Hello Kingdom people, I pray all is well with you as you are expanding the Kingdom of God here on earth. I want to talk about an issue I have heard for quite some time. It’s about being in full-time ministry. What is full-time ministry and what does it look like? According to the definition of ministry by Encyclopedia Britannica, it’s the office held by persons who are set apart by ecclesiastical authority to be ministers in the church or whose call to a special vocational service in a church. The word ministry began to be used in 1916 as name of certain dept in the British government. That was a brief history of the word I would encourage further research on your own. The issue I want to discuss is when I hear an artist say they want to leave their secular jobs to do full-time ministry.
The bible says in 2 Thess 3:10 where Paul is speaking, “if a man is not willing to work than he should not be allowed to eat”Let ’s look at the beginning, In Genesis 2:15 after God formed man he gave him a job to dress and keep the garden. God himself, in the beginning, was found working. He created the heavens and the earth. The point I am making is that if God himself worked than we are required to work as well. I feel a lot of people use that phrase to leave their secular jobs and go into full-time ministry to be a scapegoat to the real issue. They are lazy and want to use Jesus as their product or service they are hustling to churches to live off of honorariums. I subtitled the blog Entertainment or Ministry because people confuse the two. For instance, you ask a church can you minister at one of their functions and then turn around and ask how many people are going to be there. Does it really matter if you are just going to minister? That is what entertainers ask before the event, so they can hype themselves up for a good performance. If you charge a fee to come and minister, that is not a ministry that is entertainment. You are providing a service to the people as an entertainer which is a legal profession in the world today. It’s your job which we are required to work to support our families which by the way is our first ministry.
There is nothing wrong with being a gospel entertainer just be true to yourself and others. Don’t say you want to minister and when you are on stage you are giving the performance of an entertainer. If ministry comes out of it while you are performing then that is the icing on the cake. Praise God for the talent he has blessed you with. I do not feel award shows, concert tours, talent competitions, and showcases are a ministry. They are entertainment venues. If money is involved up front for you to participate or minister that is entertainment. In my opinion, the difference in ministry is when you ask to perform or minister and bless people without looking for anything in return. Jesus is not for sale. He can’t be your product you are hustling to get honorariums to support your family.
Let us go back to the Bible once more. Read Numbers chapters 22-24. This is the story of Balaam and his donkey. To paraphrase, the king wanted Balaam who was a prophet to curse God’s people.H e was offering money and other fine material things to him for his service. God did not want him to do that because God said you can’t curse what he has blessed. Balaam went anyway and would have been killed if the donkey had not saved his life. The point I am making is money was offered for his gift to use and we can’t hustle Christ and should not hustle are gifts for money. If you read the scriptures concerning the disciples, not one of them were a Clergyman, Priest, Bishop, Pastor etc.. They were workers and had their own businesses. Study the history of the bible. They had jobs. Jesus himself was a carpenter. Paul was a tentmaker. He preached the word at the same time was making tents to support himself financially. He did not depend on honorariums to make a living because the gospel was not their hustle. They worked to sustain themselves. I am not saying they did not receive any assistance, but that was not their primary source of income.
In conclusion, the gospel is not a product to be hustled to others so you can make a living. We are required to work not to be lazy (Read Proverbs 6:11). I would not recommend quitting your job to pursue ministry with the wrong motives. I encourage you to pray about everything as the bible says any way. I believe God has called us to be entrepreneurs so we can have the freedom to do ministry without the constraints of going to a job. Having a job is also a blessing as well. It is God providing us with the job to pay our bills and take care of our family. If you do not want to go to a job per se than find a network marketing company or start a business of your own. Jesus will not allow you to pimp him any way so go and work.
In His Service
Ronald Smith(Dj Ronnieron)
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