Prosperity preacher Creflo Dollar mesmerized a crowd of followers Friday at the RBC Center with the message that God intended them to have abundant life -- spiritually, physically and, yes, financially.

Dollar is the most prominent among a host of preachers who have built their careers around a theological premise that God wants people to be rich. He appeals mainly to struggling middle-class people who find inspiration and hope in his message.

"How many of you believe it is the will of God for you to live abundantly in every area of your life?" Dollar asked. As hands shot into the air, he continued, "If I show you how to turn it on, will you turn it on?"

To resounding shouts of "yes," he said, "Let's get to work."

Dollar is the pastor of World Changers Church International in College Park, Ga. He recently started a World Changers New York church and preaches Saturday nights at Madison Square Garden. Many more people know him through his television ministry, which airs locally on half a dozen cable networks including Black Entertainment Television and the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

A Pentecostal Christian, Dollar is known for a lavish lifestyle that includes Rolls Royces and million dollar homes in Atlanta and Manhattan.

Faithful to his message

In Christian academic circles, he is often criticized as a "feel good" preacher who distorts the Christian message. His followers, who filled several thousand seats in the RBC Center on Friday morning, say he makes their lives brighter.

"Listening to him has helped me get a more positive outlook on things," said Patricia Daye of Henderson, who came Friday morning with her family. Asked whether she believed following his message would make her wealthier, she said, "I believe he's going to."

Dollar began his Raleigh sermon with a biblical passage from John 10:10 in which Jesus says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." The passage, which flashed on the two jumbo screens at either side of the stage, was embellished with an additional phrase "to the full, till it overflows."

He then went on to say that the law governing abundance is the law of love.

"Some of the meanest people I have ever met are those who come at 11 a.m. with big hats on," he said, referring to those who show up for Sunday church with "perfected phoniness." Pacing the stage with his name emblazoned as its centerpiece, Dollar said people need to be guided by love, even when people around them are not.

By staying centered on love, God will bless them, he said.

Some are skeptics

Theologians discredit Dollar's message, saying it runs contrary to some of Jesus' clearest messages about wealth, most notably Matthew 19:24: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

The prosperity gospel also ignores social, educational and economic hurdles that can limit a person's ability to amass great wealth. Further, it might lead people to think that their lack of faith is to blame for their failure to get rich, undermining what should be a spiritual lifeboat in rough times.

"There's a deep obliviousness of the social dynamics going on," said J. Kameron Carter, an assistant professor of theology and Black church studies at Duke Divinity School.

Carter said the prosperity gospel conveniently ignores the broader biblical narrative in which Jesus was an itinerant preacher with no permanent home who died a cruel death on the cross.

Still, Carter said, he understood the enchantment with the prosperity gospel, which speaks to people in financial distress.

Giving encouraged

Dollar ended his two-hour event, as he typically does, with an appeal for money. After recounting that he had just signed a $1 million book contract, he said, "The Lord told me to start this offering with $16,000."

"Your support of this morning is vital," he said, urging people to write checks for $10,000, $5,000 and $1,000, as plastic buckets went up and down the aisles.

Dollar's ministry includes a food distribution facility, a male mentoring program and a career development center that helps members financially in times of need.

Joseph Lucas, an electrical technician for the U.S Postal Service who lives in Raleigh, said Dollar's message was intended to help people overcome their selfishness and live for God.

"Give and it shall be given unto you," said Lucas, rephrasing a biblical passage. "If that's not true, then God is a liar."

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