Beware of Rev James Ewing (aka Gene Ewing) and St Matthews Church
You may never have heard of Rev James Ewing but I guarantee your favorite TV preacher has. Ewing was the inventor of the seed faith scam that continues to flourish in today’s apostate covetous church.
Ewing came up with seed faith giving in the late 60’s and pretty much franchised it to Oral Roberts. Roberts revived his flagging ministry with the seed faith principle and pretty soon every big time preacher and evangelist wannabe was hawking the same give-to-get doctrine.
When I said he franchised the concept to Roberts I wasn’t kidding. You see Ewing has made a nice little fortune for himself by providing a service to many of the largest TV ministries. For it is Mr. Ewing, not your favorite televangelist, who actually writes the seed soliciting letters that go out from Bob Tilton, Marilyn Hickey, Rev Ike, Rex Humbard, and many many others. Ewing has taught the big time TV ministries how to use direct mail to double, triple, and even quadruple their annual income without having to add so much as one extra parking space in front of their churches.
Some con artists like Tilton have taken it a step further and dropped the idea of pastoring a church all together. Simply tape a 1 hour television show. Spend most of your air time twisting scripture and manipulating people to give. Offer a free book or tape. When the unsuspecting fish calls in to take advantage of the free offer he is hooked. Once on the mailing list the letters start coming fast and furious.
Ewing has himself gotten in on the scam by starting St Matthews Church. The “church” consists of a Tulsa Oklahoma P.O. Box and an office warehouse complex in California. The so called church sends out over 1 million pieces of mail per month. All of it designed to separate you from your money.
All of the letters appeal to a persons sense of covetousness. They will include alleged testimonies from people (first names only) who claim to have benefited from sending money along with their prayer request to St. Matthews Church. These appeals always have a hook. That is a prayer cloth, a widow’s mite, a vial of “holy” water or oil or some other sort of gimmick. The hook is designed to get you to take action. One of the latest offerings is the Jesus Prayer Rug (one internet commentator calls it the Shroud of Tulsa!)
Ewing is a classic case of one who the scriptures describe as having a heart trained in covetous practices (2Peter 2:14) He is truly an advertising and direct mail marketing genius. He has taught televangelists how to use US Census Bureau reports to target the poorest zip codes in the nation. Studies have found that it is typically the poorest among us who are most likely to fall for these scams. He uses tried and true formulas in his letters. Nothing is left to chance. Each word, every phrase, even the color of the paper and the style of print is designed to elicit the largest possible response to that particular piece of mail.
If you receive a letter from St Matthews church my advise is to toss it unopened into the trash. Don’t be taken in by these deceivers. Take Solomons advice from a scripture that you’ll never see in one of Ewing’s mailers
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want. Prov 22:16
More Ewing Resources
Click here for a report from the Tulsa World – Reaping from Faith
Steve Lumbley 2006 www.apostasywatch.com
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