Meeting Transcripts

Rev. Bill McKibben | March 7, 2025

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Opening Remarks

Welcome and agenda

We’re glad you’re here this morning. In this session, we hope to discuss prudent and Biblical financial stewardship. Our purpose is to prepare ministers to answer the call for pastoral service, thrive while serving, and prepare for their future retirement should the Lord tarry.

First on our agenda is “Our Call to Stewardship.” After that is “Gain vs. Godliness.” Then, we will talk about managing the tension that comes with finances. Finally, we will go over some practical tips before the closing thoughts.

Financial Stewardship

Our call to stewardship 

“As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another,
as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10)

“Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2)

The first thing to remember—and you can even repeat it with me—is this: God owns it all. Let’s say that one more time: God owns it all. You might be on the top of the mountain or the bottom of the valley, but God owns them both. We need to ask ourselves, “Who owns it? Is it mine? Is it yours? Is it God’s?”

When I was transferred to Los Angeles, California, to be the pastor, I came from a very small town and had never lived in the city. My wife and I were a little fearful of the place. About six weeks after we arrived, we went out one Saturday morning in front of the parsonage, and our pickup truck was gone. Someone had decided they needed it more than I did. I remember thinking, Welcome to the city! Isn’t it great? We chuckled about it a little bit, but I can remember the feeling of violation. I thought, What? Somebody stole it right out of my driveway? It had a dead battery, and they still stole it. The police told me it was probably parted out and gone for good. That evening, I was standing in the back bedroom of the parsonage, looking out the window, and I remember saying, “Lord, they stole Your truck.”

Well, we went through some hassles, but the truth of the matter is, I had used that truck in the previous pastorate to do some work, and I wasn’t going to need it in Los Angeles. Also, we got the insurance settlement for the truck, and I used that money to pay for my first ticket to Asia! So, God has a plan in all of it, because He owns it.

Peter spoke about living to the will of God. God has a big plan, a really big plan. We’re invited to be a part of it, but we must live to His will and not to our own. Paul echoes those same kinds of ideas about stewardship and accountability all throughout his writings.

Some people might be surprised that we don’t run to the excesses of the culture around us. We don’t need to have the latest and newest of everything, do we? I’m not suggesting that we don’t buy quality items. Of course we do. But we are going to give an account, and we live like it.

The Bible says that we will face the judge of the living and the dead. Each one of us has been given different gifts, and we are called to serve one another with the various gifts that God has given us. Jesus brought out this idea of being faithful when He talked about the parable of the steward. We all know the Lord is coming, right? And we all know that He is going to ask us if we were faithful, right? We’re the preachers. We know this, right? Well, we are supposed to.

Gain vs. Godliness

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:6-10)

We will always deal with issues of gain versus godliness, and this is not something new. In 1 Timothy 6:1-5, Paul warned Timothy of those who were teaching something different than the truth. He went on to outline the places where this could be observed. These men had pride, disputes, envy, accusations, and assumptions about others. Then he told Timothy that they were “supposing that gain is godliness” and he said, “from such withdraw thyself” (verse 5). Paul was not speaking of us, but there are preachers today who will suggest that gain is godliness. The Scriptures are very clear on this matter. Paul warned against it saying it is not the truth. Godliness must be our first aim, always. That is what we preach and teach.

There is a natural outflow of godliness, which is contentment. God has promised to supply all we need. How often have we quoted, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19)? Knowing that God is going to supply all our needs, we have to ask ourselves this question: “What are my needs?” God did not promise to provide for all our wants. Nor did He promise to provide for all our “greeds.”

There are many places around the world, some of which we visit or come from, where people are just thankful that their basic needs, food and raiment, have been met. However, in the Western world, we live in a measure of affluence. Affluence is not usually a friend of grace. People don’t tend to pray more when they have more. They tend to pray more when they have less. I’m not suggesting that we all go back to having less, but I am suggesting that we all pray more. The heart of the matter is that seeking gain is not godliness, and gain without contentment is not the Gospel. We must fight against seeking gain, because that is the spirit of the world.

