Category Archives: Prosperity Gospel

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Kansas City Pastor Carlton Funderburke Criticizes His Congregation For Not Buying Him a Watch, Calls Them ‘Poor, Broke, Busted and Disgusted…’

Hello World,

When I come across these types of stories, I have to remind myself there are scores of wonderful pastors throughout the country and the world who will never get recognized on a large platform but that does not mean they are not significant and not doing God’s work. Meanwhile, “pastors” such as Carlton Funderburke sully the cause of Christ by being wolves in sheep’s clothing and going viral for their shenanigans…

The latest wolf is Pastor Carlton Funderburke who is supposed to be the shepherd over Church at The Well in Kansas City, Missouri. However, earlier this month, he revealed his heart when he went slap off on his sheep about a doggone watch…See below…

In the clip, Pastor Funderburke says, “That’s how I know you’re still poor, broke, busted and disgusted because how you have been honoring me. I’m not worth your McDonald’s money. I’m not worth your Red Lobster money. I aine worth your St. John knit? Y’all can’t afford it no how. I aine worth your Louis Vuitton? I’m not worth your Prada? I’m not worth your Gucci?…You can buy a Movado watch in Sam’s! And y’all know I asked for one last year. Here it is the whole way in August, and I still aine got it! Y’all still aine saying nothin’! Let me kick down the doors and talk to my cheap sons and daughters! I don’t want to hear no more excuses about what you can’t afford. You can’t afford it because you don’t see the value here! Y’all hear from your pastor and father. I’m over y’all. I’m over your cheap expressions.”

Now based on how he framed his criticism as he mentioned what he didn’t get a year ago, I imagine it was the pastor’s anniversary and that he was expecting to be honored for his service by the congregation. As I’m a pastor’s daughter who has been to many pastor’s anniversary events over the years, I firmly believe the congregation should take the time to honor the pastor on at least a yearly basis. Being a pastor is not easy and everyone needs encouragement from time to time no matter the vocation. However, where Pastor Funderburke messed up was being flat out being materialistic…Although I’m not a labels person, I don’t see anything necessarily wrong with liking labels. Still, to expect his congregation to bless him with labels AND to state that out loud is just stupid. He needs to buy his own labels and accept that his congregation will honor him in the way that they have deemed fit…This is a rant that he should have saved for just his wife. We all get in our feelings sometimes, but what we do with those feelings demonstrates our heart AND character…And the fact is although some pastors are very wealthy, the vast majority are not…if Pastor Funderburke continues to feel this way, he should find another line of work where he is guaranteed enough money to afford McDonald’s, Red Lobster, St. John Knits, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci and Movado on his own…

Since this video has gone viral, an apology video has been released, see below…

I’m glad he apologized, but this is not the type of man who could be my shepherd, particularly at this time of history. The world has been fighting with COVID for two years and now monkeypox is on the horizon! A formula shortage threatened to leave many of the country’s babies starving. Gas prices are out of control. And here is the pastor wasting his saliva, spewing nonsense talking’ bout a Movado watch when he probably has a cell phone that can also function as watch! People come to church to be comforted not criticized over something so inconsequential…

Anywho, that’s all I have to say on this…

Any thoughts?

 

 

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Do You Still Trust Pastor Joel Osteen After His Hurricane Harvey Response?

Hello World,

As I watched the daily coverage of Hurricane Harvey over the past seven days, I’ve marveled over the fact that the course of one’s life can change as easily as a watercourse flows. Can you imagine that one day you’re immersed in the regular monotony of life and the next day all that you know is immersed under rainwater that refuses to recede. I’ve been praying for those affected by Hurricane Harvey as they go about recovering from the ravages of this natural disaster.

Even as Hurricane Harvey developed day by day, stories of how those in its path responded developed day by day alongside it. One of those stories you’ve probably heard of by now is how Senior Pastor Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas responded. Osteen was dragged on Twitter last week when he allegedly tweeted out inspirational messages regarding Hurricane Harvey but did not open the doors of his 17,000-seat megachurch to Hurricane Harvey evacuees until he was shamed into doing so. It has been a point of contention whether the church had also been affected by the hurricane and thereby not accessible or whether that was not the case at all. A flurry of news coverage was created by this “Twitter storm” which resulted in Osteen granting various news outlets interviews to explain “what had happened was” and for damage control.

Do I believe that Pastor Osteen responded with too little too late and was shamed into opening the doors of this church? Hmmm…I’ve had to think about my own humble and small church where I’ve attended since I was six years old in forming my opinion. If Hurricane Harvey would have hit Atlanta, would my church be prepared to open its doors to evacuees? I don’t know that we would have immediately because a typical church isn’t prepared to assist in that way. When we’ve had snow storms for example in the A, church shuts down and everyone is encouraged to remain in their homes until the roads are clear and conditions are safe to gather together again. So I think it’s unfair to rush to judgment when most organizations aren’t prepared to service people in natural disasters.

