P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

DOES REV. MOON DESERVE TO BE A MILLIONAIRE #2

BUGGED BY THE PREACHER'S VW

In the classic Christian bestseller, God's Smuggler, "Brother Andrew" tells the story of how, as a novice Christian missionary planning to work behind the Iron Curtain, someone gave him a shiny blue Volkswagen beetle. It wasn't new, but Andrew had never had a car before, and to him it was an overwhelming gift. For a fledgling missionary who was surviving on the pennies and occasional Dutch guilders friends and supporters were giving him, this contribution of a CAR was almost unbelievable.

But you know, it didn't work out to be the blessing he had imagined. When he drove this little blue VW into his home village of Whetstra, there in Holland, all of the neighbors gathered around. Cars were still a rarity in this small community, and here a LOCAL boy was driving one.

And as they all peeked inside and wanted to lift up the hood and look at the engine, one of the men rubbed his hand along that blue paint and then said to him: "Religion is a good business, eh, Andy?" And all the people laughed . . . but the flow of guilders stopped that very day. No more would these people give him money to do missionary work. That little blue car, to them, was a symbol of religious profiteering.

And friend, all around us are people who have gotten to be millionaires, even MULTI millionaires in the field of religion. And I'm not going to recite or rehearse the many, many stories of televangelists and hucksters who have taken these sacred dollars and built themselves an empire. We already know the stories about mansions and West Palm Beach condos and air-conditioned doghouses, and we know when something is wrong.

But when is it RIGHT? The apostle Paul, here in First Corinthians chapter nine, doesn't ask for a paycheck. At the same time, it's his clear biblical teaching that those who DO work full-time for the cause of Christ have the right to expect financial support FROM the body of Christ. They do deserve a livelihood, Paul says. No, maybe not a Rolls Royce, as one Southern California TV preacher openly confesses God has given him. But at least food on the table and a roof over one's head.

"Don't you know," Paul asks, "that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and 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."

That makes sense, doesn't it? And I think reasonable people accept that a reasonable livelihood for God's full-time workers is something they're pleased to support with their own tithes and offerings. That doesn't appear to be a point of controversy here in 1999. But a couple of interesting questions come up almost immediately. First of all, what is "(quote) reasonable"? How well should the Christian preacher live? How much prosperity should Christian musicians enjoy? How wealthy should a businessperson become whose livelihood comes, for example, from providing gifts and trinkets for the donors to a media ministry? That's a huge enterprise, and believe me, the middlemen, the brokers, can do extremely well for themselves. We often get proposals right here in our Voice of Prophecy office from groups that want to help us set up calling-card phone networks where donors who use the network will get competitive rates AND also generate funds for a ministry with every call. However, there's always a built-in fee, an ongoing perpetual CUT, that accrues to the group that helps set up the system. This observation isn't made in order to complain, but simply to explore the plain reality that RELIGION can and does generate its own economy — and there are things to sort out.

So how much is too much and how much is just right? Obviously Paul doesn't give us a dollar amount . . . but he teaches both by word and by example that RICHES should never be the motivation for the Christian worker. A living wage, yes. Enough money to provide for your family, yes. A secure retirement after an agreed-upon number of years of exemplary service, of course. But First Corinthians chapter nine paints a picture of a man who had no interest in PROFITING from the gospel. In fact, in verse 15, he explicitly RENOUNCES his own claim to a pay package. "I'd rather do without," he says. "I'd rather starve than lose the satisfaction I've gotten from preaching to you without charge."

And we also made the point yesterday that the only reason a worker for God would even SEEK compensation would be for the purpose of ENABLING him or her to do full-time ministry. It's hard to preach and minister effectively, some of our pioneer pastors learned, when you also had to go out in the cornfields with a hoe and earn grocery money at the same time. So friend, it's a passion for MINISTRY, for SERVICE, for increasing the hours in the vineyard of LOST SOULS that leads a man or woman to appropriately ask the Body of Christ to care for the physical needs of life.

You know, I was grateful when I was invited to join the Voice of Prophecy ministry a few years ago, that here was a group that already enjoyed a 60-plus-year history of financial faithfulness. Every ordained minister in the Adventist denomination receives the exact same pay package, with calibrated cost-of-living allowances for those who serve in unavoidably high-cost housing areas. A pastor of a huge university super-church receives the same pay and benefits as another backwoods minister who holds together three tiny 40-member congregations in what we call a "district." And here at the Voice of Prophecy we follow that same scale. No one has to wonder if our team members are profiteering or getting wealthy off donations, because it simply doesn't happen. It STRUCTURALLY is not allowed to take place — and what a blessing that safeguard has been, not just for this radio work but for the entire denomination. It's a good wage, a living wage, a fair wage . . . and it's enough to free us up for full-time radio ministry. But friend, it's never enough to feed a man or woman's greedy side, and I praise God for the Bible counsels that have led our leaders to prayerfully set up such a wise structure.

But you know, a second question comes to mind — and Paul addresses this one as well. Who decides if a person should have a claim to this kind of support? Who calls the shots on whether or not a man or woman should get a company check, so to speak, in return for preaching? A lot of wild-eyed people decide they have a message from God that must be delivered, or that their great singing voice means that the denomination should fund them in a music ministry, giving them a salary and a van to travel the country giving concerts. Who makes these calls?

Apparently Paul had faced that very question from some of these Corinthian believers. "What are YOUR credentials?" they asked. And even though he was preaching on a completely volunteer basis, they might well have queried him: "Why should you have any claim to our financial support?"

Well, what's his answer? He gives a two-part response at the very beginning of this chapter. Notice:

"I am an apostle, God's messenger, responsible to no mere man." Now here's credential number one. "I am one who has actually seen Jesus our Lord with my own eyes." And here's number two. "AND YOUR CHANGED LIVES are the result of my hard work for Him. If in the opinion of others, I am not an apostle, I certainly am to you, for you have been won to Christ through me. This is my answer to those who question my rights."

So what's the criteria? For the original apostles, to have actually had the experience of BEING with Christ and/or WORKING with Christ was an important credential. And as we read about Paul's conversion on the Damascus road — that's back in Acts chapter nine — he met that standard. But even more important was Part Two: Paul's ministry had clearly borne fruit. God had blessed his work in the form of saved men and women, people whose very lives had been changed. "YOU PEOPLE are my credentials," he tells them. In the New International Version, he declares:

"YOU are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord."

And friend, I believe we can ask those same two questions today of someone who feels he or she is called to work for God — AND receive the church's support. First of all, have they been with Christ? No, not physically in the city of Jerusalem or in a boat on Galilee or on that Damascus road. But does their life give evidence that they're walking with Jesus each day, feeding their mind on His Word, praying and communing with him seven days a week, submitting their heart and their beliefs and their lifestyle and their talents to Him? And so, just as the Corinthians asked an apostle, "Have you been with Christ?" the same question can be asked now.

And then secondly, "What's the fruit of your ministry?" Matthew 7:16 says:

"Ye shall know them by their fruits."

Notice here in First Corinthians chapter nine that the word "success" isn't defined in monetary terms or even in terms of number of followers. We chose what you might consider a cynical title for this week: DOES REV. MOON DESERVE TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? And maybe we could pull that down a bit. Does he even deserve to be paid at all from the storehouse of the Christian Church? Well, has he been with Jesus? And number two, has he achieved success, not in numbers of followers or newspapers owned or airports infiltrated or weddings performed, but in the lives of people who are led to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he making people into godly, humble, dedicated Christians?

A lot of people can preach with enough zip to raise both an audience and a handsome pay package for themselves. But it's good to discover that in the Christian community, the high bar is set a lot higher than that.