The Congregation’s Contributions
Most Kenyan preachers thrive on personalized gifts from their congregation. Church members take a personal responsibility for the well-being of their church leaders. Many of them give monetary gifts to their preachers as a token of their appreciation for spiritual leadership. Gifts are given in a lump sum from the entire congregation or in small increments from individual church members. Preachers often receive monetary gifts after the performance of weddings or funerals at their church. Though the funds are given as gifts, they are considered income and the preacher must report it as such for the tax year.
Books And DVDs
This is becoming really common. The preacher’s  book is usually ghostwritten and fraudulently claimed to be authored by the leader. Let’s be honest, many of these books are below par. Like bad business books they have one good idea, if that, and then are padded with motivational sayings and anecdotal stories of how the preacher obeyed the dream and so God hosed him down with wealth. The theological content is basically non-existent. These books would perform poorly on in a real bookstore, but hyped to their captive market they sell like hot cakes.
Next comes the ever popular DVD. Most of which are videos of the leader preaching in his church on a certain topic. I wonder if it is ethical for a preacher who has been paid by his church to prepare and deliver a sermon, to then take that performance and sell it back to his own church members for a healthy profit/ But sometimes business knows no ethic. I’m not talking here about paying for reproduction costs or the money going into church funds. I’m talking about DVDs being sold at the same cost as a movie DVD and the profit going into the leader’s own pocket.
And like the books most of these DVD’s are awful, not worth the money paid. Minimal content with gallons of fluff. But, these DVDs are hyped and hyped, and the captive audience buy stacks of them. In the worst money hungry churches you’re expected to buy them, and it is noticed if you don’t.
Pressure offerings
In the extreme money focused churches it is made known who gave the most and who gave the least, and in these churches the giving will not be in secret but people will be expected to come up the front so that everyone can see how much they give. Or people will be watched to see if they put anything in the offering container as it is passed down the aisles.It’s all a strategy.
