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jasmineandbrian2's blog


church member gets shocking letter from pastor

Published May. 16, 2008

A church member of Victory Time Full Gospel Church on Anniston Drive, received a letter from her pastor stating she would lose her church membership if she did not pay her tithes within the next thirty days.

Emma Hafferkamp says her friend has been distraught ever since she received the letter on Wednesday.

"In the letter, it says she had only tithed twice last year and she needed to pay her tithes within thirty days or her name would be removed from the membership list," Haffercamp told 27NEWSFIRST.

Haffercamp says the church means everything to her friend and the thought of losing her membership made her sick.

"She was so upset last night, she had like an anxiety attack. They called the ambulance and she went to the hospital", Hafferkamp said.

She also says her friend cannot afford to tithe because she is about eighty years old, on a fixed income and lives in subsidized housing.

The letter does say the church member is still welcome to attend church services but will not be a member if she does not start tithing.

We went to the church to speak to the pastor but no one answered the door and our repeated calls to him have gone unanswered.

http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/17889869.html



44 Comments


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I thought this was a joke - was waiting for the punchline.

Sometimes you need to leave a church. This could very well be one of them.

HOWEVER..., calling up the news and complaining was wrong, too. They should have gone directly to the source and discussed it with him first.

I dont tithe because I cannot BUT I do volunteer MORE THAN 75 percent of my church

Thanks Ledasi!

The last two posts were the update that nisa_pizza provided the link too.

But they say when it comes to forgiveness, they are offering it to Van Cleve and Victory Time Church. "I forgive them, but I'm not going back to that church. There's no way they can get me back in there", concluded Stone.

A few weeks ago Mary Stone got a letter from her church telling her that if she didn't begin paying tithes, her membership would "be in jeopardy". That's when she knew something wasn't right. She and fellow church member called 27 NEWSFIRST to get the word out about what some could call a "pay to pray" policy. They told us, they felt taken advantage of by Pastor Tim Van Cleve, and they vowed never to return, and wanted others to beware. Tuesday, the women got another letter on behalf of the church. They expected it to be an apology. But instead it was a letter telling the women, they were wrong, for talking about the church on the news. "It's not us [that's wrong] it's Tim", says Mary Stone. Gladys Sparks adds, "It's between a person and God if they pay tithes". Both women readily admit, they do pay tithes, just no longer to Victory Time church. They say there, they felt forced to pay to: pray, sing, or worship.

Just read an update on this. The lady Mary L Stone and some of the other church members who received letters got another letter from Pastor Tim Van Cleve.

See:

http://www.wkyt.com/home/misc/18390824.html

Good for you Mary and Gladys!

WAAAAAAAYYYY to much religious drama for me. Utter foolishness on the pastor's part and a foolish response on the old lady's part. To me, this pastor just fully revealed his foolishness and disqualified himself to be my pastor. Time to move on. I know that's more difficult for the elderly but wisdom does not excuse or favor either the young or the old.

Giving is between the believer and God. 2Corinthians 9:7 says "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly (from external pressure when you don't WANT to), or of necessity (just because there's a need): for God loveth a cheerful giver."

The Christian thing to do in this situation since she is on a fixed income is for someone to pay on her behalf. I mean really, how many people can't afford to pay their bills because of the economy. (I imagine some people who are reading this article are struggling at this very moment) She can probably hardly feed herself at times trying to decide which bills to pay.

At that age maybe she considers the church as her family and since being a member of the church means so much to her I'd help her out anonymously. I still might if I could get an address to send it to.

A church is supposed to be a place of solitude and comfort not distress.

My new testament reference might have gotten lost by my joke ... for those of you that don't have your bible handy, that passage is the one about the widow's mite. The whole passage speaks volumes about this situation. As usual, Jesus was right on the money, er, right to the point.

Like I said, that so-called pastor needs to review this passage asap.

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