Concerning contentment, the Apostle Paul said, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11). My wife and I used to tease about this verse, because we transferred a number of times, moving back and forth between states. We used the word play here to say that we needed to learn to be content in whatsoever state we were in: California, Washington, or Oregon.   

Being content is more than about physical location. When you move, there is a lot of adjustment that happens. I remember that about a month or two after we moved to Seattle for the first time, a sister asked my wife, “Well, are you all settled in?” God bless her, she meant the best. However, we have three children. They had changed schools, we had changed jobs, we didn’t have a dentist, my wife didn’t even know yet where best to buy groceries. Of course, these are not things we tell the saints. Instead, we learn to be content in whatsoever state we find ourselves. Paul learned how to abound, and we can too. He said, “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound” (Philippians 4:12). Don’t you love to abound? Praise God! Isn’t He good to us?

We must also, like Paul, learn to be abased. Ut oh. There are times when we say, “God, I don’t know why You sent me here!” I’m dramatizing a little bit, but really, we are all human, aren’t we? We may not show our concern publicly, but at least privately there are times when we wrestle. That’s okay, we are learning.

Here is a real-life example. In my first pastorate, there was a minister who helped me. He was a retired bookkeeper who at that time was seventy-two. He and his wife had raised four boys in the Gospel, and two of them are ministers today. He used to get up and testify, quoting this Scripture: “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10). Then he would say, “God, it’s time to slaughter another cow.” I loved this brother’s attitude of contentment. He had had a lot but was now retired and had little. His attitude was, “Lord, You can take care of this; just kill another cow.” God can take care of you. God can take care of your people. He is God; He will do it! Those who have riches are tempted to trust in that.

There is a warning for us in 1 Timothy 6:10, which says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” This Scripture tells us that there is a danger of becoming overwhelmed with greed. The person who does this errs from the faith. Money is not, in and of itself, evil. But covetousness and greed are where evil finds its root.

An interesting thing about money is that you don’t have to have it to covet it. There’s a famous story of a wealthy man. I didn’t take time to dig into the details, because my only point is for you to ask yourselves this question: “How much is enough?” This wealthy man was asked how much he needed to have. His answer was, “One more dollar.” The point was that whatever he had was not quite enough. That is a very human tendency. Wherever we are in life, whether we have a lot or a little, the problem is thinking, If I just had this, if I just had that. We can wrestle with that personally. We can even wrestle with that in our church. We might think, If we just had one more . . .

We need to teach our people to be content, too. Of course, we want to strive to do our very best for the Gospel, and our very best with what God’s given us as good stewards. However, let’s remember that God has entrusted some with five talents, some with three, and some with one. The issue was not the amount; the issue was faithfulness. The issue was stewarding.

Covetousness is infectious. In any culture, at any age, in any country, no matter what the financial status is, covetousness is just like a virus. We measure ourselves among ourselves. People say, “I just wish I had what they have.” Social media does not help us here. We don’t want to see things and say, “Oh, they went on that vacation! They did this! They bought that!” Pretty soon we would begin to measure by something other than God’s Word. We, of all people, have to measure by God’s Word.

As a banker, I came across a couple of examples of covetousness, and I will share one quickly. Once, I walked into the staff lounge where all our tellers and the like took their breaks. There was a young mother in her twenties—we’d hired her as a teller—and she was weeping. Now, this wasn’t at church; this was a place of business, but I asked, “Are you okay?” She said, “Yeah, I’m okay. I just wish I was home with my kids, but . . .” And I said, “Well, no—no job’s worth . . .” She said, “Oh, my husband likes toys. We have a boat, and we have a jet-ski, and we have an RV, and we have a big truck, and I had to go to work so we could make the payments on those.” I’ll never forget the look on that woman’s face. I would have liked to have had a word with her husband, but he didn’t go to my church, so I couldn’t say anything to him.

