As part of the comment-storm late last week following this post, I received the following comment:

I appreciate your posts. I’m glad you have a coworker to study with – does this mean that the congregation there supports 2 preachers? I would like to see an online conversation about why this happens as opposed to supporting one of the preachers to work in a location where the church is small or non-existent and cannot fully support a preacher. Preachers still have opportunities to stay in touch and study together online.

I read this and said to myself, “Blog post topic!  Great!”  (Seriously—ask me to write about any spiritual subject, and I probably will)  The commenter is correct in her surmise—Shawn and I are indeed both fully (abundantly, even!) supported by the Jackson Heights church.  It is also true that the elders here could send one of our fully supported selves off to work with the church in Siberia while the other one stayed home to hold the fort (if it comes up, I think Shawn would do well in the Siberian work).  Due to the magic of the Internet, he and I could continue to study together, even during his time on the tundra.

However, the elders have chosen not to do this.  I don’t know all of their reasons, but as a participant in a two-preacher arrangement, I see all sorts of advantages to it, to wit: Continue reading →

Last week, my family and I went down to Texas for a few days, and we spent part of that time with my in-laws.  At breakfast, I mentioned that I’d been extremely busy since moving to Tennessee, and my mother-in-law asked me what I did that kept me in such a state.  She wasn’t being ugly about it; instead, like most Christians, she never has the opportunity to see preachers at work except on Sundays.

I answered her question, of course, but after I finished, it occurred to me that others might be equally interested in the answer.  I don’t feel any particular need to justify myself to anybody (the elders at Jackson Heights know perfectly well what I’m up to, and if they’re satisfied, no other earthly opinion matters a great deal), but neither is there any harm in offering a rebuttal to the old joke that preachers only work one day a week, etc.  With that in mind, here is my work. Continue reading →