IFB Business Model

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Man without a country

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I have noticed that there seems to be a "business model" for IFB churches. Talking about the ones that are run as a business for profit.
Start an IFB.

Door to door "soul winning" or get them to recite your pre-scripted prayer. More saves, higher numbers to brag about, even if the "convert" never darkens the door of a church building again.
Start a bus ministry. Get some unsafe buses that you don't intend to maintain and bring the people in. Get the numbers up, justify pastor's pay increase.
Build, anything, just make it big. They will come.
Start an "academy". Of course tuition will be charged. Use most of the pastor's family as staff and teachers, more pay to funnel into the pastor's coffers. Teach a curriculum that is enough to get some GED certificates.
Start a Bible College. Again, staffed by the pastor's family and graduates of like minded IFB Bible Colleges. Tuition here is another source of revenue. Use the students as the plant labor force and to get out to beat the bushes to bring more in. Get the numbers up. Award some useless degrees and put more members of the pastor's family and his clique's family members in a job.

Am I cynical? Probably. But look at the faculty list of some of the IFB colleges. So many of them have the same last name. Many got their credentials from the same college they teach at.
All those missions that are supported? Ask them just how much. More money is spent on the pastor and the buildings than ever goes to missions.
Just preach God's Word and see what happens. Don't try to build a mega church, if God is in it, it will follow His course.
 
Man without a country said:
I have noticed that there seems to be a "business model" for IFB churches. Talking about the ones that are run as a business for profit.
Start an IFB.

Door to door "soul winning" or get them to recite your pre-scripted prayer. More saves, higher numbers to brag about, even if the "convert" never darkens the door of a church building again.
Start a bus ministry. Get some unsafe buses that you don't intend to maintain and bring the people in. Get the numbers up, justify pastor's pay increase.
Build, anything, just make it big. They will come.
Start an "academy". Of course tuition will be charged. Use most of the pastor's family as staff and teachers, more pay to funnel into the pastor's coffers. Teach a curriculum that is enough to get some GED certificates.
Start a Bible College. Again, staffed by the pastor's family and graduates of like minded IFB Bible Colleges. Tuition here is another source of revenue. Use the students as the plant labor force and to get out to beat the bushes to bring more in. Get the numbers up. Award some useless degrees and put more members of the pastor's family and his clique's family members in a job.

Am I cynical? Probably. But look at the faculty list of some of the IFB colleges. So many of them have the same last name. Many got their credentials from the same college they teach at.
All those missions that are supported? Ask them just how much. More money is spent on the pastor and the buildings than ever goes to missions.
Just preach God's Word and see what happens. Don't try to build a mega church, if God is in it, it will follow His course.
Click to expand...
That's a very skewed picture of the IFB churches. I knew of many that had bus ministries, Christian schools, Bible institutes, etc., but they weren't anything like what you're portraying. Many are, yes, but most are not. I know some very fine preachers who came out of these Bible colleges and institutes...and missionaries who are fully funded as well.
 
Man without a country said:
I have noticed that there seems to be a "business model" for IFB churches. Talking about the ones that are run as a business for profit.
Start an IFB.

Door to door "soul winning" or get them to recite your pre-scripted prayer. More saves, higher numbers to brag about, even if the "convert" never darkens the door of a church building again.
Start a bus ministry. Get some unsafe buses that you don't intend to maintain and bring the people in. Get the numbers up, justify pastor's pay increase.
Build, anything, just make it big. They will come.
Start an "academy". Of course tuition will be charged. Use most of the pastor's family as staff and teachers, more pay to funnel into the pastor's coffers. Teach a curriculum that is enough to get some GED certificates.
Start a Bible College. Again, staffed by the pastor's family and graduates of like minded IFB Bible Colleges. Tuition here is another source of revenue. Use the students as the plant labor force and to get out to beat the bushes to bring more in. Get the numbers up. Award some useless degrees and put more members of the pastor's family and his clique's family members in a job.

Am I cynical? Probably. But look at the faculty list of some of the IFB colleges. So many of them have the same last name. Many got their credentials from the same college they teach at.
All those missions that are supported? Ask them just how much. More money is spent on the pastor and the buildings than ever goes to missions.
Just preach God's Word and see what happens. Don't try to build a mega church, if God is in it, it will follow His course.
Click to expand...
Did we go to the same church?
 
ALAYMAN said:
No, he is a Neal (of Berean Baptist Florida Fame) disciple, so just a kissing cousin of your (former) flavor. Potato poTAHto ;)
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It did mirror the church I used to attend except for the college part, although the pastor had discussed starting one many times. They might have by now. I left 12 years ago and haven't kept up with it.
 
