Saturday, March 03, 2007

The Great Deviation

A couple of months ago, I posted an article that posits changing mental models that govern the gospel ministry. My previous article puts forth the argument that for gospel ministry to realign itself with the New Testament Biblical model its ministers must remove themselves from becoming a financial burden of the ekklesia, or the Church. In this article, I will explore that system of thought, and the sources of such systems to further my proposition that ministers should relieve the church from the financial burden of paying their salaries by working a trade.

The apostle Paul, while referring to the OT model, where priests and temple workers were supported from the abundance of the Temple, clearly introduced a new model for the New Testament Church. Paul clearly stated that though he could very well adopt the very same practice in his present ministry, he chose rather to die than to charge the ministry for work that he, as a believer is compelled to do anyway. Paul states, “But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:15-16).

Paul (as a function of answering the questions laid upon him concerning his authority by the Corinthian believers) differentiated his ministry by establishing his position that he would rather die than allow himself to charge the ministry for the work he should be doing as a condition of necessity and not of privilege or authority. Paul understood how that employing the old Temple model to support the work of the Church will introduce more problems and complications than it will solutions. Instead of serving the purpose of edifying, it will corrupt and destroy.

There is no doubt that Paul was privy to Gentile and Jewish temple practices. Gentile priests came as a result of popularity while Jewish priests came from a single ancestral line. In his travels throughout Asia Minor, Paul witnessed this corruption first hand, how religious pontiffs among pagan communities often used their position to extort and exploit those within their communities. As a scholar of the Law, he was very much aware of the corruption of that overtook Temple activities with those of the Levitical and Aaronic line endlessly vying for positions of power. Rather than cause his good to be evil spoken of, Paul, and those with him, tirelessly worked their profession to support themselves so that they could do the work of ministry without charge.

Oh, how far we’ve departed!

In today’s ecclesiastical communities, virtually every minister is supported by their congregations or mission board. Ministers are charging the Lord for work all believers should be doing (if only to demonstrate gratitude for the salvation freely received by grace through faith from the Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ). What is most interesting is how different denominations and sects have, over the centuries, developed such an elaborate system to justify the continued use of this model. The systemic repercussions have been severe and serve as the greatest stumbling block of all.

For example, the modern church spends a substantial amount of its resources on paying for salaries and benefits of their ministers and pastors, purchasing physical assets, paying debts (church building or vehicles), spending on marketing and branding efforts, but very minimal is allocated to the work the church was intended to do—minister to the elderly, the fatherless and orphans, the widows, and the sick.

The Book of Acts records how the ancient church dedicated its resources to attend to this need. Believers sold what they had so that those the church ministered to would have all things in common or would have the basic necessities met.

Even the most conservative and purportedly fundamental of evangelical denominations design all sort of gimmicks to get people to give. From preaching heavily on tithes and offerings, sacrificial giving, to sponsoring fund-raising activities. Unfortunately, as a corporate body, the church fails to live up to its preaching. Sure they allocate to ministry, but when one examines the financial reports, almost 70% of resources are spent on salaries, facilities, debt payments and savings. Basically all their benevolent work is funded by the remaining 30%. Data and numbers do not lie. If we were to use the financial statements to conduct a spiritual audit of the Church, we can easily conclude that the church does not prioritize the ministry mandated by her Lord and Master. The church's modern priority, it seems, is to build earthly edifices at the expense of her mandated ministry.

Although one could argue that by supporting pastors and missionaries the church actually supports the work, providing for the actual mandated ministry and paying for someone to do the work are distinct and mutually exclusive. For example, when we take Paul’s instruction to the Church about supporting widows (found in 1 Timothy 5:5-16) into consideration we will quickly realize how that Paul intends for the Church to support and provide only for those who cannot provide for themselves. He even instructs believers who have widows in their family to provide for them so that the Church could support those who are widows, helpless, and without family (v.16). It is unlikely that Paul would have approved of the way the modern Church financially supports able-bodied men and women in exchange for work that ALL believers should be doing in the first place, especially when it significantly reduces the capacity of the Church to attend to it Biblically mandated financial priorities. While one could argue that it is Biblical for ministers to live of the gospel, this argument must be tempered and read in the context of Paul’s statement. If understood in context, it would be easy to understand that Paul used this model as an antithesis to the model he introduced. Paul intends for ministers of the Gospel to follow his example, and to support themselves and their families by working a trade so that the ministry remain without charge.

