I had an on and off GF for a few years in the early 2000's and on one of the occasions we were a couple I went with her to her newly found church. We had attended my church when we were a couple a few months before, but she was a cat lady type and my pastor made her angry when he spoke out against gay marriage, saying the next step will be people wanting to marry their pets. Heh Heh.

So anyways, I went to her Church 2 weeks in a row then insisted we return to my church. Her church was owned by Sam Hinn (Bennie's brother) which was built as a mosque, which sold to him when they couldn't meet their financial obligations, his "Ministry" bought it and rented time back to the Muslims.

I only went the two times because both times they passed the plate around twice. The first time the music pastor was moving to a new ministry and the second plate around was a " love offering" for his move. Note: His salary was quite good. The second time was a Lady prophet who told a few stories of how prophetic she was and prophesying for a few "inner circle" congregation members, seemed very palm reader to me, using a combination of info she gained and telling them things they want to hear. One of her stories was how this computer professional in another country got a huge contract in the millions of whatever his countries currency was. I looked up the exchange rate and it was 1000 bucks....

I have a lot of similar experiences with other scams, but I don't want to write a novel. Suffice it to say what goes on in front of the church and where the offerings are counted are quite different. Often a guest pastor, speaker, or musician, guesting at a church only gets the money from their merch., the money taken up in the plate for them stays with the pastor...