Check out the staff at Great Plains Baptist College in North Platte, Nebraska. Out of 9 faculty, 4 have the same last name, Reeves, and 8 out of 9 are graduates of Great Plains Baptist College:

GPBC | STAFF (greatplainsbc.com)

Of course, I make no judgments as to the quality of education at GPBC, which may be excellent, for all I know. Nor do I have a problem with churches operating their own college instead of high-pressuring their kids to go off to distant schools in Hammond, Greenville, Pensacola or Santa Clara from which most of them never return home.

All I am saying is, Man Without A Country does have a point on the IFB business plan of church-run colleges, ramshackle bus fleets, "converts" who mouth a prayer and are then never heard from again, missionaries who are "taken on" for a pittance and then the support is dropped soon afterward. Not all IFBs are guilty of this stuff, but some are. If the shoe fits, wear it.
 
I don't disagree with the salient point, where applicable, that CountryMan makes, and I am not trying to discredit him at all here, just curious....


how long after a person exits from a system (sometimes known as IFBx) before you let it go and move on? (for instance, voicecrying obviously left that same stuff behind at some point 12 years ago and I don't remember him ever making it a center focus of his change in scenery/mindset)
 
ALAYMAN said:
I don't disagree with the salient point, where applicable, that CountryMan makes, and I am not trying to discredit him at all here, just curious....


how long after a person exits from a system (sometimes known as IFBx) before you let it go and move on? (for instance, voicecrying obviously left that same stuff behind at some point 12 years ago and I don't remember him ever making it a center focus of his change in scenery/mindset)
Click to expand...
Letting go and moving on is one part. The other part is reorienting your thinking, decision making, etc. My wife grew up in it. I've often thought that it's easy to take the girl out of the IFB, but it's hard to take the IFB out of the girl. Thankfully, I had all the wonderful people of the FFF to help me (I say that tongue-in-cheek, but there's a lot of truth to it). All she has is me. :D
 
voicecrying said:
Letting go and moving on is one part. The other part is reorienting your thinking, decision making, etc. My wife grew up in it. I've often thought that it's easy to take the girl out of the IFB, but it's hard to take the IFB out of the girl. Thankfully, I had all the wonderful people of the FFF to help me (I say that tongue-in-cheek, but there's a lot of truth to it). All she has is me. :D
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I think I know the answer to the question about to ask, but I want to hear it from your perspective of having walked in those shoes of IFBx-dom. What type of reorientation of thinking and decision making are you referring to?

And I understand if you do not want to answer this on an open forum, but, if you do not care to share, is the component that your wife had the hardest time with the fact of leaving relationships that she had had for so long? Or was it the reorientation of thinking regarding doctrine and consequent practice?
 
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I must have had "Stockholm Syndrome" as I kept going back to the same situation...IFB churches. After my wife and I had witnessed enough, and after our pastor stood in the pulpit and defended a child molester here in our state who was a graduate of HAC, we left the IFB movement. It took many months, and even a couple of years to overcome some of the abuses we experienced. But, life does go on, and WE are responsible for how we recover. Regardless of what was done, God still wants to use each of us....we just have to be open and willing to yield ourselves to HIS WILL, not ours, and to let HIM heal us.
 
AverageJoe said:
I must have had "Stockholm Syndrome" as I kept going back to the same situation...IFB churches. After my wife and I had witnessed enough, and after our pastor stood in the pulpit and defended a child molester here in our state who was a graduate of HAC, we left the IFB movement. It took many months, and even a couple of years to overcome some of the abuses we experienced. But, life does go on, and WE are responsible for how we recover. Regardless of what was done, God still wants to use each of us....we just have to be open and willing to yield ourselves to HIS WILL, not ours, and to let HIM heal us.
Click to expand...
Joe Combs?
 
ALAYMAN said:
I think I know the answer to the question about to ask, but I want to hear it from your perspective of having walked in those shoes of IFBx-dom. What type of reorientation of thinking and decision making are you referring to?

And I understand if you do not want to answer this on an open forum, but, if you do not care to share, is the component that your wife had the hardest time with the fact of leaving relationships that she had had for so long? Or was it the reorientation of thinking regarding doctrine and consequent practice?
Click to expand...
There are multiple things that are more relational such as: excessively high expectations of people, any criticism (even if meant constructively and delivered softly) is taken as a personal attack, and if people are not doing things the way you would do them, they are doing them wrong.
 
That's part of the business model - intimidate people with false accusations, belittle them, make them feel guilty because they are not doing enough and they are not loyal and obedient enough to the Mannagod, and if you can convince the laymen-serfs that everything they do is all wrong, then that makes them willing to submit to the Mannagod and let him run their lives.

