Photo by TMAB2003 (Creative Commons)
Many of us within the simple/organic church movement are so scared of organization and denominationalism that we have failed to work together to take financial responsibility for those from our midst who, according to Scripture, "deserve their wages." As a result, some of these people are either unable to put much of their time into Kingdom work, are being supported by outside organizations or their spouses, or are suffering through great financial hardship.
We need more full-time people in the Kingdom, not less. Those with an apostolic call of God on their lives will do the work of the Kingdom anyway, whether or not they receive financial reward, but how much more effective could they be if they weren't worried about money? I'm not talking about local leaders here. I'm talking about those who travel to train and equip others around the nation or the world.
- Example: Neil Cole and the CMA team of Greenhouse trainers have trained more than 40,000 leaders around the world in the principles of organic church. This has been profoundly effective. We need more people like Neil released to equip the body.
- Example: In the UK, Pete and Marsha Farmer are strategically reaching out to every region of the country, training and equipping people to make disciples and start churches. We need more people like Pete and Marsha.
- Example: we had dinner last night with a man from Bhutan, thrown out of his country because he openly shared his faith, now traveling the Himalayas providing training schools for other refugees on how to multiply churches. We need more people like him.
We (as a movement) should be sending out people who have a call on their lives to work with unreached people groups around the world. Think of the effectiveness of movements like the Moravians. Together, we could do it.
It's time for us to grow up and take responsibility.
(If you would like some ideas of those who need financial support, let me know.)
