Some in the Christian community believe everything should be offered free for Christians. Granted the gospel is offered free of charge. Salvation is free to all who place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. However is ministry free? Should ministry be free?

Paul provided an example when he wrote:

Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. preacher of the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:13-14, NIV) 

            Pilate is one of the central characters in the legal proceedings that sent Jesus to the cross.  When Pilate realized that his interrogation of Jesus was going nowhere and the uproar of the crowd was escalating, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!" (Mathew 27:24, NIV) Was this an act of indifference?  Was Pilate trying to appease the crowd?  Or was there something more behind this metaphor of water and washing hands? If we examine the coins that Pontius Pilate authorized while Jesus walked this earth, perhaps it will provide insight into Pilate’s spiritual persuasions that allowed the crucifixion of our Lord.

The key to business is to find out what customers want and sell it to them. Conversely, when customers don’t want something or you can’t compete; avoid that business. 24/7 Wall St. published an interesting article on dying industries:  http://bit.ly/2qZO48a .

Some of these dying industries are fairly obvious, bookstores for example. We know Amazon is a difficult competitor. Stationery is another industry under pressure.  How often do you substitute an electronic card for a paper product? Even the demand for paper office products is lower. I have finally ditched my paper calendar for an electronic version. That’s one small print job gone forever.

I received a question from a church board member asking for advice on investing church funds. The church was currently earning less than .5% interest and a board member was proposing to invest the funds in several stock funds that would yield a 5% return each year.

I started my discussion by ignoring the original question. Instead I asked what the funds were being held for. For example, if the funds were being held to build up cash reserves to allow debt-free expansion within five years, you should take no risk with this money. Instead, the low bank interest would be acceptable.

A number of people contact me about doing ministry. I have addressed the need to divide work from a ministry calling previously.  Work is what we do to earn money. From scripture we know that Paul “was a tentmaker . . . he stayed and worked with them. “(Acts 18:3, NIV) Paul’s calling was as an evangelist. He made tents when necessary to earn money so that he could fulfill his ministry.

I was discussing this topic with someone who told me how they have so little time to fit ministry into their hectic schedule. I pointed out the progress we have made in the last 200 years to create an incredible amount of leisure time.  In 1800 most of the world’s population survived on tiny low-productivity farms.  A family worked 16 plus hours a day simply to scrimp by with enough food for the year. Every day was hard work. The family struggled with no guarantee there would be food the next day. Failure at any level doomed a family to starvation.