My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute, Today, a reading from Felicity Dale, from her blog, www.simplychurch.com, from July 1, 2011:
(www.simplychurch.com/, July 1 entry in its entirety except for the last sentence that is a tie in to the next blog. You will have to scan down to the month of July, 2011 to see article, as it appears that page number within address line changes each month. )
In the Bible, only those believers who were going to communicate the message of Jesus where it has not been heard were supported. This isn’t a problem that just began with the New Covenant. The reason that Paul learned tentmaking was that Old Testament priests at times had a difficult time making ends meet when large amounts of the children of Israel fell away to follow other gods, and then didn’t give the tithes the priests were to live on, so the Pharisees demanded their students to learn a trade, which was why Paul could do tentmaking while on his missionary journeys. Some of us today know former pastors who struggle today when something happens such that they can’t get a church job.
That western culture has created a system that is contrary to the example we have in the New Testament has been a problem for our leaders for generations, albeit oftentimes not spoken of within earshot of those of us not on a church corporation’s payroll. More on this tomorrow.
You can contact me at simplechurchminute@yahoo.com or by phone at 757-735-xxxx.
A transcript of this is posted at tevyebird.blogspot.com, dated July 23, 2011.
For more information about simple, being the church in this area, visit www.hrscn.org.
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