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Paul‑Timothy Supplementary Study Download other Paul-Timothy studies from
www.Paul-Timothy.net Mobilizing
Bi-vocational Voluntary Workers Guidelines
for Self-supporting Church Planters and Shepherds With
input from Cmr. Thomas Mathew, Robert Thiessen, Galen Currah, Peter
Bogdonov, George Patterson Contents 1.
God Wants Me To
Serve Him Voluntarily a.
I pray for biblical wisdom about doing
business or a trade b.
It is my duty
as a leaders to mobilize many ‘tentmakers’ c.
I have joined
the huge host of volunteer church planters that God desires d.
I embrace the Bible’s bi-vocational church
planting model. e.
I escaped caste
mentality and other cultural barriers to volunteer work 2. Easy Steps to
Develop a Small Business or a Trade 1.
God
wants me to serve Him voluntarily. “You know how you ought to follow our example,
because we did not … eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with
labour and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a
burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in
order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our
example.” 2 Thess. 3:7-9 a.
I pray
for biblical wisdom about doing business or a trade.
To start
a business or work at a trade that will support you while you plant churches,
ask God to teach to you his way of thinking about it. ·
If you work at a trade, then ask the Lord to
give you the same attitude that Jesus had when he made tables and chairs
with Joseph in their ·
If you mentor new leaders, then exhort them
like Paul did the Ephesian shepherding elders. He met with them in Acts 20 to
give them his last instructions. They were weeping because they knew that
they would never see him again, his last instruction, that he left in their
minds, was to beg them tearfully to work with their hands to support
themselves while they shepherded God’s people: “I commend you to God and to the word of His grace…
I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothes. You know that these hands
ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. In everything I
showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and
remember the words of the Lord Jesus… ‘It is more blessed to give than to
receive.’” When [Paul] had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with
them all. And they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly
kissed him, grieving
especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his
face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. Acts
20:32-38. ·
If you start a business it will probably be a
small one. Ask the Lord to give you the same way of thinking that “Everyone in Yuvinani is doing well; the difference would
amaze you. The dirt road entering the village now
has six businesses, all started by poor believers. Alfonso has a
carpentry shop; his brother has a welding shop; another
believer has a woodworking shop; another, a tire repair shop; another, a
variety store; and another, a hardware store. Two others believers are
learning mechanics and car body repair. It spreads! This
shows another aspect of the transforming power of the Gospel; it changes every part of our lives
when we let it do so.” ·
Use Scripture to show that God wants many
volunteer workers. The New Testament describes how God used many volunteers
and a few paid leaders to expand His kingdom. Some travelling church
planters, including some of the original twelve apostles, received financial
help part of the time. Most of their financial help came from the new
churches that they started. Paul himself worked with his hands when he had to
do so. He even refused financial help, so he could serve as an example to
lazy leaders in Thessalonica. (2 Thessalonians 3:6‑10) ·
b.
It is my
duty as a leader to mobilize ‘tentmakers’.
·
Unpaid workers are called ‘tentmakers’,
because ·
To keep churches reproducing normally,
leaders must require that most church planters be volunteer ‘tentmakers’. If
leaders tie the expansion of God’s Kingdom to a limited source of finances,
then there will never be enough workers. It would be a mistake to trust in
material resources, rather than in God who promises to provide what workers
need. If
leaders hinder normal outreach by voluntary workers, then many of their
congregations will become sterile, failing to reproduce daughter churches,
because they do not mobilize their members to reproduce in the normal way
described in the New Testament. c.
