We are told that the Levites are not numbered amongst the army because their role is to look after the tabernacle which represents God's presence. You could argue that this supports the idea of paid church workers (whether ordained or not). However, the NT tells us that all Christians are priests, we are all ordained and we would not all expect to be paid to work for the church since we are the ones giving money to pay them. Does this mean that no-one should be paid by the church (except expenses)? Obviously with larger churches, there is a large amount of operational work to perform ignoring any pastoral work but again this presupposes that large churches are correct and scriptural when in fact if we managed to exist as a network of smaller churches (perhaps up to 200 people) then not only would we be able to handle support work in our spare time rather than be paid, but it would be easier for believers to exercise their gifts. We have a lot of baggage and tradition in the western church including large and expensive buildings and high running costs when at the same time, only a tiny percentage is given to global mission, the most pressing need for the modern church.
Anyone here dare to be different and challenge these things or do we just accept that it is the way it is?
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