That being said, if the natural disaster, storm, etc. continues, a place of ministry should develop a means to minister to its congregants and the wider community if they have resources available. A small church often does not the resources available to minister to people in the time of a natural disaster or otherwise that a large church like that of Lakewood Church, for example, has its disposal. It’s likely that as Hurricane Harvey continued, the staff at Lakewood headed by Osteen would have implemented a plan to minister to its congregants and the community even without the Twitter storm. I’m sure that many churches throughout Houston have been considering their course of action as well.

And that brings me to another point. Pastor Osteen is not the only pastor in Houston and you would think that based on the news coverage. Is he the only pastor that who did not allegedly immediately implement a plan to open the doors of the church to evacuees? Probably not. But since he is well known, he was an obvious target of scrutiny. And I’m pretty sure the people who were already not fond of his ministry which has been referred to as “prosperity gospel” were some of the loudest people criticizing him. And on the other hand, those who were proponents of his ministry before Hurricane Harvey have probably not been persuaded to not support him based on his Hurricane Harvey response.

Finally, for all of those who have worked themselves into a lather regarding Pastor Joel Osteen, my question to them is: What are you doing to minister to those affected by Hurricane Harvey? If the answer is not much or nothing, maybe all of that energy would be better directed inward or upward. I don’t know why God allows storms, literal and otherwise, in the lives of people but there are always lessons to be learned. Maybe one of the lessons from this storm is that we need each other more than we thought we did…

That’s all I got.

Any thoughts?

 

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Greenleaf Mid-Season Finale Recap, Season 2 Episode 8: And the Sparks Fly Upward…

Hello World,

Saints, pull up real close to your laptops or your phones because I’m about to serve you from the sumptuous feast that was laid out in this OWN’s “Greenleaf” mid-season finale !!! And you gon be licking your fingers too because it was sooo juicy!!! Taste and see that the Lord is good! LOL

Crash…

Remember at the end of episode 7, last week’s episode, Grace sped off the Greenleaf estate in a Greenleaf security truck to chase down Mac after he boldly sent flowers to the estate in honor of the one-year anniversary of Faith’s passing? Well, this week’s episode starts off with Grace careening through the woods, pressing her foot on the gas until she loses control of the truck. The truck catapults into a tree and Grace’s face lands on the steering wheel with the air bag deployed. For a second, I wonder if she is dead. But I’m like the heroine of the show cannot be dead at this point. And as soon as I have this thought, she stirs and then wakes up, stunned to realize what happened. She crawls through the window and then calls Darius the journalist on her cell phone. (Am I the only one who thinks the truck was about to blow up? I guess I’ve seen one too many action movies! LOL!) I thought Darius and Grace were through, but obviously, I was wrong.

He takes her back to the estate, where he is enthralled by the grandeur of the Greenleaf home. I guess it’s one thing to write about the Greenleaf dynasty, but it’s quite another to see it up close. He tells the family that Grace was “lucky” to have survived to which Bishop responds with, “We don’t believe in luck.” Grace explains the accident by saying she swerved to avoid hitting a deer. Once Darius leaves, Bishop says, “If you ask me, I don’t  think that was any deer.” He tells his daughter that she has to stop pursuing Mac and Sophia tells her the same thing. Grace says, “We all have our crosses to bear.” Sophia says, “Then you are mine.” Can you imagine telling your mama that she is your cross to bear? I can’t…

When Charity and Jabari get together, it won’t be by accident! As Charity is caring for her son, Jabari calls to invite her to Nashville to record with a group that is coming in from L.A. Y’all know recording won’t be the only happening, right? She agrees to his invitation, but now she has to figure out who will take care of Nathan while she is away.

Before the Triumph train crashes, Jacob finally divulges Basie’s poker scam to his wife Kerissa. Kerissa calls Basie and his wife Tasha Bonnie and Clyde and says she should have known something was up when she found that one-hundred dollar bill on the floor. She tells him he’s got to get out of this situation, but whatever he does, he better not go “crawling back to that mansion and that sneering a** mom of yours.”

Macarena…

The “relationship” that Mac has with his girlfriend Lorraine is like a badly choreographed dance. It’s not free flowing or joyous. Everything he does or says is to squelch her women’s intuition which is trying to tell her that this man is no man at all. She’s living with a monster but she gon learn. The lies that some women tell themselves to keep a man is simply sad.  According to Mac, his niece Sophia is the one who is blowing up his phone all day and or all night although we know it is Michaela from his old building. Lorraine says, “What kind of niece calls her uncle so often?” He says, “I like to be there for her if she needs me.” She then admits that she knows what people are saying about Mac, but she doesn’t believe them. She tells him she loves him. Dumbo.

Outside of whatever church the couple are attending, he calls Michaela to tell her she needs to stop calling him. Michaela says her mother has gone schizo, and she needs a place to crash. “I don’t have anyone else,” she says. But Mac still shuts her down for now.

Charity looks like she is ready to get her dance on at the club although she is singing at Sunday morning worship service. Her dress is fitted and short. Kevin notices,  but that doesn’t stop him from glancing at Aaron during the church service.

