Galatians 6:6-10 (A Worthy Investment)
Today there is a lot of talk about house church, Missional living, and churches living more like community. There are a lot of compelling reasons to look in this direction, from the Biblical end of the spectrum all the way over to the old American stand-by: pragmatism. Some people get very excited about the idea of house churches not being saddled with the high cost of property, utilities and salaries. The idea is that a community meeting in homes can simply take up collections when the feel “led” to do so, and not worry about money the rest of the time.
That is all very good and well, and may even be a valid reason for doing house church. However, not all church leadership should go the way of the lay-leader or the bi-vocational leader. There is a good (and even Biblical) argument for communities to consider having some of their leadership—called of God—to devote themselves full-time to the leadership and spiritual growth of the community. Here, Paul says that the teacher deserves to receive from the learners.
The whole “reaping what you sow” teaching has many more applications to be sure, but the fact that the paragraph begins with a sentence regarding providing for spiritual leaders is not a coincidence. Communities who decide to invest in such leadership can benefit in the fact that they will have people devoted to their spiritual growth all the time.
That being said, the church today tends to err on both sides of the equation. There are far too many starving-church-mice pastors and even a few too many obscenely rich pastors as well.
That is all very good and well, and may even be a valid reason for doing house church. However, not all church leadership should go the way of the lay-leader or the bi-vocational leader. There is a good (and even Biblical) argument for communities to consider having some of their leadership—called of God—to devote themselves full-time to the leadership and spiritual growth of the community. Here, Paul says that the teacher deserves to receive from the learners.
The whole “reaping what you sow” teaching has many more applications to be sure, but the fact that the paragraph begins with a sentence regarding providing for spiritual leaders is not a coincidence. Communities who decide to invest in such leadership can benefit in the fact that they will have people devoted to their spiritual growth all the time.
That being said, the church today tends to err on both sides of the equation. There are far too many starving-church-mice pastors and even a few too many obscenely rich pastors as well.
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