The Change Revolution with Phil Cooke
Dispatches from the front lines of media, faith, and culture

TV Evangelists

Do Certain Media Ministries Target Low Income Groups?

13 comments
April 15, 2008

It doesn’t take much channel surfing – especially in the morning – to see that outside the normal full time religious television channels, some TV evangelists seem to be ganged up in blocks. Further, a closer examination seems to reveal that those “ministries” (which some would call “fringe”) who spend the whole program talking about and asking for money seem to be all gathered around the early morning block on BET. So here’s the guys who are most aggressive about asking for major financial donations (my favorite is the “$1,000 seed”) who seem to be aimed directly at inner city viewers. Does that mean these hard core prosperity ministries are targeting lower income, minority viewers? Interesting question. ... read more

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When Pastors or Leaders Spin-Off Their Own Ministry - Who Pays?

6 comments
March 28, 2008

One of the things that the financial crisis at Oral Roberts University pointed out recently was the apparent internal direction of funding. The Oral Roberts Ministry was founded first, and during the evangelistic ministry of the founder Oral Roberts, the ministry organization was used to help fund the university. In essence, the ministry spawned the university, and for many years used it’s national television program and direct mail outreach to raise significant funding for the university.

But apparently, ... read more

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Kenneth Copeland on CBS News

69 comments
January 30, 2008

Here's the link to the CBS News report on Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Is it a balanced report or inaccurate? Is KCM missing something when it comes to their perception by the general public? Is CBS off base? ... read more

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Christianity Today on the Grassley Investigation

8 comments
January 9, 2008

Here's Christianity Today magazine's perspective on the investigation of media ministries by Senator Charles Grassley. ... read more

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Being Tax Exempt Carries an Obligation

11 comments
December 11, 2007

On the subject of TV ministries, something we don't talk about much is an issue the editors of the Montgomery Advertiser newspaper brought up this morning. ... read more

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Update: Senator Grassley versus the TV Evangelists

43 comments
December 7, 2007

Today was the deadline for a selected group of TV ministries to turn over financial information as demanded by Senator Charles Grassley. As we could have predicted, so far:

Kenneth Copeland and Joyce Meyer turned in everything before it was due. Paula White responded, but then went silent, no one has a clue what she is up to. Benny Hinn stalled. And Eddie Long and Creflo Dollar have stonewalled. ... read more

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Four Conversations we need to have in 2008

15 comments
November 27, 2007

As 2008 comes closer, I want to throw out a few statements that I’d like you to be thinking about. I want to write about each of them more fully in the near future, but let me toss out a few controversial topics and see if you agree that each one is something we need to confront: ... read more

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Should We Change the Rules for Successful Churches and Ministries?

18 comments
November 20, 2007

There’s been a lot of interesting discussion here lately on the scandals, alleged misconduct, and outright stupid behavior from some pastors and Christian media leaders. It brings up an interesting point, not the least of which is the wave of problems, all happening at the same time. There are some common themes with the criticism, and one that bothers me a bit is the tendency to compare a major, international ministry with a local pastor. The truth is, ... read more

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