Should we be Tentmakers?

Acts 18:1-4

The answer to this question depends on what one means. It is clear in one respect in  the writing of Paul that “tent making” is both literal and a form of ministry. However, we in the Church often extend that first meaning to justify non-payment or low payment of our ministers. Is this what we should do? I think Paul would say May it never be!

The Scripture is multi–dimensional in meaning, and it is difficult sometimes not to want to see it through a monocular and convenient vision. That is to say it easier to say that ministry should be free, and that pastors should be satisfied with a job well done for the Lord. 

Paul addresses this in 1st Corinthians 9:7-14. Here Paul comares a variety of service positions that develop fruit, but are compensated. The most pertinent is in V.13 where he compares ministers to the Levitical priesthood. These men were expected to serve full-time in ministry, and they were wholly supported with regard to basic needs. Some have definitely taken this to an extreme and made fortunes off of ministry. What I am trying to say is simply this. Paul worked among people, that was ministry. If a body could not support him then he did not expect them too. However, if a body of believers was able to support him it was the expectation that they did, as far as basic needs. This is shown in V 14: “the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.”

The Ministry should not leave one broken and destitute; quite the opposite. While I don’t think God would give a pastor a Bentley and mansion, I also don’t see the paradigm as a Pastor working 60+ hour week and then being expected to minister to the Church for free. This is especially prudent when one realizes that Paul did not have a problem that most of us have, he didn’t have a wife and children: the first line of his ministry. Paul’s example was to tell us that all things are ministry, that we need to be all things to all people, so that some will come to know Christ.