A Hard Message
The Church in the developing or 3rd world gets a hard message. I would even say that the Church in the developed West gets an entirely different spiritual diet than the rest of the world. It is almost like two different entities. We all have practically the same Bible. So, why the difference?
The Gospel makes its inroad into many unreached places by missionaries. These are people who are sent by somewhat affluent churches or countries. They have enough resources to be able to send and support (more or less) minsters to proclaim the message about Jesus' Person and His work, to baptize new believers as disciples of Jesus, and to teach them His words. At least at first, the hearers in the unreached land do not financially support the missionaries. Perhaps they are never able to give the Westerner the amount of money he desires. Because the unreached peoples do not have any financial interest in the missionaries' support they do not have any stranglehold on them either. The missionary can give them any kind of message or attitude he wants. The people can never control him by shutting off the money. The Church in the 3rd world, therefore, can get a harder diet or message than the Church in the West.
It was the practice of the missions group I was with to raise up local leaders, like pastors. In my case they would be Mexican pastors. The people were very poor. They either could not or would not give much to the local church and therefore to the local pastor. The pastors of these poor Mexican churches would not be financially supported by the people they ministered unto, same as the missionaries. When the groups of believers were gathered together under the ministry of the missionaries, they might get a hard word. This would be because they have no financial stranglehold on the minister. When they would be ministered to by local pastors, they had no stranglehold on them, either. Therefore, the Church in the 3rd world can get a very difficult message. Certainly one that would never be heard in the churches in the West. This might be good or it might be bad.
In the West a pastor might be preaching one morning and notice a little feather being ruffled in the audience by something he said. “Oh, oh. Board meeting right after the service.” I have personally known of a pastor with several small children being thrown out of the parsonage at Christmas time. Is the 3rd world model or the Western model of church politics the right way?
Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. (1Cor 9:14)
Say, God is quite clever. He really is smart. Ideally, in a healthy church, the presiding elder or pastor should be financially supported by the people, if possible. This serves to balance everything out. It serves to help develop a godly attitude on the part of the pastor as well as the people. The people are to care for their pastor. The pastor is to be kind to the people, especially since they are the Lord's sheep. Of course, the bottom line is to be faithful to the Lord and His words in spite of what people may say, real or imagined.
If we are a minister, our job is to obey our Lord and to be kind and helpful to His people. If we are a hearer, our responsibility is to be involved in the financial well being of those who bring the Word to us.
Mar. 7, 2024