How much should a minister of a church earn?
Quick Google shows around £26,000 is average.
What about the minister of a church, who although doesn’t appear to indulge in televangelism directly, invites probably the most prominent preacher of prosperity gospel, Creflo Dollar, to speak at his churches flagship annual event?
This is something i’ve been wondering after taking some time to look over the accounts of Destiny Church published on the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) website. I focused on Destiny Church Trust & Destiny Ministries as the accounts for other churches registered by Destiny on OSCR weren’t as detailed.
The last accounts available are for 2015, and they show one “trustee” received £82,784 for “Ministry Fees”. Below it says that another trustee received £27,439, declared as salary, and the business manager, who is the son of a trustee of the church, received £40,480.
Unfortunately the law in Scotland means that accounts published on OSCR are redacted (this is not the case in England & Wales), so frustratingly the reader doesn’t know who the trustees are. OSCR admit it is frustrating and that they are tied by regulation, something they are trying to change, so they recommend that charities make their accounts available in their original form, either on the charities own website or available by request. So I sent an email to Destiny Church asking for them.
I had a few back and forth emails and was eventually replied to by the business manger of the church, Daniel Owen.
Being close by, I thought it would be pointless him posting accounts in the mail, so I offered to collect and pay the admin fee (minus postage) in person.
But unfortunately Daniel replied saying that is it their policy to post them out recorded delivery and not hand them over in person.
Given that I was speaking with a man of the church, I thought can he not just answer some questions I have about the accounts? Do I really need to go to the effort of digging out my cheque book, blowing the dust off it, and then stand in line at the post office to get stamps? If he just told me what I needed to know then this wouldn’t be necessary. So I sent over my questions.
It has been 4 days and i’ve had no answers or reply to any of my questions. I will post the response from the church as an update when I receive it.
***UPDATE 1***
So just after publishing this post I received a reply from Daniel Owen, the Business Manager at Destiny Church, where he stated that he is personally not able to provide such confidential information.
In my reply I asked who at the church can answer my questions, if they are going to follow the OSCR recommendation and publish full accounts on their site, http://www.destinyglasgow.com so it can be linked to from OSCR, and I also pointed to the accounts for Destiny Church in Newcastle as an example.
***UPDATE 2 - 23rd October 2017***
Unfortunately Daniel Owen did not reply to my email above that was sent on 15th August. I chased this up on 24th August
and again on 2nd October, but unfortunately I still haven’t received a reply.
In the following video you can see Daniel Owen explaining the amazing work the church is doing, including the plants like the one in Newcastle, and across the UK, and for which the finances are published with names included.
I’m genuinely curious to know exactly what sets Destiny Church in Scotland (under the guise of Destiny Ministries and Destiny Church Trust), apart from Destiny Church Newcastle. Sure, the law the England means names on financial reports can’t be redacted, so names on the report weren’t published voluntarily, but why can’t they, in solidarity with their plant in Newcastle, and also in the name of public interest, show who receives what in their financial reports?
Learning more
I’ve been reading about Destiny Church on and off for the past year to get an understanding for how they operate, how current members and ex-members find the experience and what they get out of it. I would like to hear more from current and ex-members of the church and anyone else who can provide some insight.
I would also like to say that I am not doubting that they are doing some good in the community, I’ve heard some good things from couples who were wanting marriage help in Glasgow and others helping the homeless community in Edinburgh, I would like to continue to hear about this.
Please feel free to add comments or send an email to nifytwa@gmail.com
