Beach church cannot use chopper to ferry pastor, city says

Maybe people should spend less time complaining about stuff that doesn't affect them and more time acknowledging their creator. It seems to me that this is what these wave church people are doing. They also acknowledged that they were violating code, apologized and moved on. That’s what the story was about.

To ecarr,

Yes, that is part of the story, but the Bible says that much more is required of the wealthy. You know, that whole to whom much is given, much is required thing that Jesus talked about. Oh, and don't forget that Jesus also rose up the poor who gave all in comparison to the rich who comparatively gave more than the poor, but proportionately gave much less. That's how WAVE church is. They give a little so that people can make arguments like you make, but in the grand scope of things they don't give very much. You can tell that from the clothes and jewelry they wear, the cars they drive, the places they frequent, there whole general attitude on life. You really should take an objective look at the leadership of the church including Steve Kelley and his wonderboy protege (who got the job because his dad is a heavy donor, you seriously must know that the kid is ridiculously spoiled and has zero life .

http://www.slate.com/id/2197166/

Slate just did an interesting article on Mega Churches, telesermons, and running small churches out of business with Mega-McGospel churches like Wave.

Apparently one church even has a 3-d hologram projection of the pastor giving the sermon for its remote locations.

Does the helicopter's operational costs enjoy the same tax-exempt status as a plane on loan from Operation Blessing to Pat's private diamond mining operation in Zaire?

It works for Andy Stanley in Atlanta, where they have some 17,000 people in attendance at three sites. If I am not mistaken, he changes his location from time to time to be "live" at different sites at different times.

Pastor Steve are ya listening?

The congregation ate it up, made them "special" to have such a desirable haha pastor who is oh so important. Baaaah Baaaaah Baaaah

The comments about how the church spends their money is completely relevant to this article. Anyone with an ounce of introspection knows that WAVE church is corrupt. The problem is that journalists need proof and the church is highly secretive about how they spend their money. Articles like these go beyond the anecdotal and provide an undeniable glimpse at their excess.

I've heard that he preaches a great sermon with powerful messages. However, what message did he think he was sending his congregation with his air transports. Then again this may make a great story among the rich and famous.. "Hey, my preacher drives a Porsche Carrera 4s" oh yeah,"mine flies in a helicopter between sermons"........ you get the picture...

This has to rank as one of the biggest wastes of money. I do have one question. If you look at the map the flight path would take the civilian helicopter directly over Oceana. There is a 5 mile air traffic area around Oceana. So do they suspend operations so the good pastor can save the 12 mintues? Or does the helicopter play dodge em with the F 18's. Maybe he needs a nice Gulfstream jet like brother Pat Robertson.

While on the subject of churches and waste. Anyone else notice Manor Drive over by Rock Church has been renamed John Gimenez Dr. after their pastor. I wonder who foots the bill for the signage and to modify the city Computer Aided Dispatch system and print new public safety maps?

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. James 1:27

This verse sums up what Wave Church is all about. I’ve read a lot of the comments questioning Wave’s commitment to the community. As a friend of the vision of Wave Church I want to tell you about the countless outreaches we have to impact our local community and the world: weekly food distribution to public housing residents, drug and alcohol recovery programs, educational tutoring, the Hope Foundation for women, assistance to AIDS orphans in Uganda, funding an orphanage in Russia, starting a church in Israel…just to name a FEW of the ways Wave Church is impacting our world.

If you need further proof of Wave’s dedication to improving Hampton Roads, I would encourage you to stop by Dreamkeepers Academy in Norfolk this Saturday f

Let's cut the guy's spending but still keep him stylish, get 'im a Segway.

People are lined to go worship God and hear Pastor Steve Kelly preach in 2 different parts of the city. Is that such a bad thing. The thousands of people who regularly attend Wave Church obviously don't have a huge problem with the money spent on the charter. The original article didn't even mention that aspect. It was about one man who lives by the church, dislikes the jet noise, and didn't want to hear a helicopter take off and land near his house twice a week. Forget all the lives changed by there decision to follow Christ and worship God every week at the three church services that the helicopter is able to take Pastor Steve back and forth between. It's a little hard to change service times when you are already having service 7 times on Sunday at the two locations. I'm no expert, but I bet the cost of having a T-1 line and the video equipment to broadcast the service to the other location is not much les

With some Vance and Hynes Pipes, then tell me which is louder ;-)

Obviously, Steve does not want to telecommute. If that was the case his next step would be to become a tele'vangelist and not a minister to the community.I have to hand it to Steve; what ever brings the folks in to listen to the word he tries. All the criticism seems misplaced since his congregation is growing and seemingly happy. I live close by to Wave and I've never heard the chopper... And I'm up early every morning for work, my kids or my church, which meets in the water and is attended by people on boards...

Folks need to learn to turn off the TV and read something besides video game cheat codes and gossip!

Cheers, Steve. I'm proud that my neighborhood has this sort of problem and not those of other places not far away from my home. Thank you for resolving it so politely and with accord.

"The guy complaining about that little bit of noise sounds like a big cry baby but I can see a real safety issue with operating low flying aircraft over a neighborhood."

Apparently you've not had an early morning chopper drag in low and slow over your house lately. We only get one day off a week to sleep in. This is both a safety and a noise issue for those of us close to the church.

Other than this, they're pretty good neighbors.

I'll make a suggestion... Who knew?

If the church values this guys act so much and they can afford the high-dollar air petrol, then I'm sure they can afford to have the pastor's sermon broadcast to the other location via high-speed video/voice transmission. They could use a high-def projector and huge screen and save money and souls at the same time.

