“The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.” 1 Timothy 5:17-18
“And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. …and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them…” Acts 4:32-35
“Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren,… You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. For they went out… accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.” 3 John 1:5-8
As a church we practice Storehouse Stewardship, giving priority in our church finances to three biblically mandated church expenses of: 1. Honoring our teaching Ministers to maintain the flow of sound doctrine. 2. Providing charity for our needy Members to maintain the reality of Body Life and 3. Sending out our own Missionaries in a manner worthy of God to maintain our fellowship in the gospel. In times of financial crisis we maintain these financial priorities in sequence so as to support the “vital organs” of our spiritual body first. We choose this model rather than take on conventional extra-biblical church expenses (e.g. owning our own church buildings) We also choose to maintain a culture of voluntarism in Body Life rather than hiring and paying extra-biblical church staff salaries. In this way we devote more of our financial resources to what we hold to be clearly wise and good.
Reform #15—“Faithful In Our Finances”