Across town at Triumph, Basie Skanks listens to his headphones, dancing around and what not in his office before his Sunday morning service starts. He is trying to get pumped as he wants to make a “withdrawal from the banks of Heaven” he tells Jacob, who catches him while he is dancing. Yes, he expects his flock to make up for the funds he lost in poker. He is a delusional shepherd. In service, he tells them to admit they’re “in sin” and they need to “dig deep” and “sow a seed of faith.” Then he says, they got “skanktafied.” See what I mean?

Back at Calvary, Bishop tells his flock that while he could preach about the wages of sin, he wants to talk about the gift on the other side of the equation. “To sin means to turn away, but to repent means to turn back.” I know that Bishop is no angel, but unlike Basie, I really believe that Bishop believes in the power of God even if his humanity fails him from to time. Grace looks at her father as if she wants to repent of trying to avenge the death of her sister on her own instead of leaving the vengeance to God as He commands. But she doesn’t know how it seems.

Kevin agrees to care for his son while Charity goes to Nashville and she says he can stay at the estate while she is gone. Little does she know that while she has to travel across the state to see her soon-t0-be new bae, her husband’s soon-to-be new bae will be just down the hall from her. She may as well be “dancing the dark.”

The dance between Mac and his age-appropriate beard abruptly, and I mean abruptly stops when he gets a call from Deputy Mayor Leonard who says he will not be getting a job for him after all with his “sick self” because of pushback he has already received. He delivers the final blow when he says, “Lose my number.” Mac believes Grace got to the deputy mayor when Jacob was the one who threatened him. When Lorraine asks him who was on the phone, instead of lying as he had in the past, he says, “None of your business.” He then proceeds to call her everything (including “bottom-shelf” and “off-brand” ) but a child of God before telling her to get out! And the woman didn’t want to go although she did leave. Smh. He then calls Michaela and asks, “You still need a place to stay?” I guess since he has no job prospects, he has nothing to lose by revealing his true character.

If Zora and her boyfriend Isaiah were dancing to “Cha Cha,” the music has stopped . He invites her to listen to him record a song at a studio, but when she truthfully tells him that a couple of his notes were flat in front his friends, he asks to speak with her privately. He clutches her arms and tells her, “Don’t do that in front of them.” It’s obvious this guy may be an abuser so Zora calls her cousin to pick her up. The only problem is that Sophia is supposed to be on the way to meet her mother and Darius at a restaurant.

Karma…

Basie feels betrayed when Jacob comes to him and offers to pay Triumph 2’s debt if Basie would allow him to have the church and disassociate it from the original Triumph. When Basie asks how he is going to get the money, he says he has the money as it was a wedding present from his parents. Yes, Jacob had the trump (not Drumpf) card all along. He says Basie is playing a dangerous game with Triumph’s church members. “If you mess with black people’s money, they will rise up and take it back.” Got that right! I despise a money-grubbing, dishonest pastor. I’m so thankful that I was raised by an honest and upright, God-fearing pastor.

At Mac’s apartment, Michaela gets comfortable on his sofa as Mac pours two glasses of liquor before they watch “Imitation of Life.” Darius and Grace wait for her daughter to show up to meet them for dinner at Farm & Table. Michaela and Sophia do have similar looks, and it’s clear that Sophia could have been one of Mac’s victims if Grace had allowed him to get anywhere close to her daughter. I’m so creeped out as I watch Mac touch Michaela’s hair as she sleeps. Then he touches her knee and continues to move his hands upward. He attempts to kiss the child when she wakes up and kicks at him until she is able to escape his grip. Thankfully, she runs out the apartment.

After tucking in Nathan, Kevin takes the baby monitor to Aaron’s quarters where he and Aaron kick back and have a beer. Aaron gives him advice on finding a place since Nathan can’t seem to find anywhere to rent. Kevin tells Aaron, “Thanks for being so nice to me through all this.” Their arms are already touching and then they kiss! After this, Kevin may find a way to keep living at the estate.

Mac the monster calls Grace and tells her, “You should have left it alone, Gigi.” Grace leaves the restaurant and rushes over to Mac’s house. She believes her uncle has done something to Sophia to retaliate against her although she doesn’t quite know what her uncle is talking about. He calls his niece a female dog and their limbs entangle as they fight. They fall to the floor and Mac lands on top of his niece. With his sweaty, contorted face close to hers, he grabs her throat and squeezes. For the second time, I wonder if the heroine is about to die. But just before the life is squeezed from her, she finds a piece of the broken liquor bottle and sinks the shard into his neck! As the blood gushes from his wound, she screams, “Tell me where she is!” Mac got what was coming to him, but if he is dead, what will happen to Grace?! See why God says, vengeance is mine…

And then it’s over! Wasn’t that good? Are you satisfied or do you want more?!  I guess we will have to see what happens when OWN’s “Greenleaf” returns this summer!

Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Mid-Season Finale Recap, Season 2 Episode 8 and my other recaps so far.

Check out a snippet from “And the Sparks Fly Upward” below…

Any thoughts?

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