP brought in various experts from the US in those days to preach to the congregation and no doubt to advise him on the best ways to raise money. By now, so many years later, PP would be either an expert on the subject, or a fool if he’s failed to pick it up.
Prior to that first building campaign, there was a variety of preaching on a variety of topics, and I really enjoyed my time there. The focus on fund raising seemed to end this.
I don’t remember early on hearing any implication that if you gave money to something, God would then hear your prayers. Now though, these ‘miracle offerings’ at the big conferences seem the norm. And the choice of charlatan speakers like Steve Munsey at these events speaks for itself.