Paul’s principles for funding ministry
I wrote my first book several years ago. Partner Like Paul was about personal support raising. It’s free and still available here. I still like a lot of what I wrote in that book. And since I attempted to ground the principles in Scripture, much of it should be timeless.
Since I’ve written it, though, I’ve realized that while Paul talks about financial support from others, he also talks about supporting himself. In fact, Paul has a very fluid view of funding his ministry. He claims to have worked night and day while reaching Thessalonica with the Gospel (1 Thessalonians 2:9), but also thanks the church in Philippi for the gift that they sent him while he was ministering in Thessalonica (Philippians 4:16). How do we reconcile those?
Let’s look at Scripture and learn from Paul’s actions (in Acts) and his teachings (in the epistles) and answer the question: What does Paul have to teach us about funding ministry, specifically from a job?
If you don’t have time to read the whole article, the short answer is this: Paul has no one-size-fits-all approach to funding ministry. He used a variety of models.
There is an important distinction to make, however: Paul was an apostolic leader who wrote letters of instruction to believers gathered in local churches. So we will see two sides of this conversation regarding money:
First, how did Paul fund his own apostolic/missionary* ministry?
This question leads to follow-up questions: How normative should we take his funding? Should we fundraise more or less than Paul? Should we work a job for our living more or less than Paul?Second, how did Paul encourage the local believers in local churches to interact with money and their personal ministry?
Through the epistles, he taught new believers in new churches how to follow Christ, and these teachings included the subject of money and jobs. We’ll tackle this in a second post. (Subscribe now if you don’t want to miss it!)
Acts 18:1-4 - Paul worked to support himself when his circumstances required it.
During his second missionary journey, Paul arrives at Corinth from Athens. There he meets Aquila and Priscilla, who made a living making tents. Paul had the same occupational skills, so he joined them. Very clearly we see two things:
Paul was willing to work a “non-ministry job” to provide for himself.
Paul engaged in work in which he was skilled. (Or at the very least he was willing to develop skills in that work. The normative reading seems to suggest that he was already skilled as a tent maker.)
We can see that Paul spent specific time in “ministry” on the Sabbath days between his working days. That’s not to say that his working days were not also used for ministry (more on this later), but even if they were he still set aside some specific time for intentional ministry.
I call this “reasoning in the synagogue” ministry because it is the exact same thing Paul did as he entered new towns throughout his missionary journeys: he entered new places (usually starting with Jewish synagogues), shared the Gospel, and looked for spiritually open people.
Note that this wasn’t an accident. He set up a purposeful rhythm of ministry alongside his work. A lack of funds should never keep you from the work to which God has called you.
When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, presumably with gifts (2 Corinthians 8:3, 2 Corinthians 11:9), he is able to be fully “occupied with the word.” The picture here is one where funds from other believers enabled Paul to do more ministry, but a lack of funds did not keep him from it. Paul claims that this same thing happens in Thessalonica: “For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.” (1 Thessalonians 2:9)
Reading Paul’s work in the light of funding reminds me of what I had heard in a podcast about two prolific church planters in Africa.* These movement leaders were hard-working, but the reality was they wanted to see God’s kingdom expand: So they were subsistence farmers to support their families, and then whenever they could with whatever means they could they shared the Gospel, made disciples, and reproduced churches and leaders.
Here’s an interesting thought: What did Paul do in Athens? (The city he was in immediately prior to Corinth). He was there for a short amount of time, so he had to have come with enough money for his own room and board. But then as soon as he gets to Corinth he starts working with Priscilla and Aquila. Did he need the money in Corinth because he had spent it in Athens?
Acts 18:18-26 - Paul left his coworkers to work and do ministry in Ephesus.
As Paul leaves Corinth he brings Priscilla and Aquila with him to Ephesus. He quickly leaves (to return on the third missionary journey), but Priscilla and Aquila stay there. Our best guess is they continued making tents to provide for their needs. While they were working, they were also in the synagogue regularly, likely engaging Jews. We know this because that is where they met Apollos. Something else that likely happened at that time is they started a church in their home. Paul references them having a house church in Asia (1 Corinthians 16:19) and later in Rome (Romans 16:5). I wrote about this before, but I think Priscilla and Aquila should be held up as a model for us to follow today when it comes to blending work and ministry.
Acts 20:31-35 - Working for your living is an example to other believers.
As Paul gives his final charge to the elders of Ephesus, one thing that he claims is that he provided for his own needs, and for the needs of the men who were with him. This was, at a minimum, Timothy and Erastus (Acts 19:22), but likely included others. Part of working hard, however, is to be able to give to help those that are in need. It’s not just working to amass wealth or even only fund yourself, it’s also to give away to others.
Second Thessalonians 3:6-13 adds an interesting emphasis to this: Working for your living is an example to other believers, especially new believers. Paul and his missions team only spent a short amount of time in Thessalonica, yet he wanted the young church to follow his example of working to provide for his needs.
Paul knew how to balance work and ministry: When we compare this passage with the story from Ephesus in Acts 19, we see that while Paul was providing for his own needs he was also meeting daily with the disciples (19:9). Was he receiving support from other churches at this time? Possibly. (It’s even possible funds were flowing back up from the Ephesus movement to him and the training center in the lecture hall of Tyrannus). We come back to where I started this article: Paul’s funding model is so fluid we can’t even figure out what it was most of the time.
1 Thessalonians 2:9-11 - Work hard.
Paul and his team worked hard day and night. And at the same time, they were exhorting and encouraging, and imploring the Thessalonians. This speaks powerfully of ministry happening at work and as you work. I think it also speaks to working hard, even if you are fully funded by supporters.
1 Corinthians 9:12,18, 2 Corinthians 11:7, 12:13 - Paul never charged for the Gospel and never burdened those he was reaching.
I think this is the strongest principle to remember even as we realize that Paul had a fluid view of funding his ministry. If we are going to follow Paul’s example as apostles/missionaries* the line we should not cross is charging those we are reaching.
In conclusion, I want to celebrate partner-funded missionaries and vocationally-funded disciple-makers. (And partner-funded disciple-makers and vocationally-funded missionaries.)
God will use a surrendered servant. How that servant pays the bills is less of a concern than if that servant is fully surrendered.
A surrendered servant will work hard to earn a living if it is what God wants for him or her in that season. A surrendered servant will also not be afraid to seek funding from other believers when the situation calls for it.
Notes:
*For more about Movements and Money, check out https://ontheroad.link/blog/disciplemaking-beats-money and https://ontheroad.link/blog/responding-to-crisis
*This is not the focus of this article, but I’m bridging the gap from Paul the Apostle to missionaries who act very apostle-like. (Notice capital A versus lowercase a).
*Scripture quotations are from NASB.
