Since I personally know where you’re coming from on this I can definitely see how you’re dealing with many of these issues. Unlike you I was never really burned by the church handling of vocation, I just grew weary of the machine.

I’m living in #3 right now, so believe me when I say it’s a real struggle. Truly a blessing and a curse, and I’m certainly not the only one – not by a long shot.

Anyway, glad to have your contribution here. Thanks.

#1 is a core issue to me, and I appreciate how the rest of the post and the comments are essentially unpacking what the “real work” of ministry is. I am someone who is right now reacting against paid ministry leadership because I feel I have seen too many pastors or church employees who don’t do much work. I’ll also confess that I am a pastor’s kid, so I’m not judging my family and everyone. I’m more thinking of the archetype of the church of Christendom – big budgets, big leaders, big bling – all on the congregants tithe $$.

In short, I can hear pastors/church employees saying, “ministry is real work” – but I don’t see them doing that real work. And the work they are doing is posh compared to the 9-5 grind of the laypeople. There needs to be greater accountability. Or trust? (Can you tell I’ve been burned by the church?

#3 is incredibly powerful. The implications are huge – living in faith, asking for our “daily bread” in real ways, truly believing that all we have is a gift and can be given…wow. But the leadership has to do this before the community will do it. Then if the community does it – shit, that would change the American world dramatically.

I’m also thankful for these posts, Jason, especially the biblical exposition, and will continue to follow them -

I think it’s profoundly helpful to distinguish between the kind of gift economy you describe and (as Geoff put it), the “modern, professionalized, paid according to skill and seniority system.”

Both may end up with a leader receiving a “paycheck” from a church, but they represent vastly different ways of seeing community, leadership, and provision.

btw, i’m ok with your kind of fundamentalism which take the bible seriously, but not one-dimensionally.

The role of pastor involves many things, including (perhaps most importantly) the time and effort to give people individual attention.

I honestly don’t know how anybody who is not self-employed, or working for a ministry-supportive organization, can manage bi-vocational pastorship.

I understand that as Christians we must all be prepared to teach/preach but there are those among us who just cannot do anything but teach and/or preach. My pastor is virtually unable to hold a conversation with anyone without it becoming a teaching moment. It is not intentional, it is just who & what he is – a teacher.

I agree with your comments re: being taken care of so that the teachers & preachers have the time to pray & prepare. I know that when I have been asked to take a service & I am not able to pass off some of my other responsibilities it is very difficult to be properly prepared to minister to the congregation.

Grace,
Michael

In the Vineyard we say that “everyone can play” – meaning that everyone can be used by the Holy Spirit. Yet, at the same time, we limit the playing field to just signs and wonders – saying that you have to have a special “calling” to teach and preach.

ok, I know I am making some broad strokes here….My main point is that we – the Western church – have limited the teaching/preaching ministry of the Spirit to a select few. (I guess this goes back to the starfish/spider discussion earlier)

Following this train of thought- it would lean it self more readily to the type of “gift economy’ promoted by Jason for everyone would be on the “same level”. In that, the person who teaches would be no different then the one who serves, or prophesy or works miracles (1 Cor 12 again).

I understand that by “opening” up the realm of teaching can be scary as people could teach anything. Yet, do we really want to clamp down on the Spirit? Should we not be more like Paul, who in letting people teach, maintained a relationship with them so that he could gently (or not so gently as the case may be) direct them back to the Truth?

@ Jason – “consumed with the minutia of making ends meet”

I think there is a difference between securing food, clothes, and shelter and “making ends meet”. In my mind, securing food/clothes/shelter means securing just that – the bare basic needed to keep breathing and living.

“Making ends meet” to me means, making sure you pay your car payments, mortgage, coffee habit and what not. In this case, there are a lot of Christians struggling to make the ends meet (and living in debt to boot).

With those terms defined – I realize that there are people in the USA that are struggling just to feed their families with no extras (if you go outside of the USA, there are even more families in this category). However, the majority of Christians in the USA are NOT in this place. They are living paycheck to paycheck because of poor financial planning (which is due to a lot of things, including lack of training/knowledge). These folks have time and energy for spiritual things – they just spent it trying to live the “American dream” of bigger boats, cool TVs, nice clothes and other such items.

Going back to my original comment – I would say that most people living during Paul’s time would have fallen under the first category of trying to meet basic living needs. These folks would not have the time or luxury to study or focus on “spiritual” things as all their energy would have been used trying to live. As such, Paul COULD be telling the church to give honor to anyone who goes above and beyond the “normal” to prepare themselves for teaching and preaching.

In other words, it is not that preaching and teaching is BETTER then the other Spiritual gifts – it just means those who preach and teach must spend more TIME in preparation then those who pray for the sick, prophesy, etc. Seeing that time equals food and life in 1st Century Asia Minor, Paul could be saying – feed them; take care of them so that they can take the time to pray and prepare to bring the word of God to the people.