Simple Church Minute 21--supporting Christian workers

21—supporting Christian workers     

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            In the early church, people like Paul, Priscilla and Aquila had skills that allowed them to travel to other cities and cultures to teach people about Jesus.  It appears that Paul was born into wealth, which is why he was a Roman citizen, and would have had no need of the tentmaking skill except that it was a requirement of being trained a Pharisee.  Only after his conversion did it become clear that even that was God’s hand on his life, as it helped make possible his missionary journeys.  There is no place in the New Testament that condoned local religious professionals.  There was money specifically raised to send persons to places where it was questionable that one could obtain a livable skill for that culture.

            Our culture is a lot different.  In Paul’s day, just being literate was a prized skill. Part of what brought Rome to its knees was that people got saved, learned to read so they could read the Bible for themselves, and then were qualified to work in the Roman bureaucracy.  When Diocleatian’s last general persecution happened, so many believers fled, the Empire could not function.

            Today, one of our society’s problems is that in too many businesses and other organizations, the people they want to hire and promote are not the hones, not the best trained, but the most easily corrupted people.  It is a natural, but difficult, part of our commitment to living for Jesus to desire to do work that is honest and ethical by God’s standards.  How do we give our best to honor Jesus in work?  1. Work as unto God, not as unto man.  2. Get a skill.  One of six in our society with a college degree is not using it in his or her job.  Further, I know what I am saying about leadership and every member ministry threatens the jobs of many Godly people who are in the status quo church system, but it is not scriptural.  3. Desire work from an ethical employer.  Our society is overrun with employers whose only honest jobs are the bottom line ones.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com.  For more info on organic church*, see http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally, (local website).

On the recording, at this time, it says, “house churches.”  While that phrasing is OK, to say “organic church” is better.  I comment on that in blip 94.