pmark, you wrote "to reach souls for Jesus it takes dollars put Christ in front of an audience.". Your statement is completely contradicted by the life of Jesus himself. He lived in poverty and had nowhere to lay his head. To the poor widow who put in all she had into the offering He said she has put in more than all the others. He constantly warned against riches and greed "which is idolatry".

I would direct readers to a great book on this issue called 'Eye of the Needle' by Jim Reiher. Click on the link below for details:

http://www.unoh.org/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?id=248&nav_cat_id=-1&nav_top_id=-1&dsb=677

Timothy this Luke that it's all spin. Religion is a facade perpertrated upon the life of Jesus as a way for mortals to make money from frightening people with the devil and making them pay to go to heaven by contributions to the gentry of the church. It is as much a con as anything Peter Foster has done.

These televangelists with their own areoplanes and exclusive mansions should get to know thier own book better:

"You cannot serve God and wealth". Matthew 6.24

And here's one for Bush, Blair and Howard:

"Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?" Matthew 7.22

"Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me you evil-doers." Matthew 7.23

Pmark,
You are coming on too strong to suggest that it is unbiblical to stay poor as a Christian. Logically, this is equivalent of saying that people are sinning if they are poor.

You ask, what would be good news to a poor person? Well, telling them that there is a path to riches in God’s name may well be leading them on a path to temptation or frustration. In the Bible, there were good people who were both rich and poor. The one man, Job, had seasons of great wealth and great poverty, and these had nothing to do with his faithfulness towards God.

I’ve met peasant farmers in Africa and I’d never suggest to them that the Gospel is a means to radically changing their financial situation. There are too many other factors involved. While the Bible does encourage us to sew good things in our lives, the prosperity that the Bible talks about is more in the inner qualities, such as peace, joy, and other gifts of the Spirit.

Nils,
I don’t know who you are, but I do know Jim Reiher, and I was thinking of recommending the same book myself. It’s a great read on this subject. And no, Jim doesn’t own a private jet or even a flashy car.

The most important issue to address is the one of sin/poor. Please do not follow up my point with your thought and make them out to be the same thing. I am a minister of the Gospel and have been for over 15 years. I also am bi-vocational meaning I work for profit outside the church. Both together have not added up to a pay check to even give my family a vacation or cars less than 18 years old. Yes 18 years old. The idea of the poor equating to sinfulness is pure stupidity. This is not what I advocate. Poverty is a holdover curse of the Old Testament. Jesus has come to redeem us from the curse of the law becoming a curse for us.
Within the Word of God you must differentiate between the saved and the sinner. God's promise to the willing and obedient is that they will eat the best the earth has to offer. To guard from anything that takes us away from a close relationship with God through Christ Jesus is wrong. Be it gold or silver, cars and mansions. Yet I am still to find a rich person (saved) half as obsessed with money than the poor and broke saved) people that serve it 60 and 70 hours a week just to get by and start the week over again to do the same thing.
The idea that the message is free and the medium is not... well to that I say nobody gave me the church building and the property just because I am preaching Jesus each week. The bills keep coming.
And yes I went to the website with the book. I just can't afford the 20 bucks and the tee shirts cost to much as well and for that matter Jesus didn't take credit cards. The only position named in His ministry team was the treasurer. And yet not one time did Jesus give money away. what did He need a treasurer for?

Every one is right in their owns eyes it is the Lord that weighs the heart. No place to lay his head is more a statement of ideals and mission than it is His socioeconomic condition. Jesus even called men to be his disciples that had some formidable economic status. Jesus himself must have had some means about Him to be able to speak in the Temple as His custom was. Poor, meandering homeless people would never been allowed to take part in the Temple rites. I serve God by faith not because of what he gives me but because He has saved me and filled me with His Spirit. Worldly standards of wealth have alluded me for now yet I'll keep severing God nevertheless because He daily loads me with benefits and my cup runneth over!
Job by the way did serve God mainly because of what God did for him. Satan even picked up on that. That was the whole means of attack against Job. God didn't give Job a little joy or a little peace at the latter end. He (God) gave Job twice as much as before. That would be money and family, gold and silver even cattle or we would simply say God made him rich. I probably didn't make any friends with that statement but I'll risk it all with this one. I heard a long time ago that the only thing the devil hates worse than a saved person is a rich saved person. Listen folks I've been at this long enough to know that it is about salvation not what car I drive or how many homes a person can have. Money no doubt matters because it is the most frequently sited topics in the Bible. Yet the main major topic of all is that you must be born again. Call on Jesus today and let Him cleanse you from all sin and unrighteousness. he is ready and waiting today.