Do you have a part time job? Maybe you work in a shop or deliver papers. Maybe you simply look out for jobs to do. When you have been working hard you know that the pay packet is going to turn up at the end of the month. Then you will be able to buy your music, or go out to the party knowing that you have earned the money to do so. What is going to happen when you leave college and go out to work? Are you expecting to get paid or are you going to work for free? Whether we work for someone else or whether we work for ourselves, we expect to get some money to live on. We don’t only expect to get paid; we absolutely need to be paid. What might be party money now will become food money later on when you leave college. So if this is what we expect, why are we surprised that our Church leaders need to earn money to live on as well? It’s not like they are asking for thousands of pounds to buy their next jet. No, most Church leaders simply need to earn a basic wage to feed them and their family. Pauls pretty straight about it when he talks to Tim. He tells us not only to pay these guys but if they are good give them an extra bonus. Do you agree? Of course you do its obvious isn’t it? Now this is where the rubber meets the road. If our churches need to pay our leaders, look after our buildings and spread the great news about Jesus, where are they going to get the money to do that from? Ouch! Yes you got it. It’s down to us to put our hands in our pockets; and not just once but regularly. Sometimes the teaching we get from the Bible isn’t comfortable is it. But that doesn’t make it any less true.