I’ve seen just the opposite also. There was a couple where over the years, the wife was never content. The house was not big enough, the car wasn’t new enough, and there was always pressure for the husband to work overtime, and then to take side jobs, and on and on. Finally, the man just gave up that he could ever please her when it came to material things, and that marriage fell apart. Those were people in our church—not from my congregation; they remain anonymous. In summary, godliness with contentment is great gain. We want God to help us exemplify that wisdom.  

Managing Financial Tension

“Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward” (1 Timothy 5:17-18).

For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:9).

Now we will talk about the dialectic. That’s a big word which literally means “tension” (the pull of a couple of things together). Webster’s dictionary defines dialectic, this tension, as “any systematic reasoning, or exposition or argument that juxtaposes opposed or contradictory ideas and usually seeks to resolve their conflict.” It’s a method of examining and discussing opposing ideas.

When you’re in the Scripture, and this happens sometimes, the Scripture gives you two ideas and both are true, and they have to exist in tension.

There are two Biblical principles that are in tension when it comes to finance. The first one is that the workman is worthy of his work. What God has called you to do is worthy work. It’s a calling from God. Jesus Himself said, “For the workman is worthy of his meat.” Don’t misunderstand the worth of what you do; it’s valuable work. However, the other principle, which is in tension with this one, is that we shouldn’t be chargeable to anyone. Let’s address this.  

We read in 1 Timothy 5:17-18, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.” This is in reference to Deuteronomy 25:4: “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.” Paul also referenced this verse when trying to vindicate his own ministry. He said, “For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?” (1 Corinthians 9:9). Paul declared, as Jesus did, that this work is worthy of honor and support. This is very clear.

However, Paul told the church at Thessalonica, in one of his earliest letters, “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:8-9).

Here, Paul is in essence saying, “This is worthy work and worthy of support.” He is also saying, “But I’m going to work, because I’m not going to be chargeable to you.” We find this again in 2 Thessalonians and in 2 Corinthians. Paul was declaring that he wouldn’t be chargeable to the saints; he wouldn’t unduly burden them. 

I am responsible for our work in Asia, and I can remember talking to a pastor over there some years ago—it doesn’t matter which country it was. He announced to me how important it was for him as a pastor to pray. His little congregation had about twelve people in it at that point. I told him, “You need to find a job.” He said, “No, I need to pray!” I said, “You need to pray, and you need to find a job.” We can’t go to the treasurer of our church expecting them to give us more support when there are only twelve people in the congregation. They had a building to support—it was little, but even so, it was a building, and they were a small group. I told the pastor, “You can’t be chargeable to them. You can’t burden the saints in that way.”

We understand Paul’s heart in this next example. In 2 Thessalonians 3:7-10, we read that he said, “For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:7-10).

The Apostle Paul did accept generous support when it was given. There’s no question about that. But he also worked alongside Aquila and Priscilla. He made tents to support himself and others. The Apostle Paul showed disciplined economic behavior.

I am reminded of a brother who was in a church that I pastored, and who later became a pastor. He would tell his kids, “Whenever you go somewhere, just remember, the pastor doesn’t pay. You pay for him.” I remember thinking that was really gracious of him. However, we don’t want to start expecting that. That’s not how it’s supposed to be. In fact, in another church where I pastored, there was a brother who always wanted to take us out. Finally, I told him, “Brother, you don’t get to pay every time.” I said (and maybe this was my ego, but I hope not), “No. Sometimes I get to pay when the four of us go out.” There needs to be a balance. We must have disciplined economic behavior.

