The financial figures behind the faiths

Special Report: The Business of Religion

Photo: Michael Bradley

Religion has become big business in New Zealand.

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"BISHOP" BRIAN Tamaki of Destiny Church gets all the media attention, but two other similar church leaders – also friends of his – have quietly gone about building business empires, even outstripping Tamaki's legendary ability to suck money from his flock.

Paul de Jong of Life Church and and Peter Mortlock of City Impact have followers whose devotion to "tithing" – the practice of giving at least 10% of income to the church – has bucked the economic crisis.

The three churches have many things in common: flashy, Harley-Davidson-riding leaders, music-driven services, their own television equipment, a strict morality and, above all, a focus on money. Followers are told they are essentially "robbing God" if they fail to give.

"It's run more like a corporation than a church," said a former member of Life, who left because of concerns about an over-emphasis on money.

"If you were to go to that church on any given Sunday, at least 40% of what is said at the pulpit is based around money and giving. They promote the idea of the more you give, the more you will be blessed."

A quick glimpse at the churches' websites shows how business-orientated they are: "digital messages" from de Jong can be downloaded for $3 each; Mortlock's DVDs go for $20; Tamaki's autobiography is $30, while all three are set up for "online giving" – a donation is just a mouse click away.

Mark Vrankovich, of the cross-denominational group Cultwatch, describes it as "spiritual quackery".

"These guys mesmerise Christians with their wealth and showmanship, and then feed off them to fund their luxury lifestyles," Vrankovich said.

Until now, observers could only guess what these churches were earning, and where they spent their money. But charities now have to provide their financial statements to the Charities Commission, and the accounts are being posted online.

The figures do not reveal how much Tamaki, de Jong and Mortlock are earning, but provide a broad picture of the churches' bottom lines. Families are giving about $8000 a year on average to City Impact, for example.

Most of the money goes back into the business of the churches, eaten up by costs such as salaries and wages, administration, building maintenance, huge interest payments covering mortgages, as well as general costs. The churches say they give generously to programmes helping the community, but it is not clear exactly how this is happening, as expenditure is described vaguely.

The prosperity churches are outdoing traditional churches with their fundraising. Financial statements from the Catholic Church's Auckland diocese, for example, making up no fewer than 77 separate church trusts from the Northland and Auckland regions, show they collected $12.6 million in donations in 2008. Life Church alone, with only six branches in Auckland, collected $9m in donations last year. (Census figures from 2006 show that 508,000 New Zealanders described themselves as Catholic, 79,000 Pentecostal.)

Vrankovich said most of the money raised by "super apostle" churches went into buildings and "pet projects" of their leaders, who were effectively in an "arms race" to build bigger and wealthier empires than their counterparts.

"Members are also enticed to donate large sums with the reward of membership to the pastor's inner circle," he said.

"To be important in these churches, you must belong to the inner circle. These inner circle members also jostle for position by promoting a technique called `Honouring the Pastor', which works by extracting extra donations from the ordinary members to buy the pastor motorbikes ...and other luxuries."

For more information, see www.charities.govt.nz

Additional research, Lesley Longstaff

- © Fairfax NZ News