Of course, many IFB churches do not follow this business model, and there are many non-IFB churches that do. If you find yourself in this type of atmosphere in whatever kind of church, look for the Exit sign and then RUN!
 
ALAYMAN said:
Joe Combs?
Click to expand...
Yes sir! That was one hard service for us to sit through...and we took as much as we could before we left mid-sentence, our preacher defending him. Some of the members called and asked if we were embarrassed to get up and walk out, and I clearly and confidently told them "NO!" I'd do it again, especially if a preacher of the gospel were defending child abuse and saying that the ones arrested were set up.
 
illinoisguy said:
That's part of the business model - intimidate people with false accusations, belittle them, make them feel guilty because they are not doing enough and they are not loyal and obedient enough to the Mannagod, and if you can convince the laymen-serfs that everything they do is all wrong, then that makes them willing to submit to the Mannagod and let him run their lives.

Of course, many IFB churches do not follow this business model, and there are many non-IFB churches that do. If you find yourself in this type of atmosphere in whatever kind of church, look for the Exit sign and then RUN!
Click to expand...
Thankfully, the Lord really kicked us when the preacher revealed the true nature of the beast! We RAN towards the exit, and we've NEVER looked back!
 
Man without a country said:
I have noticed that there seems to be a "business model" for IFB churches. Talking about the ones that are run as a business for profit.
Start an IFB.

Door to door "soul winning" or get them to recite your pre-scripted prayer. More saves, higher numbers to brag about, even if the "convert" never darkens the door of a church building again.
Start a bus ministry. Get some unsafe buses that you don't intend to maintain and bring the people in. Get the numbers up, justify pastor's pay increase.
Build, anything, just make it big. They will come.
Start an "academy". Of course tuition will be charged. Use most of the pastor's family as staff and teachers, more pay to funnel into the pastor's coffers. Teach a curriculum that is enough to get some GED certificates.
Start a Bible College. Again, staffed by the pastor's family and graduates of like minded IFB Bible Colleges. Tuition here is another source of revenue. Use the students as the plant labor force and to get out to beat the bushes to bring more in. Get the numbers up. Award some useless degrees and put more members of the pastor's family and his clique's family members in a job.

Am I cynical? Probably. But look at the faculty list of some of the IFB colleges. So many of them have the same last name. Many got their credentials from the same college they teach at.
All those missions that are supported? Ask them just how much. More money is spent on the pastor and the buildings than ever goes to missions.
Just preach God's Word and see what happens. Don't try to build a mega church, if God is in it, it will follow His course.
Click to expand...
This sounds rather familiar... it may be a tad cynical, but it happens.
Sadly, because of man's sinful nature, we like excitement and things to be "happening", and some of the things you list do generate excitement.
I don't know that any church I've been a part of was happy with unsafe buses...
Many of these kind of churches use "faith promise" for missions, and supposedly the money that comes in goes to missionaries... but I've also been a part of churches that raid the missionary account when they feel like it... and the small support to missionaries is a shame... some churches still give very tiny amounts to support more missionaries, and they are the amounts that I remember from 40 years ago... but not all churches are like that.
 
ALAYMAN said:
I don't disagree with the salient point, where applicable, that CountryMan makes, and I am not trying to discredit him at all here, just curious....


how long after a person exits from a system (sometimes known as IFBx) before you let it go and move on? (for instance, voicecrying obviously left that same stuff behind at some point 12 years ago and I don't remember him ever making it a center focus of his change in scenery/mindset)
Click to expand...
A fair question... one can learn the lessons and move on, but it is still good and proper to warn people of the un-Scriptural things going on.
I think I have fairly well moved on over my own issues with IFBx, but I do protest when I hear people advocating those un-Biblical practices.
 
illinoisguy said:
That's part of the business model - intimidate people with false accusations, belittle them, make them feel guilty because they are not doing enough and they are not loyal and obedient enough to the Mannagod, and if you can convince the laymen-serfs that everything they do is all wrong, then that makes them willing to submit to the Mannagod and let him run their lives.

Of course, many IFB churches do not follow this business model, and there are many non-IFB churches that do. If you find yourself in this type of atmosphere in whatever kind of church, look for the Exit sign and then RUN!
Click to expand...
So true; the Lord graciously opened our eyes to the cult-like atmosphere of where we were as we saw the facts of a situation skewed to enforce obedience to the GREAT LEADER.

And I fully agree with the second paragraph- not all IFB churches are IFBx... we happened to find, by God's grace, and wonderful church where Jesus Christ was exalted with sound preaching. It has been wonderful!
 
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