As I was thinking about the heart that Paul had and this whole idea of disciplined behavior, I couldn’t help but think of Brother Harold Barrett. Years ago, he ran a painting business here in Portland, and he volunteered as an usher and as a watchman at the campground gate. He also got involved in working with the merchant mariners and bringing those people to church. Eventually, he went to Korea as a missionary. His story is well-known in our work, but what most people don’t know is that on the nights when there was no church, he often picked up people from the ships just the same. He would take them to his home where he and his wife, Sally, would entertain them (and they weren’t giving the bill to the church). In fact, it was on one of those nights that Brother Carver went to their home, and pulling Brother Barrett aside, asked, “Harold, would you and Sally like to go to Korea as missionaries?” He said, “Yes!” He didn’t even ask Sister Sally, because he knew her heart.

The next question Brother Carver posed to him was very simple. He said, “Can you find your own way?” They did. Some things haven’t really changed. In 1993-1994, Brother Barrett, who by time was an older man and widowed, came through our little town and talked to me about Asia. He asked the question, “Would you like to go?” Well, I remember thinking, Yeah! But you’d have to talk to the Superintendent General, you know, and . . . 

A few things transpired that year. Brother Carver retired, Brother Dwight Baltzell was appointed, we transferred to Los Angeles . . . and then Brother Barrett came back. He asked, “Would you like to go to the Philippines?” I said, “Well, you’d have to talk to Brother Baltzell.” He said that he would, but I also called Brother Dwight. He is sitting here today, so maybe he remembers this. I asked him, “What would you think?” His first words to me were, “Well, let’s check with your assistant, Brother Tom Lambert, and make sure things are okay there in Los Angeles where you are.” (We did that, and everything was fine.) His next words to me were, “But the church can’t pay.” I thought to myself, That sounds like Brother Carver. It wasn’t that Brother Dwight was trying to be harsh. He was just trying to keep things balanced. He couldn’t let this young guy get ahead of himself, thinking the church was going to pay for him to fly all over the world and do all sorts of things. It is not like that. I told Brother Dwight, “No worries. If you say it’s okay that we can go, we’ll go.”

The Barretts lived in Korea for twenty years and never drew a salary over three hundred dollars during that entire time. They paid for their own travel back and forth to camp meeting every year. How could they be chargeable to the saints? The saints at that time in Korea were very poor. They were just beginning the churches there, so that was their heart.

Paul didn’t eat without paying. Even with his authority, he wanted to be an example. We need to be examples to the saints around us. Not only of being willing to work but also being moderate and doing things well. Remember that Paul said to the Philippians, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” (Philippians 3:7). God may require you to pay your own way to Korea or to the Philippines. At least I got to fly. The Barretts took an old Liberty ship, and it took them thirty-seven days. Sister Sally was seasick the whole time. Most people don’t hear about that part of the story.

Let me give another example. This last year, I had the privilege to be in Brooklyn, New York, as a guest preacher. After church, my wife and I went downstairs, and they were having a scholarship lunch. They have a scholarship fund in honor of Brother Leon Dicks, the founding pastor, that helps the young people in the church. Everybody donates to it, and there were some people who were collecting the donations. They brought us a meal, and it was wonderful. They asked which dessert I wanted, and I chose one, not knowing my wife had already told them I wanted the other kind, so I got two desserts. We visited, talked and had a great time. Then I got up and some asked, “Where are you going?” I said, “I’ve got to pay for our lunch.” They said, “You’re our guest!” I didn’t want to insult them, so I sat back down. However, a little later, I kind of sidled over to the donation table and paid for our lunch. We want to be an example. We don’t want anyone to think we are trying to take advantage of our position. We just need to be careful.

There are literally hundreds of examples all across this room of people who manage their finances well, who are willing not to be chargeable, and yet also understand the honor that goes with our work. We have to find balance and discipline. We cannot allow ourselves to burden the flocks that we serve. It’s a privilege to serve, not something we deserve, but a privilege. At the same time, we need to be graciously thankful when we receive some support. We thank God for His provision, whether it is a parsonage or transportation or some of the saints taking us out to dinner. We need to be thankful while content to work with our own hands.

