From Chapter 8 in the Prayer Factor by Sammy Tippit
“George Mueller refused to relieve a salary from his first pastorate in England because the money came from pew rental. People had to pay for their seats in order to hear Mueller preach. Mueller gave three reasons for not participating in this common practice of fund-raising in his generation. He wrote…
- Pew rents are, according to James 2:1-6, against the mind of the Lord, as, in general, the poor brother cannot have so good a seat as the rich…
- I do not know whether he [pew renter] pays his money grudgingly, and of necessity, or cheerfully; but God loveth a cheerful giver.
- Nay, I know it to be fact that sometimes it had not been convenient to individuals to pay the money when it had been asked for by the local brethren who collected it…
I felt that pew rents were a snare to the servants of Christ.1
1 Mueller, George Autobiography of George Mueller, ed. H. Lincoln Wayland (Grand Rapids: Baker 1981), p. 66.