I have
joined the huge host of voluntary workers that God desires. Almighty
God has revealed His purpose to mobilize many volunteer leaders. He uses
faithful workers, both volunteers and those who receive financial help, to
spread Christ’s Kingdom on earth. God’s desire for volunteer church planters
and shepherds is revealed in Scripture and confirmed by history. Here are
some important facts: 1) God
blesses any occupation that helps expand His Kingdom. Most
volunteer Christian leaders are bi‑vocational, that is, they have two
jobs. Their paid occupation provides income to support them and their family;
their unpaid vocation is to serve the community of believers. 2)
Both vocations can be spiritual, because the
added responsibilities of bi‑vocational service require more power from
the Holy Spirit than does paid service alone. 3)
Satan tries to deceive bi-vocational workers
with lies such as, “God’s workers should not dirty their hands by doing
secular work.” He whispers into the ear of careless leaders:
·
Many bi‑vocational ‘tentmakers’ also
serve Christ ‘full‑time’ because they make disciples and mentor leaders
while doing their ‘secular’ job. Bi-vocational workers should avoid jobs in
factories with too much noise to be able to talk easily.
·
1)
Their
secular vocation provided financial support not only for them but also for
the Apostle Paul when he needed it. 2)
Their
occupation gave them freedom to make disciples. Their small business allowed
them freedom to move to where new churches were needed. Theirs was an
independent family business with low capital investment and a simple
technology that did not isolate them from the rest of the world. 3)
They
were hospitable. They hosted traveling evangelists like Paul, and they opened
their house to the churches that they started in 4)
They
had the valuable skill of discipling novice leaders privately, in the
background, as they did for Apollos (Acts 5)
They
worked as a team. The added responsibilities of bi-vocational work often make
it hard for one person to both do pastoral work and run a business. d. I embrace the Bible’s bi-vocational church
planting model. 1) Some
church planters in the New Testament who travelled long distances received
financial aid. Other church planters who worked only in their own region were
normally volunteers. Silas, Barnabas, Peter, Paul and others had been
commissioned to travel afar to the nations, which entailed greater expenses.
Sometimes they received financial help from the new churches that they had
started. Sometimes Paul refused financial help. 2)
Explain to those whom you mentor or shepherd
what God’s calling to ministry is. If God has called a worker to do a
ministry, then the worker will obey whether or not he receives pay. God’s
gifts and calling do not depend on money. Paul exclaimed, “Woe is me if I do
not preach the gospel! For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward... What
then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel
without charge.” 1 Corinthians 9:6, 18. 3)
In the Bible, only a few church planters
received financial support. Normally, paid workers travelled long distances
and started only the first churches in a region, with the help of unpaid
local volunteers. Peter took six unpaid believers with him from Joppa to
start a new congregation in Cesarea (Acts 4)
The New Testament method of mobilizing
volunteer church planters requires rapid training of new leaders. After
appointing shepherding elders to lead their new congregations, the travelling
apostles that accepted financial help went on to other neglected places.
Volunteer leaders, from the new churches, whom they had mentored, then
carried on the task of starting other new congregations in the remaining
cities and villages of their region. 5)
In the New Testament, volunteer workers and
supported workers co-operated well together, each doing what the other could
not. Some church planting teams have two workers; one earns a living for both
of them while the other spends most of his time doing evangelism and training
leaders. 6)
To serve as a
volunteer, bi-vocational worker was considered an honour worth boasting about.
After churches were started and their volunteer elders gained
experience, some of them were counted worthy of receiving financial aid from
those whom they served (1 Timothy 5:17‑18). Paul told the
Corinthians that he had the right to receive financial help from them, but
had not exercised this right, to avoid hindering to the gospel. He commented
that he would rather die than lose the right to boast that he was a
voluntary, unpaid worker. (1 Corinthians 9:11-18) 7)
The New Testament
pattern works just as well today. God’s work in different cultures follows the
New Testament pattern of relying on volunteer, unpaid leaders to establish
most of the new churches. This normally proves to be very effective to
sustain church planting movements. Normally, after the initial penetration of
the gospel into a people or region, in a sustained church planting movement,
the majority of congregations are started by volunteer workers from new
churches located nearby. e.
I
escaped caste mentality and other barriers to volunteer work.
Satan
whispers lies to believers to deter them from learning a trade or business:
Have you let any of these things discourage you from
doing secular work along with the Lord’s ministry, or from combining the two?
