All Things In Common

The early church some­times cel­e­brated its joy by vol­un­tar­ily hav­ing all things in com­mon. They pooled their resources by choice, as a way of express­ing love and sol­i­dar­ity with one another. They made sure that there was none among them in need. Dif­fi­cult finan­cial times came (a famine) and they were again in need. Saints from other regions helped them through gen­er­ous con­tri­bu­tions. The spirit of shared-existence spread.

We are often pre­sented with sim­i­lar chal­lenges. Our world is heav­ily taxed — much like the lot of the com­mon per­son in the First Cen­tury AD. Amer­i­cans are very gen­er­ous, com­pared to the rest of the world. That is one of the things that has made this coun­try so great. We are still blessed by good hearts, but it is harder to see it across the boards. Bonuses in the mil­lions still go to exec­u­tives with fail­ing report cards. Greed does make head­lines these days — espe­cially when the bur­den is being shared by tax pay­ers in gen­eral.

When it comes to taxes, we have few choices. Still, we can and do make sac­ri­fices out of our heart-felt com­pas­sion for oth­ers. Over the years, I have made salary con­ces­sions in order to keep other staff mem­bers. I could not, in good con­science, see myself as CEO of a church. In Hous­ton, I noticed that my salary was almost twice that of the His­panic min­is­ter. I had my salary reduced by fifty per­cent, and had that money des­ig­nated to a spe­cial fund that, among other equi­ties, also gave the sec­re­tary a thirty per­cent raise. I also used the fund for benev­o­lence (for which there was no bud­get), and I used it to clean up small bills around the church. It worked. It raised the morale. It got things done. Most of all, it got peo­ple over the idea that the Senior Min­is­ter was some­how spe­cially blessed by mere posi­tion.

I still work a whole lot out of my pocket, as a mat­ter of per­sonal dis­ci­pline. I am reim­bursed for half or less than half of what it takes to get the job done (my choice). I do not say this to brag! It is merely a cho­sen way of reflect­ing the atti­tude of the early church. Times are going to become more dif­fi­cult before they get bet­ter. There will be many more oppor­tu­ni­ties to help oth­ers. Liv­ing within my means and being able to help oth­ers accom­plishes many things — includ­ing my being able to sleep at night. It will make it eas­ier to face the Lord in the judg­ment too.