Should miracles have a price tag?

I first came across the ICGC Special Offering which had an Offering Type during last year’s GreaterWorks. I didn’t pay much attention to it because I knew I didn’t have that kind of money, but I still sowed a seed within my capacity. I saw it again yesterday after Bishop Tudor Bismarck ended his sermon at Christ Temple. I looked through and decided to sow later within my capacity.

I however gasped at the $5,000 Millionaire Status. Like wow! Someone is going to sow a seed for $5,000! Rich people dey! I wasn’t carrying enough on me but I still placed a seed offering in an envelope which I put in the offering basket. A few people seated around me got up when the Millionaire Status was called out, the numbers increased as he went through the list to the last Seed of Perfection.  

Little did I know that the Special Offering had caused a ruckus on social media and up until this morning, there’s rising indignation about the impact of putting a price on a miracle and why miracles shouldn’t have a price tag.

I read through many statuses and comments arising from them. The social media playground is split between strong believers who are explaining the why, the believers who understand the why but still feel that it shouldn’t be so, the unbelievers who are insulting all pastors, unbelievers who have raised quite some excellent points to buttress why they don’t agree with this action and lastly the silent readers.

Where do I stand in all this? Maybe I should start from my personal experience with sowing seeds and tithing in God’s house and the miracles I have received and fruits harvested. Let me also remind my reader here that my measure of faith is different from yours and faith works for those who believe. 

I never took tithing seriously till I changed churches and started attending ICGC. By then i was earning about GHC1600 a month as a team assistant so I would tithe my 10% faithfully. There were times I also exceeded this 10% because I was expectant of so many things in my life. I would sow a seed when I was praying for a promotion at work and even do so when I was praying for the right man. My promotion wasn’t coming but I knew that sowing a seed wasn’t going to be a magical appearance the minute I sowed a seed. Seeds take time to germinate.

During my early times at that job, I was deeply frustrated by my former boss who didn’t pay attention to my request for professional development and training. Here I was a graduate, working as a team assistant but not getting responsibilities or opportunities to develop myself. And if your manager doesn’t approve for you to go on training what can you do? HR will tell you to get approval first even if you state it on your appraisal.

With such a situation, I turned to prayer a lot and sowed seeds of faith in church, praying for a miracle and a turnaround in my situation. What did I do after I prayed? I started paying attention to the tasks being done by my other team members who were expats. I started asking questions and offering my help on some of their reports and documentation. It got to a point that some of them started teaching me how to create health & safety reports and incident reports. As I involved myself more and more, people started associating me with health & safety in the company but I was still a team assistant.

One afternoon, as I sat at my desk which faced a wall ( zero interaction with anyone, why won’t I be frustrated ?) the former country and general manager of the company came by my desk and asked how work was and if I was getting any training. You can guess where this is going, right? I said I had requested but it was yet to be approved.He was surprised.

Long story short, he approved my training request immediately and I got sent to my first health & safety training in Dubai. How is this not a miracle? What did I do to get this unmerited grace and favour? Did I drag the country manager to come to my desk? Did I force him to talk to me? Grace had already enforced the way of things on my behalf and I used faith, confidence and strong self-esteem to have a conversation with him. I didn't dawdle with the truth. 

I didn’t remain in that role for long and promotions came my way. Twice. These were my miracles and my faithful tithing and seed sowing opened doors for me I never thought possible. This and many other reasons are why I sow seeds. I have a willing heart and I never feel compelled / forced to sow a seed ( 2 Corinthians 4:7) even if a man of God asks a congregation. 

So should miracles have a price tag? It's not a yes or no answer for me but how the asking of Christians to give is presented which becomes an issue for some and myself. Is it possible to ask Christians to give without the promise of a 24 hour miracle but to give and live in expectancy of God’s blessings? I feel as though the offering type as listed in the photo is offering miracles for sale.

Miracles are on sale and the one with the money is the only one who will receive such miracles. Your money for your miracle kind of thing. It may not be the objective of my church but to many it looks like a coercion and not an offering to be made. Even to some ICGC members.  This for me doesn’t help new believers or poor people who give in the house of God or who don’t even have a widow’s mite to give. It can have an effect on their faith and sow seeds of doubt in them. “Am I unable to become a millionaire because I couldn’t sow a $5,000 seed?” would be their thoughts. 

Nana Damoah put up an interesting post on the use of tithes and offerings and the possibility of developing our own projects without reliance on foreign aid. It was also finger-rubbing chin interesting that a small town built a magnificent church instead of a public toilet facility. Wherein lies our priorities one may ask.