If so, then pray now for God to replace such doubts with His wisdom, to help
you take the initiative in learning a trade or starting a small business. You are God’s child. Take advantage of the economic
opportunities that he puts in abundance in your world! Why be content to live
in poverty? Your
Creator wants you to be creative, too. He says to you, “I made you in my
image. You can create also, by learning a trade or starting a business, like
Jesus did, as well as Abraham, and Paul. The world around you is filled with
opportunities and resources. Use them! Plan for your future! Start now!” The Lord is not gratified by your suffering and
deprivation. He may sometimes use pain to help you grow in faith, but He
never simply wants to make you miserable. Humans and their sin are the source
of what is wrong in this world, not God. Do not let Satan lead you into
painful poverty or into greedy affluence. Some
businessmen abuse their God-given creativity and become greedy, causing
misery to many. When we use God’s gift of creativity and initiative the way
He intends, and we will receive His blessing, along with our families and
fellow believers. Although
caste is strong in One way
that some Christian workers have escaped the stigma of low social class is to
move to a region where people do not know their background. Even though a
Christian leader has faith and does all things correctly, he is still often
limited by prejudice and unbelief of his local society. Almost all leaders in
the Bible came from communities that did not recognize their potential, and
they had to move to another community to get a fresh start and serve God
effectively. Examples include Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, Esther,
Nehemiah, Ezra, Jesus, the apostles including Paul, Here are
more recommendations, taken from a message from Cdr. Thomas Mathew: The caste system of In most forms of Indian religions, the priestly
tribe remains exclusively focused on religious matters, and even those not
holding any religious office are forced to confine themselves
to supporting roles in religious rituals, or to teaching, in order to earn a
living. This has, over the centuries, created a firm belief that those who
lead religious activities should pursue no secular career. Full-time Christian church planters have been seen
as a Christian equivalent of the Brahminic priests and, hence, society has
frowned upon any effort by them to earn an income through secular work.
Earning a living with one’s hands has been viewed as motivated by greed for
material possessions. The ascetic monks of Many Christian workers would gladly use some of
their talents to supplement their income, but do not do so because of the
social stigma attached to it. Therefore, it is necessary that we destroy
these pagan cultural edifices and lead people to the freedom offered by the
Gospel of Jesus. However, it has to be done quietly, lest a backlash occur,
defeating the entire effort.
2. Easy
Steps to Develop a Small Business or a Trade God provides many ways to earn a living for
yourself and your family. Here are some small, easy steps to take, to develop
a trade or small business. When a new business or a project to improve one’s
economic condition fails, it is usually because people try to jump over
hurdles that are too high. Those folks simply take steps that are too big for
them.
Help those that you
train, with whom you already have a good relationship, to take these steps to
investigate how goods and money flow in the city or villages where they work,
and to plan accordingly. Make this a part of your mentoring or discipling and
ask your trainees to pass on the information to those whom they mentor. Every
shepherd needs to understand these steps. Ask the right questions about economic
factors where you live and where you work.
·
An interest in economic factors should be an
important part of every believer’s concern. Jesus and the apostles mentioned
economic matters often, and they praised those who were industrious. A
believer’s economic concern should not come from greed, but from love for
God’s work and for his people. Not everyone needs to become a powerful
businessman, just as not all believers become powerful evangelists. However,
all believers must evangelize and, likewise, all family men must engage in
business of some kind, even if only to sell their own time and services. QUESTIONS
TO ASK
Ask
questions about where goods and services are bought and sold in the city and
villages where you work. ·
How much is bought and sold of a product, and
at what prices? Notice the difference in prices in different places where you
travel. ·
Examples of goods: school supplies (pen,
paper, etc), hardware (nails, tools, string), newspapers, clothing, sandals,
hats, belts, umbrellas). ·
Examples of foods: eggs, vegetables, grains,
meat, fruit. ·
Examples of services: labourers,
photographers, carpentry, plumbing, appliance repair, bicycle repair, shoe
shine, garbage pickup, electrical, transport, clerking. Activities to Do ► Pray.
Ask God daily to help you to deal wisely with this information, to develop
your ‘tent making’ vocation, so that you can travel to plant churches, have
more time to shepherd your flock, and provide for your family.
