May 15, 2006
Nine to Five
We’ve all known preachers from ‘the old school’ who were workaholics, often neglecting their own families for the sake of the flock. Today, as the pendulum swings the other way, we now see some young preachers coming out of Bible College who want to work 9 to 5, with comp time for anything outside a 40 hour work week. For the man in the pew who contributes volunteer hours in the church in addition to his full time job, this new ‘work ethic’ is difficult to come to terms with. The church is always searching for volunteers, and I hate to admit that my volunteerism is done begrudgingly when I can’t see the church staff volunteering beyond their job descriptions.
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2 comments:
Gail;
----Your insights concerning the negative impact upon volunteerism by the 9 to 5 attitude of the contemporary minister are right on the money (another of their compelling ambitions). These guys are terrible examples to volunteers because of such self concerned attitudes about "their" time.
----But when the Bible is opened to see exactly why they get a paycheck, what you have already pointed out as a disasterous example to volunterism becomes seen as a worse one to sincerety.
Paul told the Thessalonians that whoever did not work should not eat. The work ethic is important to the follower of Christ, but so is the person who becomes full of insight and Godliness. According to what Paul wrote to Timothy, as the Christian community looks more and more to the particuler elders who have that Christian maturity and drive for the feeding and direction of its spiritual life, these elders have littler and littler time left for earning a living for their families. Then the Christain community steps in to free them from that necessity so they can engage in their first love - serving Jesus in the feeding and tending of His sheep.
----The ministry is not a career. It is a life in the Lord that drives the heart so deep into serving Him and His children well that there becomes no time to maintain a career. This condition of life does not lead to a clock indicating the end of a work day. The fulfilled needs of the Christian community indicate when a true servant's day can be called complete. (The claim that the schedule would never indicate the day's end says more about the affectiveness of the service than it does about the volume of the needs. For example, it was you who taught me to write affectively, and now the service that is your blogspot contains a few more ideas that you don't have to write yourself. Teaching another to write affectively was affective service.)
----Paul did not tell Timothy and Titus to go out and hire preachers. He told them to appoint elders, and that those elders who did well at handling the affairs of the church were worthy of pay, especially those elders who preach. How far we have drifted from the Word with our employees for ministers and their serfs for elders!
Good thoughts and Comments from Gail and Steve. Preachers (ministers) at one time felt they were called to their profession to perform God given duties for their flock, certainly requiring more than a 9-5 attitude. Now it seems preaching is just a job choice. Better hours than most, generally respected in the community, little or no supervision.
Job description? Do whatever is needed and directed by God, whenever so directed.
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