The continued use of this "live of the gospel" model is commonly justified by a "sacred versus secular" mentality.

Throughout the years, I have encountered ministers, pastors , and missionaries who employ sacred versus secular arguments to justify why they need to be financially supported by the church. Those pastors or ministers who hold professional work are considered part-time ministers and are perceived to lack the faith and fortitude to let go in order to let God, and ones who live in a state of conflicting interests. But in a majority of cases, it must be noted, this is simply another way of saying, I don't know any other work...

Let us look into this argument of secular versus sacred. When we examine the Scriptures in its entirety, the doctrine of sanctification and separation pertains to spiritual and lifestyle practices that comes as a result of a conviction for holiness and holy living in everything that the believer does (1 Corinthians 10:31) but, has nothing to do with maintaining a trade or profession to support oneself and family since “working to eat and live” is a clear Biblical mandate (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12). With respect to the believer, everything is sacred—we must do all things to glorify God. Isn't this the chief end of man?

Ministers have been trained to think that working a “secular” job will contradict the interests of the ministry since they will be serving a different “master”. This argument is flawed since it categorically stipulates that industry is ungodly and is beyond the sovereign control of the Almighty, forgetting the fundamental principle that all things have been created by Him and for Him. Ungodliness is a condition of alienation from the Almighty and evil is a condition that affects only those with volition or will. The natural environment is affected by evil only as a consequence of the actions of mankind. It is the motivations and purposes of the ungodly that distinguishes them from the redeemed. To presuppose that industry is ungodly is therefore wrong. The proper distinction that must then be made is not secular and sacred, but godly from ungodly.

Serving A Different Master. The believer ultimately serves the Lord Jesus Christ, even when serving unbelieving and ungodly “masters”; in everything he or she does, the believer is instructed to glorify God. Paul clearly instructs believers to “count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed” (1 Timothy 6:1); whether their masters are believers or unbelievers, believers who serve must frame their work ethic so that the name of the Lord be not blasphemed.

The believer serves the Lord and as a consequence of this service, allows even an unbelieving master to benefit from the work of the believer’s hands—a testimony that redounds to the glory of God. For the believer, the answer is singular; so regardless of the type of work or industry wherein a believer is employed (the premise is that the work does not violate moral absolutes clearly stated in the Scriptures), the believer must serve the purposes of the Lord, and by serving, deliver on the expectations of his or her employer. The believer must serve only God to the benefit of all within the scope of relationships that are related to one’s employment.

In situations where the believer consciously and intentionally enjoins the priorities of the ungodly master over that which will glorify God, the problem rests not in the in the nature of the ungodly as such, or the “secular” nature of the work, but in the motivations of the individual. It is therefore not an issue of industry, but of individual motivations and priority on the part of the capitulating believer.

Over the centuries, in what I perceive to be nothing more than a rat race for prominence and ecclesiastical posture, the church has supported the mass production of “ministers” through Bible colleges and seminaries under the premise of preparing men and women to fulfill the Great Commission (this is the second place of departure from the NT model, the first being the institutionalization of clergy which I covered in my previous article). Due to the model employed by the colleges and seminaries of today, a majority of its graduates are not equipped to function responsibly as members of their communities beyond “spiritual theory”. They are not equipped with the knowledge essential to industry since the expectation set is for graduates to find local congregations or mission boards to financially provide for them. They are trained to depend on the support of the congregation; trained to propagate a system that has created more harm than good for the ekklesia; trained to do the charge the ministry in exchange for their “services” a work believers are commanded to fulfill out of spiritual necessity.