CAUTION!
The demon “GREED” will tempt you to focus
only on the business and forget to plant churches, if you fail to pray daily
for God to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in your heart (Galatians
5:19-25). Many shepherds have fallen into the trap of greed and ruined their
ministry. ►With your mentor,
and with those whom you train, compare the prices of a commodity in different
places. Eggs, for example may sell at a higher price in the city than where
the chickens lay them in rural areas. Certain kinds of clothing, on the other
hand, will sell for less in the cities than in the villages. Church planters
can earn good income by taking with them different goods to and from the
villages where they work. ►Keep an up-to-date
list of commodities that you might deal with, and their prices. ►Find out
if there are syndicates or mafias that will beat you up and steal your goods,
unless you pay to them a portion of what you earn. Ask questions about where sellers get their merchandise. For each product
and service on your list that interests you, find out… ·
Is it brought in from outside? From which
village or city? ·
Through how many hands does it pass before it
reaches the place where you live or work? ·
What is its original source and price? Is it
produced locally? By whom? ·
What are the different prices for it each
time it is handled? If a
product is brought in from the outside… ·
Can a product be produced locally, or
obtained in a less expensive way? ·
By what means is a product transported?
(Truck, rail, ox cart, bicycle, walking, etc.) ·
Who are the ‘middle men’ between the original
supplier and the retailers? ·
What is its history? Quantities? Problems?
What laws apply to it? Etc. Activities to Do ►Pray.
Ask God to give to you courage to consider how products are transported and
provided, and to change any injustices. Ask the Lord for
wisdom to understand ways to earn a living while planting churches or
shepherding a flock. Ask the Lord to
bring others to work along with you in a trade or business, or to help them
to develop their own trade or business. ►Find out
what ‘middle men’ do and how much they charge for their services. Middle men
are necessary, although some are greedy and charge too much. Decide if you
can serve as a middle man. Do you have enough money to invest to get started?
Do you know the right people? If so, start with the least expensive items on
your list. ►Some
church planters have served wisely as middle men by simply taking such
commodities as newspapers and clothing to village stores. Other church
planters have used ox carts, burros or small trucks to transport commodities
to retailers, while planting churches. ►Decide
which products or services on your list can be made, or grown, locally. Can you make a better or cheaper product locally
from other materials? Can you assemble it where you live from raw
materials purchased elsewhere? Can you get it in another, cheaper commercial centre
or with cheaper transport? Can the workers whom you mentor help to produce or
distribute it? ►Again,
start with the simplest and cheapest items on your list. Plan how
you will develop a trade or business. You might choose simply to keep doing
your regular work while you start churches or shepherd a flock. ·
Decide with which product or service to
begin. Do this with others that intend to work with you in the same trade or
business. These may include your mentor, those whom you train and with your
wife if she wants to participate. ·
If you travel to different places to start
churches, be sure that any business that you start can move with you to other
places, like Aquila and Priscilla’s tent making business that they took from
Rome to Corinth, and from Corinth to Ephesus (in each place they started a
house church). ·
If you choose to learn a trade, make sure
that it will enable you also to start churches or shepherd a flock while
applying the trade. ·
If you are a shepherding elder and choose to
work for an employer in an office, factory or farm, be sure to get work that
leaves you enough free time in the evenings to shepherd your flock. ·
If you choose to start a business, choose a
product or trade that is promising and simple enough to try with confidence.
