your $ is burning a hole in James MacDonald's pocket

The Larger Context - LINK

In order to understand the magnitude of the debt that was amassed during this season of spending, one must first seek to put these liabilities in their proper context.  According to this 2010 report by the Leadership Network, the typical North American church of 10 to 15 thousand congregants has an average debt load of $15.06 million.  Thus, Harvest’s debt as of the close of 2010 would be over 4 times greater than the average debt carried by churches of comparable size just one year prior.
Moreover, it is critical to recall that when Harvest began to accrue these financial liabilities, their congregation was not the robust 10,000+ member body it is today.  More importantly, while their current annual tithing revenue is around $24 million per year, it was significantly lower during the years they were accumulating the massive debt, raising the question as to how James MacDonald intended to make the payments on this debt and pay it off.  And in that light, the accumulation of this massive debt begins to look to us even more reckless and irresponsible.  One might even say it was a rather high-stakes gamble that his congregation would grow rapidly enough so as to avoid complete financial collapse.  This raises the question as to why one would take such enormous risks.