I just received an email from (insert ministry here) asking for my "seed"... now, I double checked to make sure I knew just exactly what it was they were asking, then realizing they were asking for me to give a monetary offering, I thought, "Why don't we (nominal Christian ministries) just come out and say what we really want?"
The very fact that we call money "SEED" shows the manipulative manner in which we (nominal Christian ministry of choice) will stoop to get peoples' money. The fact that I'm just seeing this use of the word "SEED" as manipulative shows the length to which I've been exposed to pseudo-Christian ministry manipulation so much so that I've never thought of it this way before.
Our wording is wrong..., it's all wrong!
God loves a cheerful giver, and I love to give cheerfully. However, what I don't love is how our modern celebrity ministry builds such expensive big budget ministry that the poor have to support it instead of the poor receiving a hand up by the ministry itself. Sure, I also understand the planting and harvesting metaphor the Bible uses to teach how God blesses when we give. This doesn't excuse anyone from still being manipulative, especially in the name of Christ. The very spirit of using religious language to get more bank roll for (insert ministry here) shows how spiritually/religiously manipulative we've become and we've done so without even noticing (or caring).
Why don't we just come out and say, "Here's an opportunity to give your money to support (insert ministry here)." We've created an entire language that doesn't relate to the world's understanding. It's like our own little secret club with secret words. And you have to be in the club to get the lingo. This sorta goes against the commission, right? We're disconnected from the ones we're sent to by our weird use of terminology... "Christian-ese", if you will allow to borrow an overused cliche. I would respect (insert ministry here) International® if they would just be honest in their robbing the poor by guilting them into "receiving" something from God because of the promise hidden in the manipulative language.
My wife and I (okay, my kids too) are tremendously blessed and we trust God completely for our sustenance. But we don't go around using the false-faith-formulas (isn't the letter "F" the sixth letter in the alphabet? False-Faith-Formula + 6asle-6aith-6ormula... 6-6-6... I think I'm onto something!) we see plastered all over the television to try to manipulatively pull something from Christ's hands so I can be "blessed". He is a good God. He knows what we need. And if we know the good God intimately, we'll know He's trust worthy and that we don't have to scam Him so that He'll finally bless us.
I guess I'm ranting a bit... just hate to see such overtly-subtle (that's possible, right?) language being so prevalently used in the Church; who really has the greatest thing going for us... Christ. I wonder why we need more than Him?
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