Ministry and Leadership Training

The church can only grow when we are preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and teaching the word of God. This means that the church must train people to do this work.

The next 10 posts will be about why we need to train church leaders and how we can do it. I will try to show that all pastors need to be training people. It is not just the work of church institutions.

A church tax? (part 6 of 6)

This is my last post about church taxes, and I want to finish with a pastoral comment.

When staff and students visit villages, we find that many people are not active in their faith. They don't come to church very often and their spiritual lives are very weak. Many may not be Christians. We visit them and try to help. We pray with them and encourage them to trust and obey Jesus.

This work will be very hard for pastors if there is a church tax!

At the moment the message we take to people is:
"God loves you. He gave his Son to die for your sin. He is Lord and Saviour. Come back to him and trust him, and he will forgive your sin. Then your life will be able to glorify God as it is meant to."

But we will have to add at the end:
"And come back to church with money for each person in your house."

People will not hear the Gospel message. They will just hear us asking for money. Weak members of the church will not come back. They will leave the Presbyterian Church and may not go to any other church. I am concerned that a church tax will be a disaster pastorally and will cause many people to leave the church.

Do you think this could happen?

A church tax? (part 5 of 6)

It is easy to be critical when people try to raise money in the church. But we do need money. So if a church tax is not the answer, how should we encourage people to give?

Again, the answer is the Gospel of God's grace.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9

"The way in which you have proved yourselves by this service will bring honor and praise to God. You believed the message about Christ, and you obeyed it by sharing generously with God's people and with everyone else... Thank God for his gift that is too wonderful for words!" 2 Corinthians 9:13, 15

God freely gave us his son. When we experience God's grace, it changes us. God's grace makes us gracious and generous. We want to give to those in need and we want to give to help people who are preaching about Jesus.

So if people are not giving to the church, I can see three main possible causes:

1. They have no money.

2. They have not been changed by the gospel of God's grace.

3. They don't think the church is doing a good job of preaching Jesus, or they don't think people are in need.

I think our problem is 2 and 3.

The answer is not a church tax. That will make the problem worse. The answer is to faithfully preach and teach and proclaim the good news of God's grace. That is what will change people's hearts and bring greater generosity through Christ.

A church tax? (part 4 of 6)

Who should set the vision of the church?

Who should show us how the good news can be the centre of our life together and how we can faithfully live as God's people?

It should be Bible teachers, theologians, pastors and missionaries!

But if they don't do it, then administrators will. But the church is in big trouble when Bible teachers are quiet, and administrators set the vision. Administrators are important, but we are in trouble if they have to set a vision for the church because Bible teachers are not doing it.

Is it time for Talua to provide more leadership to the whole church? Do we need to provide a clear vision for the church, based on the Gospel?

A church tax? (part 3 of 6)

In the Old Covenant there were some set taxes. People gave a certain amount of money each year as well as other offerings. Sometimes Christians use passages about the Old Covenant to support a tax in the church (e.g. Deuteronomy 29).

But we need to be careful. Jesus has come. We are now in a new covenant. We live under the Gospel of God's grace. So we should not apply the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy directly to Christians.

This blog is to help us focus on the Gospel. So my main question is:

Has the good news of Jesus Christ changed the way that we think about money and giving?

A church tax? (part 2 of 6)

The Bible says "God loves a cheerful giver." This has been used to say that we should pay a church tax if it is introduced. The quote is from 2 Corinthians 9:7 which says:

"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

The verse says we should not force people to give (compulsion). They should decide what they want to give. This way people will be giving willingly and cheerfully.

If there is a tax that is a set amount per person, will each person be giving "what he has decided in his heart to give" and not "under compulsion"?

I am asking these questions because I am concerned that we are turning away from the Word of God instead of towards it as we try to solve our problems.

A church tax? (part 1 of 6)

What is the answer to the decline in the church? I think it is preaching, teaching, discipleship and prayer. We must go back to the good news of Jesus Christ. We must do everything we can to help people hear the good news. We must take down every barrier that stops people hearing (cf. 1 Cor 9:19-23; 10:33).

One different idea that people have is that we could charge a tax each year in the church. Each year people will pay a certain amount of money so that the church can grow.

If we ask people to pay a set amount of money to the church each year, will this help the church grow? Will it help us to move forward in a way that has not been possible before?

It sounds like we are putting our hope in money rather than in the Gospel of God's grace. Money is good, but if we think it is the answer to the church's problems, does it distract from the Gospel and make it harder for people to come and hear the good news?

The Gospel is about God's grace

When I speak to people in villages, most of them think that we are saved by good works. They know that Jesus died for sin, but they think they are saved by obeying God's laws. They talk about going to church and tithing, and they hope that this will be enough to escape judgment. Many elders also say and preach this. I don't meet many people with assurance or joy.

The Bible teaches that we are saved by God's grace as a free gift through faith in Christ (e.g. Eph 2:9-10). All Christians will do good works, but these works do not save us.

I am very concerned that many people in villages do not know the true Gospel. Maybe many people are not saved. Maybe many elders are not saved.

• Is the Gospel of God's grace clear at Talua? Are we teaching it well?

• How can we help pastors and elders preach the true Gospel throughout Vanuatu?