If in doubt, choose the simpler option. You may have to guess at this at
first. Normally profits will be less than what inexperienced workers guess at
first. ·
If you start a business that involves buying
and selling, calculate carefully the profit you can earn. Delete from your
list any products that do not provide good profit, no matter where you buy
them or how you make them. Pray for discernment and base your decision on
facts that you have discovered, not on wishful dreams. Delete also any
business or trade that requires what you do not have (money, relationships
with certain people, knowledge, technique, etc.) Delete also projects
that violate good morals (alcohol abuse, injustice, unhealthy, etc). ·
If you decide to work at a trade, find
someone who is experienced and will teach it to you. You may have to serve
this person as an apprentice for a few weeks or months. Many churches have
been started this way; a church planter teaches a trade such as woodworking,
carpentry, some form of agriculture or plumbing, etc., to the new shepherds
of daughter churches, and they pass the skill on to newer shepherds whom they
train in granddaughter churches, and so forth, in a ‘chain reaction’ as seen
in 2 Timothy 2:2. ·
Determine how you may purchase an item, how
you will transport it, and how much you should charge. If you grow it, what
do you need to buy or do to start? Example: Suppose
that you find in a village that a store owner buys pencils in a large
quantity at a certain price. Mainly school children buy them. You find out
from your mentor that one can buy pencils in a large quantity in his city at
a price far less than what the retailer pays his supplier. You plan for you
and your mentor to serve as middle men, earning a reasonable amount and
providing the pencils to the village store at a lower price. Suppose
that you do not have enough money to buy the large quantity of pencils at the
low price. However, your mentor visits other new shepherds and church
planters in nearby villages that have the same opportunity to sell pencils.
They plan to join you and your mentor plan to buy the large quantity, each
one investing a smaller part of the price. Each worker then will have smaller
packages of pencils to sell to store owners. You
would not compete with a store owner by selling pencils directly to the
children. He would resent it if you took his business away, and you would
have a bad testimony in the village. ·
Consider each product or service that you
listed, and think about which ones you could produce yourself, or do together
with others. ·
Find someone who has experience with the same
product or trade who will advise you. In some areas the government provides
information or training. Does the government or some other organization offer
experimental farming programs with agents that give free instruction about
techniques? (These programs differ in every country and region.) ·
You might simply do what others are already
doing, or modifying an existing practice. ·
If you make or grow a product locally, find
out what you need. If you grow vegetables, grain or other plants, can you
supply what they need? (Water, land, seed, labour, manure, insect control,
packaging, etc.) If you manufacture
the product, what raw materials do you need? Where do they come from? What
tools or techniques will you need? If you raise
animals (for eggs, meat, etc), what processes will you need? ·
Pray for a vocation that enables you to start
or shepherd flocks. God might lead you to a trade or business that otherwise
you would not think of. Examples…
·
You have taken the second step and decided
which one product or service to begin with. You have planned for all that
you can see is needed. Now, do it. Do what you have planned. ·
Pray that God give you the courage to begin
your business or trade, and discipline to follow through with it. ·
Start small and build confidence. Later you
can add additional products. As soon as possible, consider if the project
produces enough profit for the effort required, and if you wish to continue. ·
Consider how you might modify your efforts
(change prices, find cheaper sources, sell to more storeowners, travel to
other towns to buy or sell, etc.). ·
Invest only what you can afford to lose. ·
Try a project at least two times. Sometimes a
project does not work out easily, right away. That is to be expected, and is
why you should make an experimental attempt. You are learning in a practical
way what works and what to avoid. Make new plans based on what you learned.
Be sure that your calculations are correct in every detail. Example: You
observe that villagers where you live buy about 150 eggs each week. About 100
are brought in from outside, at a greater cost than what you could produce
them locally. You plan to produce eggs in the village by getting laying hens,
feeding them, housing them, and collecting the eggs. You ask others who raise
chickens about details. They tell you that chicks cost a certain amount each,
and need feed that costs a certain amount. You plan to raise them in the yard
behind your house, so the cost of housing them is negligible. You
calculate what each hen will cost you to raise and feed. You include a small
cost for medicine and vitamins. Once grown, the hens will lay an average of
almost one egg a day; you can calculate the difference between everything
will cost you and what you will receive for the eggs. You can also calculate
how many hens you should keep. If the hens produce well, then you might raise
your own grain to feed them. You also might add more chickens to sell eggs in
other villages or cities. Your mentor and other Christian workers might also
earn a little by taking eggs to other markets.
Sometimes
a church planter or shepherd’s wife manages a small business, like a small
store in their house, while her husband shepherds God’s flock. Such team work
glorifies the Lord by harmonizing in love different gift-based ministries, as
1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 13 require. |
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