Here is another example from Los Angeles. When we moved there, our daughter was in high school, and the school she would be attending required an application fee of $400.00. I remember this example well, because we didn’t have the $400.00. I had quit my job so we could transfer from Woodlake to Los Angeles. Of course, our sixteen-year-old daughter was saying, “Well, what are we going to do?” I said, “Well, we’re going to pray.” We began to pray, and the Lord began to answer. It was quite fascinating. One of the brothers from our previous church called me and said, “That certain item that we’ve been talking about, do you still have it? Do you want to sell it?” So, that was $100.00. Then an older brother who I’d never met, but who was in the Los Angeles church, passed away. I was asked to do the funeral, so I drove clear up to Englewood to do it. While I was there, I talked with the funeral director, who I had never met. He asked how I came to Los Angeles, and I told him what we were doing there. We rode together in the hearse to the cemetery and did the graveside service. After driving back, we got out of the hearse, and he handed me an envelope. In it was a $100.00 check from the family for doing the funeral. God bless them. I looked behind that, and there was a $200.00 personal check from the funeral director. I looked at it, and there was a little note that said, “Keep doing God’s work.” I went home to my daughter and laid the checks right out and said, “This is what happens when you pray.” Sometimes we have to work, and sometimes we have to pray, and sometimes we have to work and pray. And it’s okay to do that.

Another time, when our son was young, I remember that we were at the table, maybe on a Sunday afternoon, eating dinner. I just proclaimed, almost teasingly, “You know, we’re rich.” My son, being who he is (he’s forty now, but he was little then), scratched his head and looked across the table at me quizzically. Then he went on, “Oh, I get it, Dad. You’re talking about Spiritual!” Well, it’s not a bad lesson to teach our kids that we’re rich spiritually and that it’s not just about money all the time.

We need to look to God to supply our need, because He will. We need to rejoice when God provides, because the Scriptures say in Proverbs 10:22, “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.” If you’ve got sorrow over your finances, you can rest assured that you probably don’t have God in the middle of them. They are not supposed to bring sorrow to you. Even though today, we can look on our apps and see where we are financially each day, that may not be to our advantage. It may create more sorrow than good. We may be better charged by leaving our phone apps closed, and just praying and working.

Practical Tips and Application

This leads to our next topic of practical tips. There are many resources available these days for financial management. They’re everywhere! There are books and videos, and these days, many of them from Christian authors. You can go to our own Ministers’ Manual on pages 217-220 and 232-235. There are some practical tips there. Most of these principles are easily found in Scripture. They really are.

Spend less than you earn. An example that I used in my very first ministerial training presentation, back in the 1970s-80s, was from one of those early Christian authors. That author said that he had a pastor come to him after retiring and ask how he should invest his money. The author asked, “Well, how much money do you have?” The pastor said, “Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” That was quite a sum in those days. It probably is today, too. The author asked him, “How did you save $250,000 when you never drew more than $10,000 a year as a pastor?” That is $58,000 a year in today’s numbers. Still, that’s below the poverty level if you live in Seattle, by the way. Do you know what the pastor said to him? “I always spent less than I made.” That’s it. The key is: “I always spent less than I made.”

This is not rocket science. Just because the government spends trillions more than it has, doesn’t mean you can—not Biblically. This is true for our churches and for ourselves, personally. It’s countercultural. It’s not what the world teaches. However, we really need to spend less than we make, because God said He would supply all our need. If we are spending more than what God has supplied, then apparently, we are spending more than our need. You can say, “Ouch!” if you want. I know. Spend less than you make over a long time and invest the money wisely. Pay attention and steward well what God has entrusted to you.