This mass production of ministers is intended to produce quantity of converts—a model that is not unlike other industries. Quality and growth of individual spiritual lives are constantly overwhelmed by the priorities of numeric growth. In the end, the metric of “success” these institutions use are all based on quantity, under the assumption that quantity will generate some semblance of quality. This directly correlates the success or limitations of the ministry to individual capability and not as the resulting work of the Holy Spirit.

Ministers tend to view the value of their work on the basis of this quantitative metric. The larger the congregation, the more successful a minister is perceived to be, and the more financially secure—a metric similarly employed by every industry. Prominence and respectability are based on the empirical aspects of ministry and not on the spiritual—the size of facilities, the number of members, the number of active ministries, the substance and amount of the weekly offerings, and the social and economic statuses of the members and those that attend the services of the congregation.

The modern church quantifies her success in much the same way as the world views success, the only difference is that church ministers "spins" these metrics to reflect a more spiritual orientation.

Those that end up in poorer, smaller and less prominent congregations devises all sorts of ways to meet their financial needs, the preference being for believers (even from other congregations) to personally support them financially. Because of the mental models of those in their church boards, any effort on the part of the minister to augment his earnings through a distinct profession, typically results in a great deal of heartache for the minister and his family which in extreme cases could lead to termination (how exactly do you terminate one from being a minister of the gospel? you can't, you only terminate employees). The perception is that ministers who engage in professional work or in a career are less spiritual than those who work full time for the church.

Those that purpose to become missionaries engage in deputation work. Here missionary candidates prepare “canned” materials that are presented to different churches within their associations. Everything from the songs, to the catchy slogans, sound bytes, display boards, material hand-outs and flyers, personal posture, the handshakes, to the sermons are all thoroughly rehearsed. In short, these candidates need to learn how to effectively market themselves so that congregations and individual believers could be convinced to part with as much of their money. The “success” rate of missionary candidates largely depends on how well they presented their case, what mission boards they belong to, and who they know—nothing different from the dynamics that govern the market and industry as a whole. There are only a handful who do the work of the ministry out of a real calling, a spiritual necessity rather than an economic one, and these are typically those who are classified as tent-makers.

While pastoral job descriptions may vary from one congregation to the other, let’s explore what typically constitutes full-time ministry work. The expectation is for the minister to study, preach, evangelize, visit, counsel, mediate, and do everything else the congregation expects him and his family to do. Weekends are the busiest from dawn till dusk, but weekdays are relatively relaxed. An average minister spends less than 4 hours a week in study and 12 hours a week of actual scheduled ministry work (prayer meeting, Sunday school and services, visitation), and about 8 hours of counseling leading and administrative work coming to a total of 24 hours of ministry related work out of a 40 hour work week. If we deduct 8 hours of sleeping and 3 hours of personal time (bathing, eating, travel, and conversations) out of a 24 hour day, we will come to about 12 potentially productive hours every day. Considering a 6-day work week, there are 72 productive hours in every week. If we calculate the daily average of actual work of the minister against a 6-day work week, we will come to an average of 4 hours per day spent on actual ministry related work. This means over 8 hours are non-productive or available per day and 48 hours are non-productive or available per week.

Given that most ministry-related work occurs in the early evenings (since most members are working during the day), basically the entire day remains available. When we quantify ministry related activity in the same way as industry does as a basis for exchanging time for money, we will soon realize that for a majority of churches, the work of a full-time minister is at best a part-time 20 hour per week endeavor, since the 4 hours of study must be a matter of personal discipline and cannot be classified as works made for hire.

If we use this equation, most churches end up paying 66.67% over actual costs since only 33.33% of actual time per week is spent on ministry related work. The church yields only 33.33% from 100% from its salary related costs. This means 66.67% of resources that could have gone to feeding the hungry, attending to the fatherless, helping the aged and widows, and ministering to the sick have been diverted to support 66.67% of non-productivity.