Maybe they should consider something like Bethlehem Baptist Church's setup where Pastor John Piper serves (Minnesota). They have a great ministry, they aren't old plated, not emergent (putting on a show), one church with several campuses. Worship takes place at all 3 places and run at the same time, the sermon is pushed to the campuses at the same time he speaks. Pretty interesting and sounds like folks that are concerned for the community and how they handle the tithe (God's Money). They have local pastors that pastor the flock.

http://www.hopeingod.org/Outreach

A good example. Lets make the main thing the main thing: Jesus Christ.

You're all just jealous that YOU don't have a helicopter so you can tailgate him. Or get in front of him and fly 4 miles an hour under the fly-limit.

As a member of Wave Church, I feel like there is a reason that Pastor Kelly has done things this way. While someone says that the simple solution is just to change service times, maybe these are the service times that work best in all locations. Additionally, if he's getting to all those avenues to try to better the community, maybe the benefit to the community outweighs the cost of the helicopter.

Additionally, what a previous poster said is correct: the issue of the article is centered more about where the helicopter is and is not allowed to fly/land, not how the church spends their money. Also, don't be fooled: Pastor Kelly isn't on lavish vacations all the time- he preaches all over the world. It's a ministry, and is not meant to be contained.

A helicopter costs anywhere from $100 to $180 per hour to operate even for a small one. An EC-117 like Nightingale would cost more due to it's size and highly trained flight crew, but that's an expense one could easily justify given Nightingale's important function.
I wonder what else could be done with that kind of money over the course of a year???

Spending that kind of money to ferry a Preacher around just so he won't be late smacks of arrogance and self-importance, neither of which are looked upon favorably in the good book.
Never mind what might happen if a tail-rotor shaft gave out as his holiness is being flown to his next service and crash-lands in someone's living room.

I cant believe that one man would think so highly of himself to use his churches money to have a helicopter, lets see Sunday Morning the traffic is not bad between these locations wouldn't it be a better use of the people's money to foster more community good and change the times to allow for the 20 minutes it takes to get from one place to another. I had to change the times I travel to the Princess Anne Memorial Park located behind the mighty WAVE church, since if I go there anytime service was beginning or ending I could not visit my deceased relatives due to the fact that their members were using the cemetery as a cut through to get out on to Great Neck Rd. No respect for their neighbors and no respect for the dead, isn't that two things God wanted from us? I don't remember nothing about helicopters.

What people think of the pastor, the church, or the cost is 100% irrelevant to the issue. It's purely a zoning issue. The guy complaining about that little bit of noise sounds like a big cry baby but I can see a real safety issue with operating low flying aircraft over a neighborhood.

Seems to me that the most obvious answer would be to leave an additional half hour to an hour between services. No mass schedules that I've ever seen are set in stone.

It's nearly laughable that anyone would set such a tight schedule, and then solve the problem by renting a chopper. Sounds more like something they'd cook up in Washington.

If Jesus were driving in Virginia Beach today, I could picture Him riding from place to place in an old Volkswagen Rabbit diesel, not a helicopter.

BTW, I don't know the Pastor, or the first thing about the Church. I'd make the same remarks about my Catholic pastor, if he showed up in a whirlybird.

"Do as I say,not as I do"

It's time the IRS took a real close look into ALL the so called non-profit organizations....from BINGO to Religion....but it will take someone with strong intestinal fortitude to attempt to open that Pandora's Box.NPO's have gotten away with more $$$ than many CEO's.And you can take that to the Bank....er..... on second thought, maybe not.

Traffic on a Sunday Morning? Use the $$$ to the educate the poor, provide outreach programs for addictions, homeless, the list goes on and on. Who in there righrt mind would contribute to this kinda of "church"?

This "pastor" does not seem to be a very good steward regarding the vast sums of money his congregation has entrusted him with. He lives in a decadent waterfront home complete with boats. He drives a BMW last I heard, and vacations all over the world. The helicopter does not surprise me.

Oh, I know, God wants him to live in victory like many other evangelists seen on TV...yeah right.

God also demands his people to give up all they have, pick up their cross and follow Him.

As an active member of Wave church I can say that pastor Seve is amaazing, his messages usually touch my heart like no other pastor's messages ever have. He is largley responsible for the close and productive walk with Jesus I now have. That being said, I work hard to donate 10% to Wave Church and I'm disappointed to hear my dollars are going to a helicopter ride that saves around 15 minutes. If it saved an hour I would be more understanding because Pastor Steve is so gifted...but 15 minutes? How much does this '15 minutes saved' cost with gas prices what they are....a hundred bucks a minute? That's two months tithing for me...I thoutht it went to something more meaningful and needed than 15 minutes.

How expensive is this flying a pastor a few miles down the road? I can't imagine that it'd be cheap. And why fly? I live in that part of The Beach, and traffic is never really a problem on Sunday morning. I'd be pretty annoyed if my offerings were going to pay for this. I mean, this guy is a pastor, not the Rolling Stones. His parishoners have probably already bought him a luxury car, why can't he just take that for a nice Sunday drive (pardon the pun)? If the other church has to wait a little for his arrival, well, I'm sure they wouldn't mind too much.

Where was he landing this helicopter? In the Strawbridge parking lot? Why not just rearrange the church's meeting times? I guess that wouldn't get enough attention...

Does this church really think it's so mighty that it needs to have a private helicopter for its preacher? This is just feeding someone's ego, nothing more. If timing is that much of an issue, reorganize the schedules. Where have all sense and sensibility gone?

It also makes me wonder, the company hired to ferry this pastor, did it not know where it could or couldn't fly?