Avoid debt. Really, for anything other than appreciating assets. Even then, you need to be careful of debt’s grip. Scripture tells us in Proverbs 22:7, “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” When you borrow or you lend, it changes the nature of the relationship between you and the other person. I have told folks, at least in my district, when they want to lend money back and forth to each other: “Don’t do it; just give them the money.” If you give the money to a borrower, there are no strings attached. If they never pay you back, it’s between them and God; you don’t have to be burdened. If you can’t afford to do that, then why are you lending money? However, that’s my thought. I am just giving you some advice.

Save. When our kids were young, we had three jars. You’ve probably heard of this. One of them was the savings jar. One of them was the tithe jar. One of them was the spending jar. Literally, if you save regularly, there are less emergencies. It’s amazing what happens when you have an emergency fund.

Here is something I always ask people: “When is Christmas?” Help me. When is Christmas in Boston? The 25^th of December, in Boston? Okay, let’s see, what about in Chicago? When is Christmas? Oh, December 25. What about Port Angeles, Brother Wayne? The 25th! Every year, why do people get in such a panic? They say, “Oh no, it’s Christmas. We’ve got to buy this and that.” Then they’re still paying for things five months later—paying high interest.  

We just replaced the roof on the church in Seattle about eighteen months ago for $40,000. It wasn’t an emergency, folks. It’s a roof. It has a lifetime. So, I called Portland and—no, I didn’t. You know better than that, right? I did not call Portland and ask headquarters to pay for my roof. We’ve been saving for that roof for years, and we just paid for it. Okay.

Take advantage of employer matching funds. I had employees who would say they couldn’t afford to save the money so that my company would match that money. I would just scratch my head and say, “You don’t want to take your company’s free money?” It’s because they weren’t disciplined enough to set aside five percent of their salary. We’ve got to have better discipline than that, folks. We all do!

I told you we had those three jars. I teasingly told my daughters, “If you will honor God, if you will live on less than you earn and save a little for emergencies—if you learn to follow these three principles—you will be some husband’s princess.” Then I realized that was a little misogynistic. That was picking on the women a little bit, because I found out that not all men know how to manage money either. Some men need to learn those same principles so that they can be leaders on their own. So, save, honor God, and live on less than you earn.

Diversify. The Scripture very clearly says that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. There’s a whole story about where that proverb came from, but it really comes from Scripture. Ecclesiastes 11:1-2 says, “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.” The wise man was saying, “Be careful; don’t put all your money in one place.”

Budget. Now, this is not a swear word. It is not; you can say this, and it doesn’t have to stick in your mouth. You can say, “Budget.” I had a congregation where when I used this word once, I could see some of the sisters, the wives in the church, just go “Ugh.” Then I realized that was because in that particular church, there were husbands who were very autocratic with finances—they were very harsh about spending. So, I thought, Okay, let’s find a different way. We called it “a spending plan.” A budget is not a strait jacket, it’s not a noose. It’s just planning; it’s just being wise. You do have to communicate with your spouse if you have one. There are more marriages that come apart over money than over anything else. You’ve got to learn to talk about it, and you need to think long-term, and be realistic.

Pay attention. I had a pastor friend who had been a successful salesperson. While I entered the pastorate as a young man, he had entered the pastorate as an older man. He had raised children in the Gospel, and later he retired. He served in my church as a retired minister. On a Wednesday night during Bible study, he got up and quoted Proverbs 27:23. It says, “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.” He said, “I was not diligent to take care of my flocks. I should have listened to Brother Bill twenty years ago.” He said that in front of his own children and everything, because he didn’t have a lot when he got toward the end of his life, because he didn’t pay attention. So just pay attention! Money and finances are not the most important part of marriage or ministry, but if you don’t pay attention and handle them well, they can be a downfall of either or both. It can ruin a marriage; it can ruin a pastorate. We have to pay attention.