A congregation comprised of mature believers can fulfill most of the work designated to the paid minister. This is actually the Biblical mandate found in the fourth chapter of Ephesians. The reason why there seems to be more administrative work for the minister is because too much non-essential activities have replaced the real priorities of the Church as mandated by the Lord and modeled by the ancient church.

As I stated in the past, the church needs to attend to the helpless, hungry, fatherless, aged and widows, and sick as a matter of priority. Ministers must themselves give to the work instead of becoming a burden of the work. The current paradigm of a mega-church is one that is a natural consequence of great marketing but is not necessarily a result of spiritual revival. The entire thrust of the Scriptures revolves around a qualitative life in the Spirit and guided by the Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The quality of the believer's life must remain independent of social institutions as it based on a "personal" relationship with the Lord. One’s depth of relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is not determined by the size of the congregation a believer is part of, the degree of piety, or the level of emotional excitement one conjures up to feel good about faith. The quality of faith is based on a progressive understanding of the timeless truths taught in the Word of God, and a corresponding obedience to these truths throughout one's lifetime.

It would be better for the church and the individual ministers if ministers were to work a trade to support themselves, their family, and ministry. The work of the ministry is laborious but it is not a trade. The ministry is the fervent and effectual out working of genuine faith; it is the demonstration of the least we, as believers, could do to show our gratitude for our salvation; it is our opportunity to give of ourselves and substance, and by giving, participate in the fulfillment of the priorities set by the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The ministry of the Gospel is meant to teach people to give, to demonstrate the justice and love of God through the selfless service of her constituency. It is a channel for giving so that taking from her in obligation, in whatever form, will remain forever contrary to the Biblical model.

This present “employment” model is a doorway that allows ungodliness to creep into the work of the church. Wherever an exchange occurs comes the question of equity, relevance, and delivery. But where giving is purely the purpose, one can never go wrong.

This is the great deviation…a deviation from the NT model, a departure that must be rectified, a model that must be changed if the church is to align with the priorities of the Master; priorities which remain immutable and absolute. If we return to the NT paradigm, we will model a pay-it-forward mentality, a mentality that will clearly differentiate the motivations and priorities of the ekklesia from all other human institutions. It begins with a change in the way its leaders think and how effectively these leaders model such a change to those charged to be in their care and guidance.

How do I begin?

  1. Study Acts chapters 18-28 as well as the entire of 1 Corinthians 9, comparing this with Deuteronomy 25 along with 1 Thessalonians 3 and answer the following questions:
    1. How did Paul and his company support themselves? How did other apostles support themselves?
    2. What principles could you formulate that is consistent with Paul’s approach to ministry? What benefits will this bring you and the church?
    3. How are these principles different from what you have been taught?
    4. How can you apply these principles in your life and congregation? What will be your first steps at introducing this change in thinking?
    5. What are popular systems of thought regarding this subject within your circle of relationships and network of associations? How do these systems match up with the standard of Scripture?
  2. Read up on New Testament and Early Church History. Alfred Eedersheim, G.H. Orchard and Thomas Armitage, are good authors well worth your time in study;
  3. Read up on Systems Thinking. You will find the Institute for Creation Research a good source for authors and articles;
  4. Make a couple of lists: a ministry and personal development list. Map out your activities on a daily basis. Make sure to identify ministry-critical work from the non-essentials. Do not include study time in your list of ministry-related activities, instead include this item in your personal development activities.
  5. Quantify the amount of time you actually spend in each ministry per item per week, then define how much time you have to engage in a trade;
  6. Begin researching on a trade that matches your interests and financial objectives and set a deadline for you to learn a new trade;
  7. Discuss these changes with your family, educate them if necessary; then talk to the elders and deacons of the Church concerning a targeted date for completely freeing yourself as a financial burden of the church. Make sure you set a date that will not exceed a period of 12 months from the time you discuss the issue with them.
  8. Commit every step to the Lord for guidance and wisdom, and share this model with others.

Blessings to All!

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