“Is it ok to sell the gospel?” That was the explosive question posed by Dietrick Haddon in the premier of Preachers of LA last Wednesday night . . . the question that rocked the room and resulted in the early departure of Bishop Clarence McClendon.
The question seemed to make everyone nervous, and I can understand why. Every preacher in that room (including Haddon, despite his accusatory tone) made their living from preaching the gospel. The question seemed to suggest that to get paid to preach the gospel is tantamount to selling it. But is this true?
The short answer is, no. I’ve never met a preacher who tried to sell the gospel. Can you imagine walking up to someone on the street who doesn’t know Jesus and saying, “I’ll tell you how to get saved for $99.99, and I’ll throw in a 50% rebate if you act now!”
But the fact that the gospel is free doesn’t mean that the preacher should work for free. Not paying the preacher is unbiblical!
There are so many biblical precedents for paying the preacher, and paying the preacher well.
When Jesus sent out his disciples to go preach the gospel in the cities of Israel, he told them not to take any extra money or clothing or provisions of any kind. Why? Because the worker is worth his keep (Matthew 10:10). What does this mean? If you are going to minister to the spiritual needs of people, they will very naturally desire to minister to your physical needs, and this is right!
Paul’s whole argument in 1 Corinthians 9:1-18 is that he had the right to expect financial compensation from the Corinthians in exchange for his ministry among them, and he uses all kinds of illustrations of this point.
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk?
For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?
And here is the crux of his argument:
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.
Whoomp there it is! The Lord has commanded that we who preach the gospel should receive our living from the gospel. That’s not selling the gospel, that’s obeying the gospel!
So then why are people so up in arms about the Preachers of LA? Why is it so bad for a preacher to prosper?
I think for most people, money is not the issue. Nobody thinks that preachers should be flat broke, and very few people believe that all preachers should work for free. People who complain about seeing preachers with money are actually reacting to the recent history of high profile financial scandals in the church. These scandals have given American clergy a collective black eye in the realm of finances and wealth creation.
Preachers who drive nice cars or have nice houses tend to fall into the category of exploiters who build their wealth on the backs of their poor congregants.
The real question is what is the proper relationship between preachers and money? And at the heart of that question is another question: What are the appropriate and inappropriate ways for preachers to get money?
This last question is the real heart of the issue. The fact of the matter is that only about 1% of all preachers are rich! The rest are doing their best to make a dollar out of 15 cents.
And of the 1% who are rich (including some of the Preachers of LA), we really don’t know how they got their money. Did they exploit their flocks? Is it really fair to assume that in order for a preacher to have money, he must’ve exploited some people? I’m not defending anybody (because I don’t know how any of them got their money), I’m just saying that if you don’t know how someone got their money, don’t jump to conclusions about it. We can’t lump every preacher with money into the category of those who have manipulated and exploited the body of Christ. It’s just not fair.
So, I’d like to hear from you: what is the right way for a preacher to get money? And what is the wrong way? How should a preacher make plans for the financial future of his/her family? What is the right way for a preacher to get ahead, and what is the wrong way? If the body of Christ can begin answering these questions sufficiently, we’d be a lot for effective in our witness to the world, because when we attack, accuse, and criticize one another, it gives those who don’t know Jesus one more reason to stay away from our churches and to reject the gospel that we’ve been accused of trying to sell.