Work while you are pastoring. When I was about to go out to my first pastorate, Brother Dick Taylor gave me some advice. I’ll never forget it. He was a wonderful preacher—practical, down to earth. He was a successful pastor. He worked hard as a painter, but he also invested in some property along the way. His advice was, “Don’t kill the goose,” and he told me a story about a pastor who sold the home that he and his wife had lived in. Over the next ten or so years, slowly but surely, all the money from that house went to his kids, and other things as well. At the end of the ten years, he had nothing. Brother Dick told me, “You’re giving up the best earning years of your life. If you want to help your kids, that’s good, but they can still work.” He was very practical. So, his advice to me was, “Don’t kill the goose.” That phrase comes from an Aesop’s fable, “The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg.” In the fable, a man got the golden egg and spent it. Then being greedy, he thought, If I kill the goose, I will get all the eggs. The only problem was that he killed the goose and there were no more eggs.

Brother Dick also said, “We need to be wise with the income God has given us, with the assets God has given us, and the blessings to which God has entrusted us.” In our case, my wife and I rented out our house. Over the years, that rented house helped pay for our kids’ music lessons. One time, it helped pay some extra costs when we moved so that I wouldn’t have to go right to work in the new pastorate. It also helped to pay part of the college costs of our children, and Lord willing, it may help with retirement—if we’re ever allowed to do that. (That wasn’t supposed to sound quite like that, though!

So, don’t be afraid to work while you’re pastoring. It’s not an insult. Until the last few years, I worked in almost all our congregations.

Be giving. Of course, we need to keep a balance of things. Don’t be afraid to be giving. Some people say that the New Testament doesn’t teach tithing, but in reality, Jesus calls us to an even higher standard. He said, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38). Wouldn’t you love to be the one who gave all the time?

Closing Remarks

We are learning

Here is the last real-life example for today. When Brother Carver first asked me to pastor, he called me into the office behind the tabernacle on a Friday night. We talked, and of course one of the things he asked about was my finances. I told him, “Well, we have a little family, we have a house, and there’s a little mortgage on it.” I also told him, “We have two cars, one is paid for, and the other one we have a little bit of a loan on it still, but we don’t have any other debt besides that.” He said, “Okay.”

Concerning the car, when I went to buy it, my wife and I had already talked about it after looking at several others. We had looked at one car in particular, and then we looked at another, and they were both fine. However, one was a little sportier, a little nicer, it had a sunroof . . . you get the idea. I really wanted the nicer one. My wife said, “I can be happy with either one.” So, we bought the nicer car and put half down, planning to pay it off early in a couple years. It wasn’t a bad financial decision, except that the amount I still owed on the car ($2700.00) when I sat in Brother Carver’s office was the difference between the two cars that I could have bought.

When I went home, the Lord talked to me and said, “I was trying to help you.” We made it through: we paid off the car, we went out and pastored, and whatever. But I remember thinking, God’s usually working ahead of us, trying to help us, if we’ll just listen. That’s like Brother Lee’s example the other night: “I’m trying to help you here.” I liked the car; it was nice, we drove it, and we sold it eventually, but I would have much rather been able to look at Brother Carver and say, “We don’t owe anything.” You can take that however you want.

Brother Carver said once, “We should not say, ‘We have learned,’ but ‘We are learning,’” and we are.

Summation

Don’t ever mingle personal funds and church funds. Just don’t do it. It’s not legal, it’s not ethical. We need to be extra careful never to bring financial reproach on ourselves or on God’s work. It will ruin our reputation and the reputation of our church.

If you need help, don’t be too proud to ask or learn. I had a pastor tell me once, “I don’t know all this language about budgeting and all that.” He said, “I can tell you how to fix a shower or how to lay a course to bricks, but . . .” I said, “Well, let me teach you,” and I did. God will help us if we are willing to learn.

Here are the points you need to remember from this morning: God owns it all and godliness with contentment is great gain. Also, this is worthy work. We thank God when we can be supported, but we don’t want to be a burden to the saints, so we must balance that tension all the time. In addition, spend less than you earn, save and diversify, avoid debt, and be wise with your income and assets. Finally, don’t be afraid to work, and last, but not least: be giving.