I may not be the theologian that most preachers aspire to be, but I had a thought (like most people) and I decided to write it down and post it. I categorize this entry as “Thinking Out Loud”. I enjoy writing; it gives me an outlet…from what? I remember when I would ask questions in the Church and those questions would attract the wrath of the teacher or Pastor. My method of asking was pure curiosity and of the uttermost respect for the teacher. There was an atmosphere in the local church (I once attended) where certain questions were simply taboo, the problem was, I did not know what those taboo questions were.
When I attended the Bible Study, I could feel the intimidation in the air and when I look at the faces of the people, I could see their reluctance to ask or even participate in the study out of the fear of not knowing the answer and being lambasted by the scholars or scrutinized by the Pastor. I always thought asking questions is the mark of one learning.
How else do we learn how to formulate an opinion or discover the truth if we don’t ask questions? Maybe that’s it, too many questions in the Bible Study will expose the truth of a matter and the truth was to be hidden perhaps (…Just thinking out loud).
In the title of this post, I want to provoke you to some thinking and searching. I thought about how many leaders in the church are not active in a skill, trade or occupation. What am I talking about? Okay, here goes; Jesus had a trade (carpenter) Moses had a definite skill (leader, royalty that worked on Pharaohs court) and Paul was a tent maker. Each afore mentioned persons utilized their skill, but today we have church leaders whose sole occupation is Pastor; that’s all they do, it their full time job (sounds more like a Levite to me). There is nothing wrong with being a full time Pastor, or was their anything wrong with the Levites of that day. The Levites or those of the Levitical Order, were not allowed to have a job or own property. The Levites were taken care of by the nation of Israel thru the tithe and offerings. Fortunately, there are no more people / men of the Levitical Priesthood left alive.
Today we have Pastors that have the best of both worlds, they own property, they are authors and scholars and yet they exact a tithe from the people. Can we have it both ways? Expecting the people to tithe like Israel to a Pastor whom has no job, skill, occupation and his reliance is in the tithe that working people provide. The tithe seemingly is not enough because we have love offerings, special offering, gleaners, Pastors anniversary and that’s just to name a few; all at the expense and hard work of the people. These same people have homes to maintain, relationships to nurture and yet they are working overtime for a blessing they can have later, while the Pastor enjoys his now ($$$). Most of the givers in your average Sunday service are not cheerful at all but their motive for giving is fear, shame and embarrassment.
In all that was previously written, I end with a question; With all of this time and work that the people of God do to bless the preacher, I noticed, that saved and unsaved alike are losing jobs, saved and unsaved alike are struggling in this economy and Church Leaders are concerned about the dwindling attendance. Hmmm I wonder why?
Giving should be a joy motivated by one appreciation of what God has done for the individual blessed with an abundance of resources. A persons’ love for God and fellow man should be motivation enough, without injecting the element of fear in giving.
Caring for church leaders and supporting the ministry should be a joy, not a burden of the people.
Going Against The Grain
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